You can be aware and educated and informed, but you’ve got to place emphasis on being compassionate, having empathy and understanding.
Becoming a reader grows our horizons, our appetite for the good, the true and the beautiful, and our empathy.
When you start to develop your powers of empathy and imagination, the whole world opens up to you.
What makes us different from other species is our capacity for compassion and empathy with the struggles of other people.
Empathy and social skills are social intelligence, the interpersonal part of emotional intelligence. That’s why they look alike.
The literary world is filled with good and generous people. But then that’s what writing is all about – empathy.
I like reading novels because it provides insight into human behavior. I am really interested in feelings and think they are what define us as a species. When you really get it right in acting, it’s an act of empathy. You feel less distant from others, and that is really exciting.
You can’t write about the past and ignore religion. It was such a fundamental, mind-shaping, driving force for pre-modern societies. I’m very interested in what religion does to us – its capacity to create love and empathy or hatred and violence.
When you see yourself as the center of things, it deprives you of a certain level of empathy.
I felt great empathy for the thousands of Americans who lost their home because of a system that failed them.
Music, like film, is an incredible tool for creating empathy.
My wife has been my greatest earthly inspiration. She excels in eloquence, the poetry of words, empathy and graciousness.
I’m cursed with empathy. I’m also by nature way too opinionated.
Once you’re playing someone, you shouldn’t be judging them in any way. That’s what being an actor is – it’s having empathy for people that are different from yourself. Once you’ve committed to that person, your responsibility is to tell that story.
If your emotional abilities aren’t in hand, if you don’t have self-awareness, if you are not able to manage your distressing emotions, if you can’t have empathy and have effective relationships, then no matter how smart you are, you are not going to get very far.
I have such a crush on Tony Robbins and his passion, empathy, and sheer talent.
We have become a society that lacks empathy. Are we teaching empathy? The Internet desensitises, too.
I believe that if you can discover something of the truth of a person, then you will start to understand, and to understand is to move towards, if not like, then at least an empathy of some kind.
There’s a gap somehow between empathy and activism. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke of ‘soul force’ – something that emanates from a deep truth inside of us and empowers us to act. Once you identify your inner genius, you will be able to take action, whether it’s writing a check or digging a well.
We shall listen, not lecture; learn, not threaten. We will enhance our safety by earning the respect of others and showing respect for them. In short, our foreign policy will rest on the traditional American values of restraint and empathy, not on military might.
We’ve had Obama for eight years, who, to me, is a model of integrity, sensitivity, empathy. He’s wise, he’s patient, he maintains his composure, and I would have voted for him again.
If I see someone break down in tears, I don’t necessarily feel empathy for them in those moments unless it’s really warranted. I feel like a tear needs to be warranted in a movie; it needs to be earned.
I think the very idea of character, of developing not just grit, but empathy and curiosity, emotional intelligence – you know, the things that I want my own daughters to develop – the idea that we’re going to get there through rewards and punishments seems completely at odds with the idea of character itself.
For me, empathy is an existential question – it’s about the survival of the human race. That is, it’s imperative for us to overcome the challenges we face.
Once kids begin to realize that they are connected to a greater good and greater whole, then that will lessen the possibility that they will act out violently because it creates empathy.
If you have empathy for both sides, then that’s the same as having no empathy at all.
Our human face happens to be one of the most powerful channels that we all use to communicate social and emotional states: everything from enjoyment, surprise, empathy, and curiosity.
What separates humans from other animals is our empathy. With the possible exception of bonobos, we are the most empathetic animal on the planet.
Sometimes, in Silicon Valley, there is this attitude that we know best and we can change the world. The boldness allows us to invent the future. But, we need more empathy for those who are left behind and a recognition that Silicon Valley can’t just call the shots and expect change.
What’s important now are the characteristics of the brain’s right hemisphere: artistry, empathy, inventiveness, big-picture thinking. These skills have become first among equals in a whole range of business fields.
If the only people we are able to extend empathy to are those who are like us, who come from the same country we do, or who share our faith, then we misunderstand what empathy is.
Traits like humility, courage, and empathy are easily overlooked – but it’s immensely important to find them in your closest relationships.
All advocacy is, at its core, an exercise in empathy.
I don’t know whether your heart ever necessarily changes, but time changes the way that you perceive the world. And you just hope it gives you more empathy and all those other things.
The study of history requires investigation, imagination, empathy, and respect. Reverence just doesn’t enter into it.
I’ve been fascinated by the idea that evil is the absence of empathy.
Humankind seems to have an enormous capacity for savagery, for brutality, for lack of empathy, for lack of compassion.
There is a minimum requirement of morality, of moral compass, of decency, of moral empathy. And if you are incapable of meeting that minimum requirement, you can’t even talk to me about policy.
I really like feeling connected to people and feeling like I have a good, solid sense of empathy.
‘I’ is the word everyone uses to refer to themselves. On the one hand, it points to a specific person, but it’s also this blank space that you can insert yourself into; it’s a chute into empathy.
Reading faces is a crucial part of children’s socialization and helps them learn empathy.
I really connect with every character that I’ve played, just because I kinda have to; as an actor, you want to take them in and get to know them and like them; because they’re evil, you kinda have to like them so that you can understand them and play them and play them with some kind of empathy.
I know it might sound weird, but empathy is one of the greatest creators of energy. It’s counterintuitive because it’s selfless.
It may be true in the case of autism that if you start off with a deficit in terms of empathy or mind reading, you’ve just got more time to devote to understanding the world by systemizing.
That balance between involvement and detachment is what novelists do. It’s the ideal relationship between a novelist and a character, I think, total involvement and identity and empathy, stopping short of being autobiographical – in my case, anyway – but also quite detached.
Artificial intelligence is growing up fast, as are robots whose facial expressions can elicit empathy and make your mirror neurons quiver.
I’m a fan of Oliver Stone. I like his movies, I like his excess, and I think he has a great capacity for empathy and it comes out more powerfully in this movie than in any of his other films, even the formal ‘I’m identifying with the underdog’ movies like ‘Born on the Fourth of July.’
What I am unable to understand with the people who associate themselves with Trump is their willingness to overlook the dishonesty, the indecency, the lack of empathy, to be asked to go out every single day and why.
Women are just so much tougher and more patient than men are – their capacity for empathy blows me away. And their capacity to deal with stress for long periods of time is also kind of awe inspiring.
Our message, without preaching, is how to treat wildlife and to have empathy for all animals.
I think any time anybody sees the bad guy show emotion and you’re not hitting the audience over the head, there’s always a tinge of empathy for that individual.
As a mentor, you have to be willing to put yourself in your mentee’s shoes to understand their struggles that they deal with. It’s not supposed to turn into a pity party by any means, but empathy speaks volumes to a mentee in need of help rather than forced sympathy.
We must broaden the definition of who our neighbors are, and extend the boundaries of our interest and empathy.
One of the ultimate challenges for biology is to understand the brain’s processing of unconscious and conscious perception, emotion, and empathy.
I am aware of the sufferings of women in India, which is also the suffering of women in many, many countries on our planet. My heart is filled with empathy and love for them.
It’s not a very nice thing to not have empathy. I would like to have empathy. In the past I haven’t been very empathetic with other people.
