Empathy Quotes

‘Empathy begins with understanding life from another person’s perspective. Nobody has an objective experience of reality. It’s all through our own individual prisms.’ – Sterling K. Brown

‘I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it.’ – Maya Angelou

‘Empathy is the starting point for creating a community and taking action. It’s the impetus for creating change.’ – Max Carver

‘Empathy is about standing in someone else’s shoes, feeling with his or her heart, seeing with his or her eyes. Not only is empathy hard to outsource and automate, but it makes the world a better place.’ – Daniel H. Pink

‘When you show deep empathy toward others, their defensive energy goes down, and positive energy replaces it. That’s when you can get more creative in solving problems.’ – Stephen Covey

‘Empathy is about finding echoes of another person in yourself.’ – Mohsin Hamid

‘Empathy is choosing to see ourselves in another despite our differences. It’s recognizing that the same humanity – the same desire for meaning, fulfillment and security – exists in each of us, even if it’s expressed uniquely.’ – Vivek Murthy

‘If you aren’t humble, whatever empathy you claim is false and probably results from some arrogance or the desire to control. But true empathy is rooted in humility and the understanding that there are many people with as much to contribute in life as you.’ – Anand Mahindra

‘The opposite of anger is not calmness, its empathy.’ – Mehmet Oz

‘The great gift of human beings is that we have the power of empathy.’ – Meryl Streep

‘Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else’s shoes for a while.’ – Malorie Blackman

‘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.’ – Daniel Goleman

‘Empathy, humanity and support for each other is more important than revenue, than growth.’ – Eric Yuan

‘Human nature is complex. Even if we do have inclinations toward violence, we also have inclination to empathy, to cooperation, to self-control.’ – Steven Pinker

‘It’s dangerous to think of yourself as a hero and someone else as a villain. It gets in the way of empathy.’ – Megan Ganz

‘In order to have understanding, you need forgiveness, compassion, and empathy.’ – Rooney Mara

‘We need somebody who’s got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it’s like to be a young teenage mom, the empathy to understand what it’s like to be poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old – and that’s the criterion by which I’ll be selecting my judges.’ – Barack Obama

‘Universal basic income is not a solution in search of a problem – it is the obvious solution that has been in front of us for years. It only requires us to have the vision, empathy and courage to adopt it for the American people before it is too late.’ – Andrew Yang

‘All advocacy is, at its core, an exercise in empathy.’ – Samantha Power

‘Human morality is unthinkable without empathy.’ – Frans de Waal

‘Women are, in my view, natural peacemakers. As givers and nurturers of life, through their focus on human relationships and their engagement with the demanding work of raising children and protecting family life, they develop a deep sense of empathy that cuts through to underlying human realities.’ – Daisaku Ikeda

‘Learning a foreign language, and the culture that goes with it, is one of the most useful things we can do to broaden the empathy and imaginative sympathy and cultural outlook of children.’ – Michael Gove

‘You don’t teach morals and ethics and empathy and kindness in the schools. You teach that at home, and children learn by example.’ – Judy Sheindlin

‘Humans aren’t as good as we should be in our capacity to empathize with feelings and thoughts of others, be they humans or other animals on Earth. So maybe part of our formal education should be training in empathy. Imagine how different the world would be if, in fact, that were ‘reading, writing, arithmetic, empathy.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson

‘Good fiction creates empathy. A novel takes you somewhere and asks you to look through the eyes of another person, to live another life.’ – Barbara Kingsolver

‘Virtual reality is the ‘ultimate empathy machine.’ These experiences are more than documentaries. They’re opportunities to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes.’ – Chris Milk

‘A child raised on a desert island, alone, without social interaction, without language, and thus lacking empathy, is still a sentient being.’ – Daniel Dennett

‘The struggle of my life created empathy – I could relate to pain, being abandoned, having people not love me.’ – Oprah Winfrey

‘Artificial intelligence is growing up fast, as are robots whose facial expressions can elicit empathy and make your mirror neurons quiver.’ – Diane Ackerman

‘People complain not because something sucks. People complain because they’re looking for empathy and to feel connected with those around them. Unfortunately, complaining is maybe the least useful way to connect with other human beings.’ – Mark Manson

‘An exchange of empathy provides an entry point for a lot of people to see what healing feels like.’ – Tarana Burke

‘Resilience is, of course, necessary for a warrior. But a lack of empathy isn’t.’ – Phil Klay

‘The second you think that all your good fortune is a product of your virtue, you become highly judgmental, lacking empathy, totally without self-awareness, arrogant, stupid – I mean, all the stuff that our ruling class is.’ – Tucker Carlson

‘I think empathy is romantic. I think humor is romantic. Kindness is romantic. I think those kind of gestures of caring and love are romantic.’ – Michael Buble

‘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.’ – Mark Knopfler

‘When you start to develop your powers of empathy and imagination, the whole world opens up to you.’ – Susan Sarandon

‘Because a human being is endowed with empathy, he violates the natural order if he does not reach out to those who need care. Responding to this empathy, one is in harmony with the order of things, with dharma; otherwise, one is not.’ – Dayananda Saraswati

‘I’ve always thought of acting as more of an exercise in empathy, which is not to be confused with sympathy. You’re trying to get inside a certain emotional reality or motivational reality and try to figure out what that’s about so you can represent it.’ – Edward Norton

‘I’ve been fascinated by the idea that evil is the absence of empathy.’ – John Connolly

‘The main tenet of design thinking is empathy for the people you’re trying to design for. Leadership is exactly the same thing – building empathy for the people that you’re entrusted to help.’ – David M. Kelley

‘It doesn’t hurt to show some empathy.’ – John Cornyn

‘Empathy is a necessary step for truth and reconciliation.’ – Simon Baron-Cohen

‘Stories teach us empathy. They reveal to us ourselves in the skins of others.’ – Justin Simien

‘True contentment comes with empathy.’ – Tim Finn

‘What separates humans from other animals is our empathy. With the possible exception of bonobos, we are the most empathetic animal on the planet.’ – Andy Dunn

‘The arts bridge cultures; they’re good for the economy, and they’re good for fostering empathy and decency.’ – Julie Andrews

‘I believe that stories are incredibly important, possibly in ways we don’t understand, in allowing us to make sense of our lives, in allowing us to escape our lives, in giving us empathy and in creating the world that we live in.’ – Neil Gaiman

‘In my view, the best of humanity is in our exercise of empathy and compassion. It’s when we challenge ourselves to walk in the shoes of someone whose pain or plight might seem so different than yours that it’s almost incomprehensible.’ – Sarah McBride

‘This is a wonderful planet, and it is being completely destroyed by people who have too much money and power and no empathy.’ – Alice Walker

‘It’s got to do with putting yourself in other people’s shoes and seeing how far you can come to truly understand them. I like the empathy that comes from acting.’ – Christian Bale

‘Character robotics could plant the seed for robots that actually have empathy. So, if they achieve human level intelligence or, quite possibly, greater than human levels of intelligence, this could be the seeds of hope for our future.’ – David Hanson

‘Empathy and social skills are social intelligence, the interpersonal part of emotional intelligence. That’s why they look alike.’ – Daniel Goleman

‘Desperation, weakness, vulnerability – these things will always be exploited. You need to protect the weak, ring-fence them, with something far stronger than empathy.’ – Zadie Smith

‘I don’t mean to criticize anyone in any way that I wouldn’t criticize myself. I think people should have fun, and have a good time, and enjoy the luck that we have to be lazy and dwell in consumerism. But I think that it’s a balance. And our job as actors is empathy.’ – Natalie Portman

‘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.’ – Paul Wesley

‘If writing really is empathy, then understanding your place in society might actually help you achieve it.’ – Rumaan Alam

‘Empathy is really the opposite of spiritual meanness. It’s the capacity to understand that every war is both won and lost. And that someone else’s pain is as meaningful as your own.’ – Barbara Kingsolver

‘Learning is a result of listening, which in turn leads to even better listening and attentiveness to the other person. In other words, to learn from the child, we must have empathy, and empathy grows as we learn.’ – Alice Miller

‘Most women prefer circles of sharing to pyramids and hierarchies. They prefer conversation to construction. They will usually choose nurturance and empathy over competition and climbing. They will normally choose connection over simple performance games.’ – Richard Rohr

‘We need to teach our children empathy and care and love and communication and social responsibility in preparation for adulthood.’ – Maya Soetoro-Ng

‘Everybody wants a robot that will do psychotherapy. But If you don’t have empathy, you don’t have psychotherapy. The robot doesn’t know about life.’ – Sherry Turkle

‘Movies that encourage empathy are more effective than those that objectify problems.’ – Roger Ebert

‘Positive social emotions like compassion and empathy are generally good for us, and we want to encourage them. But do we know how to most reliably raise children to care about the suffering of other people? I’m not sure we do.’ – Sam Harris

‘We admire elephants in part because they demonstrate what we consider the finest human traits: empathy, self-awareness, and social intelligence. But the way we treat them puts on display the very worst of human behavior.’ – Graydon Carter

‘Despair is despair, sorrow is sorrow, death is death. It’s not about who is experiencing it; it’s about building a bridge of empathy across these experiences.’ – Okieriete Onaodowan

‘Humankind seems to have an enormous capacity for savagery, for brutality, for lack of empathy, for lack of compassion.’ – Annie Lennox

‘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.’ – Angela Duckworth

‘For me, documentary photography has always come with great responsibility. Not just to tell the story honestly and with empathy, but also to make sure the right people hear it. When you photograph somebody who is in pain or discomfort, they trust you to make sure the images will act as their advocate.’ – Giles Duley

‘I know it might sound weird, but empathy is one of the greatest creators of energy. It’s counterintuitive because it’s selfless.’ – Angela Ahrendts

‘Our message, without preaching, is how to treat wildlife and to have empathy for all animals.’ – Terri Irwin

‘Misery is, by her own nature, a passing phase of sorrow, one that does not linger uninvited. Her sojourns seem to be part of life’s required curriculum, perhaps because Misery endows us with compassion and empathy.’ – Sarah Ban Breathnach

‘Empathy is the faculty to resonate with the feelings of others. When we meet someone who is joyful, we smile. When we witness someone in pain, we suffer in resonance with his or her suffering.’ – Matthieu Ricard

‘All those chemicals that create empathy only work when you are in a room together.’ – Gloria Steinem

‘If evil is empathy erosion, and empathy erosion is a form of illness, then evil turns out to be nothing more than a particularly awful psychological disorder.’ – Paul Bloom

‘Cinematography speaks to everything that women do inherently well: It’s multitasking, it’s empathy, and it’s channeling visuals into human emotion.’ – Rachel Morrison

‘I think art, especially literature, has the particular power to immerse the viewer or reader into another world. This is especially powerful in literature, when a reader lives the experience of the characters. So if the characters are human and real enough, then readers will feel empathy for them.’ – Jesmyn Ward

‘As far as my mindset changing, I see myself having more empathy in my older age.’ – Bill Burr

‘The grieving are surely owed our empathy, but capital punishment can neither right a wrong nor prevent another from happening.’ – Richard Cohen

‘You can’t have empathy for somebody that’s gone through something you haven’t – because, definitionally, you can’t. But you can feel for them and have sympathy for them. And that’s what this country needs to practice more. It’s about realizing that you do come from a different place.’ – David Hogg

‘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.’ – Theodore C. Sorensen

‘I don’t know if it is a spiritual, physiological or psychological phenomenon, but I believe now more than ever that singing is a universal, built-in mechanism designed to cultivate empathy and compassion.’ – Eric Whitacre

‘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.’ – Rana el Kaliouby

‘Normal people have an incredible lack of empathy. They have good emotional empathy, but they don’t have much empathy for the autistic kid who is screaming at the baseball game because he can’t stand the sensory overload. Or the autistic kid having a meltdown in the school cafeteria because there’s too much stimulation.’ – Temple Grandin

‘I hope people learn the power of vulnerability through my songs. I think vulnerability can save the world. Empathy helps people connect with each other.’ – Mary Lambert

‘Empathy is the most mysterious transaction that the human soul can have, and it’s accessible to all of us, but we have to give ourselves the opportunity to identify, to plunge ourselves in a story where we see the world from the bottom up or through another’s eyes or heart.’ – Sue Monk Kidd

‘While leaders spend considerable time and effort trying to envision markets and pushing out innovation, empathy can often generate simple, yet breakthrough ideas.’ – John Gerzema

‘Mr. Trump’s and Mr. Osteen’s brands are rooted in success, not Scripture. Believers in prosperity like winners. Hurricanes and catastrophic floods do not provide the winning narratives crucial to keep adherents chained to prosperity gospel thinking. That is why it is easy for both men to issue platitudes devoid of empathy during natural disasters.’ – Anthea Butler

‘For me, it’s common sense to treat other people like you would like to be treated. Empathy is a broad concept, but how do you get there? People get there differently. I get there by truly building a little trust and connection. You’ll tell me something, I’ll act on it, and then that builds on itself.’ – Oscar Munoz

‘I think we are living in selfish times. I’m the first one to say that I’m the most selfish. We live in the so-called ‘first world,’ and we may be first in a lot of things like technology, but we are behind in empathy.’ – Javier Bardem

‘Some public officials are blessed – you can’t acquire this, but you are blessed with the gift of empathy, being able to empathize with those who are suffering.’ – Bob Casey, Jr.

‘Change begins with understanding and understanding begins by identifying oneself with another person: in a word, empathy. The arts enable us to put ourselves in the minds, eyes, ears and hearts of other human beings.’ – Richard Eyre

‘I think our jobs as parents is to raise our children with empathy – to figure out who this little character is, almost from birth, and then guide them to fulfill their best potential.’ – Margaret Trudeau

‘The youngest children have a great capacity for empathy and altruism. There’s a recent study that shows even 14-month-olds will climb across a bunch of cushions and go across a room to give you a pen if you drop one.’ – Alison Gopnik

‘The truth is that we should live with less envy and more cordiality and empathy.’ – Leonardo Bonucci

‘Lady Justice doesn’t have empathy for anyone. She rules strictly based upon the law, and that’s really the only way that our system can function properly under the Constitution.’ – Wendy Long

‘Empathy is not a betrayal of one’s cause.’ – Megan Phelps-Roper

‘I am a big one for subtlety and empathy. My dad was softly spoken and didn’t carry his honours and accomplishments for everyone to see.’ – Kyle MacLachlan

‘We need all people, everyone, to think for themselves, to think critically, to think abstractly, to develop their powers of empathy.’ – Michael Rosen

‘Great teaching requires incredible talent and dedication, strong intellectual ability and interpersonal skill, real discipline and empathy.’ – Bruce Rauner

‘Writing really evokes empathy in a way very few things can do.’ – Erin Gruwell

‘If I can help create empathy and balance in society, I’m going to do whatever I can to tell stories that subconsciously create that.’ – Jessica Chastain

‘Measuring success in cultural diplomacy – the use of education, creative expression in any form, or people-to-people exchange to increase understanding across regions, cultures, or peoples – is challenging. How does one quantify changes in attitude, abandoning stereotypes, or feeling empathy as a result of a performance, a film, a book?’ – Cynthia P. Schneider

‘My job is to have empathy and curiosity for things that I’ve never done. Also, I’m a person whom people talk to.’ – Richard Ford

‘Empathy is important, openness, honesty, and an understanding for others.’ – Niko Kovac

‘I think as you get older, there are things that there’s just no light side to, but you know, I guess the more you empathise with people, the more empathy you have, the less you are able to see the lighter side.’ – Steve Toltz

‘Empathy is a tool for building people into groups, for allowing us to function as more than self-obsessed individuals.’ – Neil Gaiman

‘Empathy seems to be seen as a weakness. We condition people to withdraw it to succeed. But really, it needs to be re-seen as a strength again if there is to be any kind of hope in the world.’ – Matt Bellamy

‘We all need to listen to our empathy and step towards kindness and I think books help you to remember that you’re an empathic, human animal and that we need to come together.’ – Andi Oliver

‘One of the ultimate challenges for biology is to understand the brain’s processing of unconscious and conscious perception, emotion, and empathy.’ – Eric Kandel

‘No human heart is denied empathy. No religion can demolish that by indoctrination. No culture, no nation and nationalism – nothing can touch it because it is empathy.’ – Dayananda Saraswati

‘Neuroscience has proven that similar areas of the brain are activated both in the person who suffers and in the one who feels empathy. Thus, empathic suffering is a true experience of suffering.’ – Matthieu Ricard

‘My work on what is called ‘deep reading’ explores the range of linguistic, cognitive, and affective processes that underlie not only the emergence of creative thought when we read but also the development and strengthening of capacities like empathy and critical analysis that we can apply to the rest of our lives.’ – Maryanne Wolf

‘I’m cursed with empathy. I’m also by nature way too opinionated.’ – John Shirley

‘Having emotional intelligence allows you to manage your emotions, show empathy, and prevent you from getting distracted. It also helps you solve problems and be a more likable person.’ – John Rampton

‘We have to teach empathy as we do literacy.’ – Bill Drayton

‘There were some advantages to being a woman photographer. I think women have more empathy with the subject.’ – Annie Leibovitz

‘Traits like humility, courage, and empathy are easily overlooked – but it’s immensely important to find them in your closest relationships.’ – Laura Linney

‘Deciding to listen with open ears and an open heart brings us together. We need to seek to really understand each other. We need to demonstrate empathy. If we can make these individual connections, we can strengthen our communities and nation.’ – Doug McMillon

‘If you list the qualities that we consider feminine, they are patience, understanding, empathy, supportiveness, a desire to nurture. Our culture tells us those are feminine traits, but they’re really just human.’ – Sydney Pollack

‘Only an intervention by women around the world, with their innate knowledge of interdependency, deep listening, empathy and self-sacrifice, could possibly alter our species’ desperate course.’ – Anohni

‘A prerequisite to empathy is simply paying attention to the person in pain.’ – Daniel Goleman

‘When you sing with a group of people, you learn how to subsume yourself into a group consciousness because a capella singing is all about the immersion of the self into the community. That’s one of the great feelings – to stop being me for a little while and to become us. That way lies empathy, the great social virtue.’ – Brian Eno

”Me Too’ is about letting – using the power of empathy to stomp out shame.’ – Tarana Burke

‘Empathy is a skill like any other human skill – and if you get a chance to practice, you can get better at it.’ – Simon Baron-Cohen

‘I was in the Army in the 1960s. I didn’t go to Vietnam. I went to Germany, where I drank beer. But I did have an empathy with the soldiers in Vietnam.’ – John Prine

‘A love of reading shows empathy, the desire to understand how others live or act or might act – and why.’ – Celeste Ng

‘What we call politics now and what most political writers write about is the empathy and the bonding and the word choice and the horse rights, and it has nothing to do with what’s really happening to people’s lives.’ – Molly Ivins

‘Just like Steve did, Bindi’s got that strange communication with wildlife. It’s beautiful to watch, and it instills an empathy with all of us about just how important the animal kingdom is.’ – Terri Irwin

‘I thought Mia Hansen-Love was a true auteur, and I always wanted to work with her. Mia’s empathy for her characters and her ability to use the language of cinema to communicate real human depth is extraordinary. She’s a humanist.’ – Greta Gerwig

‘My own feeling is we need more compassion, we need more empathy, we need more togetherness, in terms of working together.’ – Cindy McCain

‘I think it’s so important that, if I’m writing about the real world, I stay true to it. I think that kids do compartmentalize, and they’re hopefully able to see it from a safe place of their own lives and, through that, learn something about empathy.’ – Jacqueline Woodson

‘My background is in arts education and we know, absolutely for a fact, that there is no better way for kids to learn critical thinking skills, communication skills, things like empathy and tolerance. This is true across every boundary, across cultural boundaries, across socioeconomic, it’s a great leveler in terms of unifying our world.’ – Emma Walton Hamilton

‘Empathy is the bridge to understand those who you may be lucky to one day lead, and it is – in my opinion – the most under-appreciated human skill in business.’ – Andy Dunn

‘Good characters don’t believe they’re bad. As long as you as an actor believe in them and try to understand them, it’s not hard to have empathy and sympathy.’ – Alex Hogh Andersen

‘I have absolutely no empathy for camels. I didn’t care for being abused in the Middle East by those horrible, horrible, horrible creatures. They don’t like people. It’s not at all like the relationship between horses and humans.’ – Rachel Weisz

‘Empathy has the power to bring together people who would otherwise never meet. It has the power to teach us and to reach us in moments of isolation when we think nobody understands.’ – Vivek Murthy

‘The Torah is the foundational text for Jewish law, but the Haggadah is our book of living memory. We are not merely telling a story here. We are being called to a radical act of empathy. Here we are, embarking on an ancient, perennial attempt to give human lives – our lives – dignity.’ – Jonathan Safran Foer

‘I feel like songwriting is an experiment in empathy.’ – Zooey Deschanel

‘The discoveries of how we can grow and the insights we need to have really come from the inside out. To have genuine empathy, not as a make-nice tool but as an understanding, is essential to the next step.’ – Patricia Sun

‘I think empathy is a beautiful thing. I think that’s the power of film though. We have one of the most powerful, one of the greatest communicative tools known to man.’ – Michelle Rodriguez

‘I’m less interested in slasher, and go more for roles that can affect you on a personal level. I’m interested in human empathy in the movies I see, and in the ones I am a part of.’ – Joshua Leonard

‘I look for a role that hopefully I feel empathy with and that I can understand and love, but also that has that challenge for me to play – a different kind of role, a different type of character, a different time period.’ – Kathy Bates

‘There is also a natural and very, very strong empathy with the underdog, with people who have suffered, people who have been pushed around by foreigners in particular, but also by their own people.’ – Lakhdar Brahimi

‘Poets have to be sensitive to their audience, but it does not mean that they censor themselves. I realise my audience is diverse. Some will read with empathy and curiosity while others will take offense.’ – John Barton

‘People who work on the user interface side need to have empathy as a key characteristic. But if you are writing device drivers you don’t really need to understand humans so well.’ – Andy Hertzfeld

‘There are many respects in which America, if it can bring itself to act with the magnanimity and the empathy appropriate to its size and power, can be an intelligent example to the world.’ – J. William Fulbright

‘I think I’m an actor because I have very strong imagination and empathy. I never studied acting, but those two qualities are exactly the qualities that make for an activist.’ – Susan Sarandon

‘Anyone who has experienced a certain amount of loss in their life has empathy for those who have experienced loss.’ – Anderson Cooper

‘When a mother quarrels with a daughter, she has a double dose of unhappiness hers from the conflict, and empathy with her daughter’s from the conflict with her. Throughout her life a mother retains this special need to maintain a good relationship with her daughter.’ – Terri Apter

‘Having played many roles of scientific intellect I do have an empathy for that world. It’s been hard on me because flying the Enterprise for seven years in Star Trek and sitting in Cerebro in X-men has led people to believe that I know what I’m talking about. But I’m still trying to work out how to operate the air conditioning unit on my car.’ – Patrick Stewart

‘What Mr. Obama wants in a nominee isn’t really ’empathy’ and ‘understanding.’ He wants a liberal, activist Supreme Court justice.’ – Karl Rove

”Empathy’ is the latest code word for liberal activism, for treating the Constitution as malleable clay to be kneaded and molded in whatever form justices want. It represents an expansive view of the judiciary in which courts create policy that couldn’t pass the legislative branch or, if it did, would generate voter backlash.’ – Karl Rove

‘He’s really sort of the devil. He’s completely emotionally detached. He has no empathy. You find that in psychopaths. It’s about power with Voldemort. It’s an aphrodisiac for him. Power makes him feel alive.’ – Ralph Fiennes

‘I grew up with lots of animals and I related more to them than I did to people. I feel a lot of empathy for them.’ – Neko Case

‘A little anger is a good thing if it isn’t on your own behalf, if it’s for others deserving of your anger, your empathy.’ – David Simon

‘Look, I’m a cancer survivor, all right? So I have great personal empathy for people who have pre-existing conditions and can’t get insurance.’ – Carly Fiorina

‘Children tease each other because you’re short or you’re tall or you’re a redhead or because you’re ugly or because you’re smart or because you’re dumb or all kinds of differences and as parents we have to deal with that and strengthen our children to be comfortable with themselves and also to show empathy and acceptance towards others.’ – Heather Wilson

‘I have great empathy for all the contestants that come on ‘Top Chef,’ whether they go home right away or they make it to the finish line. It’s a very vulnerable position they put themselves in and I feel for them.’ – Padma Lakshmi

‘While eschewing emotion – and its companion, vulnerability – Obama should be careful not to sacrifice empathy, the ‘I feel your pain’ connection that sustained Clinton. This connection is the shorthand people use to measure their leaders’ intentions. If people believe you’re on their side, they will trust your decisions.’ – Dee Dee Myers

‘I always think that if you look at anyone in detail, you will have empathy for them because you recognize them as a human being, no matter what they’ve done.’ – Andrea Arnold

‘Fiction and essays can create empathy for the theoretical stranger.’ – Barbara Kingsolver

‘Literature sucks you into another psyche. So the creation of empathy necessarily influences how you’ll behave to other people.’ – Barbara Kingsolver

‘Empathy is born out of the old biblical injunction ‘Love the neighbor as thyself.” – George McGovern

‘I have a profound empathy for people who are in the public eye, whether they manifest it themselves or whether it happened by accident – it doesn’t matter to me. I think there’s a great misunderstanding of what it is to be famous.’ – Alanis Morissette

‘I have so much empathy for these young actors that are 19 and all of a sudden they’re beautiful and famous and rich. I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I’d be dead.” – Philip Seymour Hoffman

‘As you get older you have more respect and empathy for your parents. Now I have a great relationship with both of them.’ – Hugh Jackman

‘There is zero correlation between IQ and emotional empathy… They’re controlled by different parts of the brain.’ – Daniel Goleman

‘Good politics starts with empathy, proceeds to analysis, then sets out values and establishes the vision, before getting to the nitty-gritty of policy solutions.’ – David Miliband

‘You have to have sympathy for and an empathy with a character in order to play them.’ – Laura Carmichael

‘My grandmother was an unparalleled storyteller who gave me a preview of how life might turn out, and also fortified my empathy.’ – Chris Ware

‘Like many people, most Libertarians feel empathy and sympathy for less fortunate people. But they know you can’t have perfection in a world of limited resources.’ – Harry Browne

‘Although I’m not particularly troubled myself, I do have a lot of empathy for troubled characters.’ – Mia Wasikowska

‘I have always worked from that place, that if you are going to inhabit someone and get under their eyes, you need to have empathy.’ – Dominic Cooper

‘When you write, you take the ball and you hold it up to the light and you turn it slowly, and let people draw their own conclusions. And try to bring empathy to all sides of the equation.’ – Justin Cronin

‘I think that every therapist that I know, including my dad and my sister, have their own issues. But that empathy is what makes them good at their job.’ – Laura Benanti

‘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.” – Greil Marcus

‘As authors, most – most authors, our art is portraying the human condition. Trying to show you what it’s like to be somebody else, trying to make you feel for somebody else. That means you have to have a high degree of empathy.’ – Patrick Rothfuss

‘The myth of writer as, like, Asperger-style misanthrope, or, like, the Jack Nicholson, ‘As Good As It Gets’ – it just doesn’t work, because writers, in order to write good characters, need to understand people. You need to understand your audience. You need to have so much empathy you could almost encourage empathy in others.’ – Patrick Rothfuss

‘Obama often criticizes policies that place the interests of the powerful ahead of the powerless. But through his administration’s support of abortion rights, Obama shows his lack of empathy for society’s most powerless.’ – Gary Bauer

‘Republicans rarely criticize Obama for lack of empathy – in part because liberals have traditionally been seen as standing up for the weak and the vulnerable. Conservatives can be just as empathetic. But they believe that, in most cases, it’s not government’s role to be the primary dispenser of empathy.’ – Gary Bauer

‘Empathy is a virtue, but it should not be a guiding judicial principle.’ – Gary Bauer

‘Novels attempt to render human experience; that’s really all they are. They are meant to convey empathy for the character.’ – Sue Monk Kidd

‘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.’ – Sue Monk Kidd

‘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.’ – Geraldine Brooks

‘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.’ – Rupert Friend

‘The study of history requires investigation, imagination, empathy, and respect. Reverence just doesn’t enter into it.’ – Jill Lepore

‘I have a great deal of empathy for anyone who’s having a hard time. I believe this ability to see another’s viewpoint has served me well as a writer.’ – Alex Flinn

‘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.’ – Daniel H. Pink

‘Imaginative empathy is one of the great gifts that humans have, and it means that we can live more than one life. We can picture what it would be like from another perspective.’ – Dan Chaon

‘I think one of the biggest political failures, and the biggest social failures, over the past few years has been the failure of empathy; not being able to look at the other person down the street.’ – Colum McCann

‘What we need in medical schools is not to teach empathy, as much as to preserve it – the process of learning huge volumes of information about disease, of learning a specialized language, can ironically make one lose sight of the patient one came to serve; empathy can be replaced by cynicism.’ – Abraham Verghese

‘Singing with others is an unmediated, shared experience as each person feels the same music reverberating in their individual bodies. Singing is part of our humanity; it is embodied empathy.’ – Jay Griffiths

‘Other species help children develop empathy.’ – Richard Louv

‘Silence has been destroyed, but also the idea that it’s important to learn how another person thinks, to enter the mind of another person. The whole idea of empathy is gone. We are now part of this giant machine where every second we have to take out a device and contribute our thoughts and opinions.’ – Gary Shteyngart

‘As I grew up, I began to discover a little bit about the situation of black people in America and experienced an immediate empathy with the victims of such senseless discrimination. Because although the Turks were never slaves, they were regarded as enemies within Europe because of their Muslim beliefs.’ – Ahmet Ertegun

‘Entrepreneurs may be brutally honest, but fostering relationships with partners and building enduring communities requires empathy, self-sacrifice and a willingness to help others without expecting anything in return.’ – Ben Parr

‘My wife has been my greatest earthly inspiration. She excels in eloquence, the poetry of words, empathy and graciousness.’ – George W. Romney

‘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.’ – Claire Danes

‘Most people assume that autistic people are not capable of empathy.’ – Claire Danes

‘To me, a political song is also a personal song. Most political activism has been driven by empathy for other people and the desire for a world that’s less divisive. Even if songs aren’t overtly political, they can make a listener more empathetic.’ – Conor Oberst

‘Empathy probably started out as a mechanism to improve maternal care. Mammalian mothers who were attentive to their young’s needs were more likely to rear successful offspring.’ – Frans de Waal

‘All leaders, male or female, innately possess feminine qualities like empathy, candor and vulnerability – the difference lies in which leaders choose to suppress those qualities, and which choose to leverage them as strengths.’ – John Gerzema

‘Any disease support community is a place of deep bonds and empathy, and there are thousands if not tens of thousands of them.’ – Howard Rheingold

‘Our culture encourages women to nurture men, making it predictable that many experience a seductive empathy for abusive men, as well as the misguided hope that love can obliterate an ugly past.’ – Leslie Morgan Steiner

‘People with lower incomes tend to give a greater percentage of their incomes to help others and show greater empathy and compassion – perhaps because they know they might face the same circumstances.’ – Kavita Ramdas

‘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.’ – Doug Jones

‘The thing that enchants me the most is the ability women have to feel other people’s pain. The total empathy that women have is extraordinary.’ – Ashton Kutcher

‘Because I was a dancer when I was a kid, I have so much empathy for these young girls who are so drawn to something lovely in music and in movement, and yet they encounter a world full of judgment and criticism of 11-year-old artists and bodies.’ – Sharon Lawrence

‘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.’ – Yoko Ono

‘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.’ – Pat Barker

‘In a high-IQ job pool, soft skills like discipline, drive and empathy mark those who emerge as outstanding.’ – Daniel Goleman

‘Obviously, Jay-Z is one of the greatest entertainers of the world today. Not only is he a remarkable rhetorical genius, he’s also a man of deep sympathy and empathy for those who are lost and vulnerable, but especially under-educated youth of all cultures and stripes.’ – Michael Eric Dyson

‘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.’ – Claire Danes

‘Students read for tests and because their parents ask them to, but I think it’s very important to tell children that you can read for fun, too, and to understand human spirit. It builds empathy.’ – Adora Svitak

‘As a child, I lived with being punier than other boys in class. The only consolation was my parents’ empathy – they encouraged constant trips to the local drugstore for chocolate milk shakes to fatten me up. The shakes made me happy, but still, all through grammar school, other kids shoved me around.’ – James D. Watson

‘The only time the private parts of someone’s life are relevant is when they’re affecting public performance. And just because someone is a public person doesn’t mean that any part of his or her private life is open to scrutiny. If someone is doing his or her job, you have to have enough empathy to understand that we all have personal problems.’ – Rudy Giuliani

‘I cry a lot when I feel empathy. I can feel heartbroken by life, and I cry quite easily, sometimes for no reason. It’s healthy, I think.’ – Bat for Lashes

‘I feel empathy for people who are trapped in a prison of self-consciousness in an uncomfortable way. We can be free, but we’re so held back. So perhaps that’s why I feel a duty to make my work. I feel liberated when I’m doing it, and I want other people to feel liberated through it.’ – Bat for Lashes

‘I really like feeling connected to people and feeling like I have a good, solid sense of empathy.’ – Aimee Bender

‘Cancer is a growth hormone for empathy, and empathy makes us useful to each other in ways we were not, could not have been, before.’ – Kelly Corrigan

‘My husband and I grew up with parents who supported our passion, and we’re grateful to them for that. It really helps you find your identity when you’re younger. It helps you become a really well-rounded person, the more you can show from different perspectives. The arts show us empathy, which is so important.’ – Idina Menzel

‘When you hear about what someone else is going through, and you are unable to distance yourself from it or in any way muzzle your empathy and are inspired to actually do something, these are moments to learn from.’ – Henry Rollins

‘Democracy allows rhetoric, false empathy and emotion to pummel rational thinking – so it’s no wonder so many politicians thrive in it.’ – David Harsanyi

‘For me as an actor, you always sort of want to bring yourself to a character in some way. You want to find a way to approach something in a way that’s real and interesting, and also so there’s some empathy there.’ – Britt Robertson

‘Machines are becoming devastatingly capable of things like killing. Those machines have no place for empathy. There’s billions of dollars being spent on that. Character robotics could plant the seed for robots that actually have empathy.’ – David Hanson

‘Cinema is my religion. It is a way to make people sensitive, through emotions. To make them feel, experience empathy. People are touched and act ethically when they are emotionally touched.’ – Bruno Dumont

‘I think one of my better gifts as a writer is empathy.’ – Jonathan Tropper

‘Empathy has some unfortunate features – it is parochial, narrow-minded, and innumerate. We’re often at our best when we’re smart enough not to rely on it.’ – Paul Bloom

‘On many issues, empathy can pull us in the wrong direction. The outrage that comes from adopting the perspective of a victim can drive an appetite for retribution.’ – Paul Bloom

‘The Lord is well aware of our mortality. He knows our weaknesses. He understands the challenges of our everyday lives. He has great empathy for the temptations of earthly appetites and passions.’ – Joseph B. Wirthlin

‘George W. Bush: a person who is the ultimate outcome of the American condition. Someone promoted above ability because of circumstance and organisation and empathy. You don’t have to be intelligent. A moron in a hurry could know that you don’t prevent war by having a war.’ – David Lange

‘I always feel that life can teach you how to act. I’m always looking at life through other people’s eyes. By feeling empathy. And I do feel that I am constantly learning.’ – Cara Delevingne

‘You have to have empathy, knowledge and compassion for your characters if you’re a writer.’ – Paul Haggis

‘Because I teach and write about depression and bipolar illness, I am often asked what is the most important factor in treating bipolar disorder. My answer is competence. Empathy is important, but competence is essential.’ – Kay Redfield Jamison

‘I am actually incredibly contented and jolly. But, and I have no idea why this is, I have a really strong empathy with all kinds of warped and destructive modes of thinking. I don’t know why, but those things co-exist.’ – Sophie Hannah

‘A lot of very successful businessmen share some of these sociopathic traits – a lack of empathy, seeing people as commodities, projecting an air of sincerity when everything is actually calculated.’ – Oscar Isaac

‘We all must support the arts, as it is our culture. It makes us better people. It makes us happy; it gives us empathy and shows us how to live. It is so important.’ – Imelda Staunton

‘The story is a machine for empathy. In contrast to logic or reason, a story is about emotion that gets staged over a sequence of dramatic moments, so you empathize with the characters without really thinking about it too much. It is a really powerful tool for imagining yourself in other people’s situations.’ – Ira Glass

‘Depression is a surfeit of empathy – a killing empathy – that makes depressives great friends to everyone but themselves. Having a self is a rough business, and depressives can empathize with others who have to deal with it, but not with themselves.’ – Michael Redhill

‘It’s hard to penetrate characters who are very cut off and lack empathy and to do it with sympathy. It’s so easy to make a damaged character repugnant.’ – Siri Hustvedt

‘You get your heart stomped by the opposite sex, and you’re hurting so badly that you write ‘Sometimes When We Touch.’ But then what happens when you’ve been married for 25 years? You can’t rely on those emotional male-female roller coasters. You have to start using your imagination and the powers of empathy more.’ – Dan Hill

‘At 10, I heard Neil Diamond’s ‘Solitary Man’ and it moved me so deeply I stood, frozen in place during school recess, feeling such empathy for the narrator in Diamond’s masterpiece that my heart was smashed.’ – Dan Hill

‘I got a lot of empathy from my mother growing up, and I think it prevented me from ever really just writing people off.’ – Matt McGorry

‘When we watch stories, we learn empathy, we learn compassion, and hopefully we achieve some sort of understanding.’ – Gavin Hood

‘Ultimately, knowing God and reading the Word, it helps with patience with people, understanding, empathy and sympathy that they might not have that I have. If God gave it to me, why not exercise it?’ – Trai Byers

‘If the spectrum linking everyday depression to Major Depression sometimes hinders understanding of it, it also offers an opportunity for empathy. Because almost everyone, at some point, experiences feelings of sadness, of hopelessness, of emptiness, not to mention lethargy and irritability.’ – Gayle Forman

‘We must broaden the definition of who our neighbors are, and extend the boundaries of our interest and empathy.’ – Wendy Kopp

‘Every clinical encounter is an opportunity to generate social capital. Even in situations where patient needs are complex or seemingly insurmountable, it is the empathy and goodwill which makes the difference.’ – Tony Tan

‘The greater good is achieved by not only telling people what they need to know, but also filling them with a sense of empathy and love.’ – Abigail Disney

‘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.’ – Aaron Lazar

‘I don’t think there’s any reason in journalism not to approach stories we cover with humility, empathy, compassion, and intellectual openness. I mean, I think those are just important human traits. I don’t think that precludes scrutiny, negativity, where it’s appropriate.’ – David Gregory

‘When I came to the last line of ‘Car Crash While Hitchhiking,’ I read it as a pitiless statement of indifference: a refusal to warn the family of their impending collision, a refusal to help when miraculously spared, a refusal to act on the empathy hiding behind the story’s language.’ – Anthony Marra

‘A novel can enlarge the empathy and imagination of both its author and its reader, and my experience, that sense of enlargement is most intense when I’m transported beyond the narrow limits of my daily life.’ – Anthony Marra

‘I traffic in empathy. I try to be vulnerable with people so they can be vulnerable back. I’ve always been searching for empathy in other people. It’s when I feel most not alone.’ – Jose Antonio Vargas

‘Writing a book is very personal. It’s a very personal relationship. A book will start with something as simple as two men talking about work. That gets the fire going. Sustaining that fire is the hard work. It takes attention and empathy to hone the characters.’ – Ron Carlson

‘Too often, wealthy people born on third base blithely criticize the poor for failing to hit home runs. The advantaged sometimes perceive empathy as a sign of muddle-headed weakness rather than as a marker of civilization.’ – Nicholas Kristof

‘The stories I love the most are where the author has a lot of empathy for everyone. The author loves their characters and takes their situations really seriously, and you feel like you’re just dropped into a different world.’ – Molly Antopol

‘Now, I admire The Sims as a game, but from a story viewpoint, there are two glaring problems. First, your relationship with those characters is like they’re bugs in a jar. There’s no empathy. And secondly, you’ve got this clunky, chemistry-set interface between you and them, with bars to show how tired or angry they are. It’s all tell not show.’ – Dave Morris

‘Empathy is not as complicated when you have some aspects in common with your character; it’s not impossible to know someone who’s like you in many ways but different in one. This is true especially if you are a reader. Reading makes you accustomed to inhabiting other lives and sensibilities.’ – Antonya Nelson

‘I have empathy; I am humane. I understand human misery.’ – Marion Marechal-Le Pen

‘We’ve sweated and torn out our hair trying to reconstruct our chosen lives, to fashion them like literary sculptures, at once monumental and yet human. We’ve applied all of our intelligence, our empathy, our critical faculties, our compassion – and we think, in our delusion, that it’s still 1960, and our work is going to get noticed.’ – Nigel Hamilton

‘We seek to craft characters who inspire empathy: characters our audience will care for and, as a result, will care about what happens to them and thus will share the journey we have charted. A story, after all, is the character’s journey.’ – Greg Rucka

‘I think that’s an incredible thing that we can do as actors – to feel empathy toward someone that you may otherwise detest, you know?’ – Jennifer Jason Leigh

‘It is quite common to meet people that live a few kilometers away from Mexico and that have never been there. We need to revive on many levels an illustrious desire to get to know the world, to learn another language, to understand and create empathy with people that live a few kilometers away from us. It’s never late to do this.’ – Gael Garcia Bernal

‘Film is this incredible medium that allows us to feel empathy for people that are very different than us and worlds completely foreign from our own.’ – Chris Milk

‘Empathy is key in the design process, especially when you start expanding outside of your comfort zone to new languages, cultures, and age groups. If you try to assume what those people want, you’re likely to get it wrong.’ – Mike Krieger

‘When we used to go to the car-wash where people would wipe the windows, my dad would go out and help them and then tip them as well, so I learned my empathy from my dad, and my mum is very empathetic too, but in a very stern way; she will always check my ego.’ – Charlie Puth

‘I think, at the end of the day, acting and activism are both about empathy. You’re trying to get people to see other people as real and human. And to care.’ – Sara Ramirez

‘It’s very difficult to design something for someone if you have no empathy.’ – Stewart Butterfield

‘Tony Blair has made a good contribution to the cause of peace in Ireland. He has made a great effort to understand it. He has great empathy with the need to resolve the conflict.’ – Martin McGuinness

‘When you create those characters that people love and care about and put them in a dark hallway, already the audience is on edge, and they feel empathy for that character. Then it’s up to me to decide what jumps out in that hallway. So I think laying that foundation of strong characters and strong story is the most important thing in a horror film.’ – James Wan

‘Clevelanders care about underdogs, partly because we are, partly because we have empathy, and we’re – we have faith in our God and faith in humanity, and that makes us support the underdog.’ – Sherrod Brown

‘What we need to do is have empathy and that ultimately, at the end of the day, it’s a woman’s private choice… I don’t support federal funding for abortions, nor do I support late-term abortions.’ – Chris Gibson

‘For a time, I really thought acting was just impersonating. But impersonation is just big brush strokes, really. What makes acting different is empathy.’ – Douglas Hodge

‘Somehow we got used to death, and then we dehumanised it. We account for conflicts in figures. Ebola is 13,500 infected, 5,000 people have died… People are losing their sense of empathy, their sense of wanting to do something.’ – Joanne Liu

‘Throughout my career as a lawyer, teacher and labor leader, books have remained my constant companion – stuffed into a briefcase, overflowing on my bedside table, stacked on my desk at work. Books have carried me to distant worlds, opened new doors and made me feel empathy, compassion, anger, fear, joy, acceptance – and everything in between.’ – Randi Weingarten

‘The mobile revolution has dramatically changed our world view, empowered women, and increased our empathy. Corrupt governments have been toppled and wars avoided because our species has become so digitally connected.’ – Gray Scott

”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.’ – Alexandra Kleeman

‘Competing in pageants made me hyper-aware of the unfair expectations society places on women in terms of youth and beauty. But it also gave me empathy for women who use beauty as a creative exploration. When expressed healthfully, dressing up, doing hair, crafting makeup, etc., is an art form.’ – Rae Carson

‘Some of the most common pitfalls I see occur when authors don’t check their privilege. Billions are living in a personal apocalypse right this second, so a little research and empathy can go a long way toward developing a convincing world.’ – Rae Carson

‘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.’ – Felicity Jones

‘To me, race is not all about grievance. It is also about pride and empathy and humanity and understanding the value of difference. But along with that, there are also expectations that we should set for ourselves and for others. We should expect to be treated as equal citizens.’ – Gwen Ifill

‘I will not call that person happy who knows no rest because of his enemies, who is the butt of fun by all and for whom no one has any empathy, who is as if held on a leash by others, who has lost himself in hedonistic pursuits, who preys on those weaker to him and wags his tail for his superiors.’ – Munshi Premchand

‘Bottom 10 Percent progressives are not enthusiastic about concentrations of wealth. But that’s not what keeps them up at night. Their focus is on deprivation and lack of opportunity. They’re motivated by empathy for people who are suffering, rather than outrage over unjustified wealth.’ – Cass Sunstein

‘The empathy I found reading ‘Heidi’ and ‘Little Women’ is empathy we have as human beings that can feed all of our souls. We have our differences, but we’re all so similar in our humanness. So those stories about young girls overcoming meant a lot to me and gave me hope.’ – Jewell Parker Rhodes

‘That’s what happens in a good horror movie: there are always metaphors of greater subjects like humanity and empathy and compassion. It’s not about the action and scary moments: You really care about these characters because they’re mirrors of our own reflections.’ – Edgar Ramirez

‘Empathy is why entertainment is always growing, and for millennials, everyone is judging them and trying to grab their attention by insulting them. We’re living in a time where everyone has 25 profiles, and they’re having 25 conversations.’ – Alia Shawkat

‘Being a mom makes you far more compassionate. You have more empathy for people, more love. I was always taught to say thank you, and I’m very grateful. And my kids have that quality, too.’ – Florence Henderson

‘I felt great empathy for the thousands of Americans who lost their home because of a system that failed them.’ – Steve Mnuchin

‘Chris Guest has his own form. It’s a way of working that is really intense, and you can commit a lot, and you focus a lot. You get to bring a lot. You get to bring things maybe you haven’t seen before. You’re asked to care a great deal for these people who you’re playing and create heart and empathy.’ – Parker Posey

‘I think there’s such a fine line in a relationship. The role of imagination and privacy… how much space can you allow before that becomes distance? And similarly, imagination is empathy. That’s how you achieve empathy. It’s how you can be with another person and understand how they are in the world.’ – Katie Kitamura

‘There should be characters and situations that we cannot identify with, that retain either too much horror or too much wonder to allow for simple identification. That feels to me like an accurate depiction of what it is like to be in the world, rather than a neutered register of continual empathy.’ – Katie Kitamura

‘At a person-to-person level, I think that there’s always something to be said for having some empathy for the folks who really, really disagree with you about a given topic.’ – J. D. Vance

‘The person in New York City is showing too little empathy for the Trump voter. The Trump voter is showing too little empathy for the person who’s very worried about the refugee ban. They’re not spending enough time with each other to have a meaningful conversation.’ – J. D. Vance

‘Just to get the basic fundamentals and empathy – I think that’s the most important thing to bring to it if you’ve acted in the past and are now a director: the empathy.’ – Scott Mechlowicz

‘Human beings are created with empathy. Art serves that purpose. So why should I be disinterested in a character who’s a man, and why should a man shy away from a show that’s female-driven?’ – Evelyne Brochu

‘A deep appreciation for politics comes from empathy for our fellow human beings and their diverse paths through life.’ – Chris Sacca

‘The first word that always came into my head with Henry VI was ’empathy.’ He doesn’t have a barrier between what other people feel and what he feels.’ – Tom Sturridge

‘Posh people blow my mind. Apart from empathy, they’re good at everything – true survivalists.’ – Katherine Ryan

‘I think that I come off as, ‘Nothing bothers me, I don’t care! I’m funny and sassy.’ But I’m deeply sensitive. Not only about myself but to others. Not to pat myself on the back, empathy is a quality I’ve cultivated over my life. It came naturally to me as a child.’ – Laura Benanti

‘Democracy is based upon empathy and the recognition that some decisions are solely for the community’s benefit without regard to one’s own narrow self-interest.’ – John Hickenlooper

‘I hope people who read my books feel empathy for us and really see us as complicated people.’ – Jesmyn Ward

‘Empathy is what obsesses me. And watching empathy recede in the world is terrifying.’ – Nathan Englander

‘Every day, at home, I have the astonishing and humbling opportunity – together with my wife Sophie – to nurture empathy, compassion, self-love, and a keen sense of justice in our three kids.’ – Justin Trudeau

‘The phrase ‘misuse of privilege’ is becoming a free pass to tear apart pretty much anybody we choose to. It’s becoming a devalued term, and it’s making us lose our capacity for empathy and for distinguishing between serious and unserious transgressions.’ – Jon Ronson

‘In the midst of a burning-hot shaming, calling for patience and context and understanding and empathy can really land you in trouble.’ – Jon Ronson

‘I think entrepreneurs really appreciate directness and honesty, coupled with empathy.’ – David Cohen

‘Music, like film, is an incredible tool for creating empathy.’ – Morgan Neville

‘I tend to side with people who are considered the underdog. I have empathy.’ – Amanda de Cadenet

‘I have such a crush on Tony Robbins and his passion, empathy, and sheer talent.’ – Krysten Ritter

‘With Tourette’s, there’s this element of vulnerability and compassion and empathy that you innately possess because of the affliction.’ – Dash Mihok

‘Insects are living metaphors for me. They are so alien and so remote and so perfect, but also they are emotionless; they don’t have any human or mammalian instincts. They’ll eat their young at the drop of a hat; they can eat your house! There’s no empathy – none.’ – Guillermo del Toro

‘If you’re going to make a movie about a character who is a supervillain, it’s fantastic to have a core sense of empathy for that character.’ – Chris Meledandri

‘I’ve learned not to be such a show-off and to have a bit more empathy with humanity. Or at least to fake that.’ – Martin McDonagh

‘The idea of faking empathy to take a step forward to understanding – it’s a really powerful idea.’ – Jonathan Groff

‘With every character, the first thing I want to feel is empathy.’ – Jonathan Groff

‘What makes us different from other species is our capacity for compassion and empathy with the struggles of other people.’ – Liam Cunningham

‘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.’ – Blase J. Cupich

‘Most people have the ability to turn their empathy engine back on, but there’s such a seductive burn to not being empathetic.’ – W. Kamau Bell

‘It’s easy to isolate yourself when you’re buried in work, or to rely only on work friends for empathy. And while your work friends will always ‘get it’ more than your life partner, they don’t know how to comfort you like your partner does.’ – Emily V. Gordon

‘Like so many of you, I am deeply distressed both by the hateful violence in Charlottesville and by President Trump’s refusal to clearly denounce it. Nobody with any empathy for the plight of people of color in this country could respond the way he did.’ – Eva Moskowitz

‘Disability is articulated as a struggle, an unnecessary burden that one must overcome to the soundtrack of a string crescendo. But disabled lives are multi-faceted – brimming with personality, pride, ambition, love, empathy, and wit.’ – Sinead Burke

‘Empathy should not be contingent on our proximity to suffering or the likelihood of it happening to us. Rather, it should stem from a disdain that suffering is happening at all.’ – Clint Smith

‘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.’ – Clint Smith

‘I know some women’s rights activists have seen so much abuse that they can’t stand men, but I have a sense of empathy with the men. Without excusing the abuse they are capable of, many of them are trapped within these communities and bound by expectations they didn’t necessarily ask for.’ – Deeyah Khan

‘I feel like there is a real lack of empathy – not just in American society, it’s definitely happening in Britain as well – and it’s heartbreaking that people can see something and not feel it.’ – Clare-Hope Ashitey

‘No matter how much you urge them to relax and how much you mean it, your child probably grapples with highly stressful environments away from home, whether it’s where they go to school, the teams they play on, or the peers in their social circle. Most teenagers I know long for empathy from their parents about their struggle.’ – Rachel Simmons

‘When I did the original research for ‘Odd Girl Out,’ I asked every bullied girl I interviewed to tell me what she needed most from her family. The answer truly surprised me. It wasn’t having the best solutions, calling the school, or trying to act like everything was okay. It was empathy.’ – Rachel Simmons

‘Empathy isn’t the same thing as expressing emotions. It’s not about sharing your feelings – it can be really uncomfortable if a parent cries or loses strength at the moment her daughter needs it most. The message sent is that you need to be taken care of, not the other way around.’ – Rachel Simmons

‘Sympathy relies on a common experience. If you’re clumsy, you might have sympathy for others who tend to bump into things. Empathy, on the other hand, is the ability to understand another person’s feelings even if you’ve never experienced them yourself.’ – Joe Gebbia

‘The more you learn about someone, how could you not want to protect them and their rights? The more you learn about a culture or a certain identity, it’s hard to not feel empathy.’ – Yara Shahidi

‘When gay, lesbian and bisexual individuals come out, their friends and families, for the most part, understand what it feels like to love and to lust. Cisgender people have more of a challenge when it comes to transgender identities. I discovered that analogy of homesickness in conversations with my parents, in trying to bridge that empathy divide.’ – Sarah McBride

‘People of power have to show empathy and kindness to the young.’ – Edward Enninful

‘Writing is weaponized empathy. It’s putting yourself in someone else’s head. It’s finding what’s in them that relates to you.’ – Tom King

‘American popular culture has long been marked by an absence of empathy for American Indians. Westerns doubled as a campaign against so-called savages in a way that desensitized us to the savages we’d become.’ – Wesley Morris

‘One result of moviemaking – and a side effect of moviegoing – is familiarity. If an actor is particularly good, familiarity opens into something deeper: care, concern, identification, empathy. Yet even those concepts can feel inadequate for some actors.’ – Wesley Morris

‘I think empathy is undervalued in a lot of these comedy writers’ rooms.’ – Nell Scovell

‘Compassion and empathy are anathema to sports.’ – Steve Rushin

‘Acting requires a great amount of empathy for real lived human experiences.’ – Cole Sprouse

‘Imgur is a data-driven company, and our community is our most important signal. But you can’t perfectly plot humans neatly into a chart. It takes someone with instincts and empathy to truly understand the community and represent them in all of the company decisions.’ – Alan Schaaf

‘Books by women, people of color, LGBTQ authors, differently abled people, and non-Americans are a great way of broadening horizons and building empathy.’ – Celeste Ng

‘It’s kind of funny that I’ve been branded as the empathy lady when, really, what I’m doing is questioning and interrogating empathy.’ – Leslie Jamison

‘My dad is an economist who does global development research. What he practices is a kind of quantifiable empathy: trying to empathize with systems rather than people.’ – Leslie Jamison

‘If you operate under the premise that everybody already has some experiences that could be sources of empathy for them, I wonder if there’s some process of coaxing people into tapping into that knowledge.’ – Leslie Jamison

‘The literary world is filled with good and generous people. But then that’s what writing is all about – empathy.’ – Charles Bock

‘If you have empathy for both sides, then that’s the same as having no empathy at all.’ – Wendy Long

‘A judge is supposed to have empathy for no one but simply to follow the law.’ – Wendy Long

‘The best way to have empathy for people and the best way to have empathy for our Constitution is to appoint judges who will rule based on the law and to have empathy, if you will, for the law only and to rule based on the law.’ – Wendy Long

‘Most actors will tell you this – I don’t really know how to connect, empathize with, or make worthy of any revelation a character that doesn’t have love in there somewhere, that doesn’t have an idealism or an empathy in there somewhere.’ – Jeff Perry

‘In order to be a good emergency contact, you need a lot of friend-patience and empathy. Often, this comes from personal experience with anxiety, trauma, and depression.’ – Mary H.K. Choi

‘Writing fiction is an act of imaginative empathy.’ – Andrew Sean Greer

‘It was so interesting going to high school in New York. You get a callous to the city and an empathy for every type of person.’ – Alex Wolff

‘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.’ – Ana Navarro

‘We need to understand the other side to impact the other side. We become much more effective as humans and leaders when we engage in hearty conversations with those who are different from us, not necessarily to change our opinions, but to build the empathy muscle.’ – Daniel Lubetzky

‘The Kind Foundation was created to scale our social impact and be able to deepen our focus on fostering empathy and developing kinder communities.’ – Daniel Lubetzky

‘Empathy is one of our greatest tools of business that is most underused.’ – Daniel Lubetzky

‘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.’ – Daniel Lubetzky

‘You really need to have a lot of empathy for the work you’re doing and the people who you’re ultimately trying to help, whether that’s a business colleague, a boss, or, ultimately, the user of the software you’re building.’ – Hilary Mason

‘Empathy goes a long way, for sure. We cannot have healthy, loving, mutually respectful relationships without it. But we’re not psychic. At least I’m not. And intuition can only take you so far, especially when a person’s sense of safety, comfort, and self-worth hangs in the balance.’ – Tony Goldwyn

‘Cinema is empathy machinery, and we multiply our life experience through cinema. When it is good cinema, it almost counts as a personal experience.’ – Sebastian Lelio

‘I always like it when writers posit writing as an act of empathy. It’s such a grand turn of phrase, such a noble ideal; empathy is so worth aiming for in life that the same must hold true in art. But personally, I can’t think too deeply about that when I’m working, or I’d never get anything down on the page.’ – Rumaan Alam

‘I think I lead with empathy and connection to our people. I find that the most effective leadership style for me is to just talk and listen. It sounds simple, but it’s so effective.’ – Julia Hartz

‘We use a term called ’empowerment through empathy.’ And ‘Me Too’ is so powerful, because somebody had said it to me – right? – and it changed the trajectory of my healing process once I heard that.’ – Tarana Burke

‘There’s a power in empathy.’ – Tarana Burke

”Me too’ became a term that was both succinct and powerful, and it was a way to ring up immediate empathy between survivors.’ – Tarana Burke

‘In my work as an actor, I have been given even greater insights and have been guided towards empathy and a consciousness of those who are less fortunate.’ – Adrien Brody

‘I’m an activist and advocate. I have empathy. It is hard to ignore causes.’ – Brandon Victor Dixon

‘I think the most important quality for a writer to have is empathy.’ – Elizabeth Berg

‘Travel is the only way to get empathy for other people’s mindsets – to know their struggles and what they’re drawn to.’ – Abigail Spencer

‘George Saunders is the funniest. He makes me laugh in the way I want to laugh – with so much empathy and deep understanding of people. He illuminates things and people I’ve never thought about – and I’ve dedicated my life to the study of people and their idiosyncrasies. He is light years ahead.’ – Mark Duplass

‘There are two elements to nailing a job interview: form and substance. ‘Form’ describes the outer layer of your character – your manners, your demeanor, your social skills. ‘Substance’ describes the inner core of your character – your intellect, your empathy, your creativity.’ – Neil Blumenthal

‘I remember, once I was stressed, with an upcoming paper deadline. That little Microsoft Word clippy guy would show up in my face, jumping around and asking if I needed help. It had no understanding of my emotions and had zero empathy. That got me interested in this idea of tech being responsive to our emotions.’ – Rana el Kaliouby

‘Art, when done well, creates empathy.’ – Mary Gauthier

‘I think it’s a stereotype that soldiers don’t talk, because my experience is that they will talk if they are met with empathy and no judgment.’ – Mary Gauthier

‘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.’ – Andrew Haigh

‘The more empathy you have and the more connected you are to society, the better off you’ll be.’ – Jasmila Zbanic

‘Cinema connects people: they respond as a group, you feel you are not alone, and you see you are not alone. Capitalism is destroying this social aspect of films, and even empathy, by creating the illusion that you are more important than the next person: ‘You will buy this because you are special.’ That is horrible.’ – Jasmila Zbanic

‘I have a lot of empathy, and I think that’s where mothering starts. You are there to empathise and facilitate.’ – Viv Albertine

‘This precious thing of empathy and love and understanding is something we have to hold and appreciate and protect.’ – Kamasi Washington

‘No matter what you do, you’re going to run into haters online. We’re not talking about ordinary, disgruntled customers who should be addressed with empathy and understanding. Haters are a breed apart.’ – Andrew Shaffer

‘Use your imaginations, and use your empathy. If you don’t do that, you’re limiting yourself as an artist, and you’re hurting the world.’ – Brett Gelman

‘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.’ – Max Joseph

‘I think people feel like other people are very different from them… And that people who are different from them are actually sort of unworthy of the same rights or empathy. I don’t understand that.’ – David Harbour

‘If acting has any meaning, it is so that we can have greater empathy for other people.’ – David Harbour

‘Every time we watch a little story play out inside our head, we’re fantasizing, whether we realize it or not, and it seems to me that, though succumbing to fantasies about other people can be dangerous or self-defeating, the act of fantasizing itself is also an essential part of being human, of being capable of both abstraction and empathy.’ – Kim Brooks

‘When I read stories of suffering, I still feel something. It seems inhuman not to. At the same time, I’m more aware than ever of how little my feeling is worth, of how – if we are to truly keep alive the conditions that make ethical life possible – it is not empathy that’s needed but insight, organization, and action.’ – Kim Brooks

‘This idea of bringing awareness to our lives seems like a good idea, right? We’ll gain a productive, enjoyable, reflective life and be able to extend compassion, empathy, and joy to others. That seems like a pretty good deal.’ – Tara Stiles

‘You have to have some connection, empathy, or chemistry with the person you’re playing and playing with.’ – Richard E. Grant

‘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.’ – Daniel Pfeiffer

‘I believe the arts are the best way to help people go on a journey of self-discovery toward their own compassion and empathy for humanity and themselves.’ – Asia Kate Dillon

‘I love my ability to generate empathy and compassion within myself and others.’ – Asia Kate Dillon

‘Whether it’s a song or a television show, or a book or poem, art is the thing that cracks me open and encourages me to go on a deeper journey to find my own compassion and empathy and humanity.’ – Asia Kate Dillon

‘You can be aware and educated and informed, but you’ve got to place emphasis on being compassionate, having empathy and understanding.’ – Stacey Dooley

‘Documentaries require an enormous amount of grit and empathy – and that is something women are incredibly strong at.’ – Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi

‘Because I came into fame so early on, I’ve never done that. I don’t investigate through the Internet about people who I know in the same way that I think most people do because I know what that’s like to be on the other end of it. I think it gave me a certain kind of discipline, or empathy.’ – Penn Badgley

‘There are justifiable case-by-case situations wherein an educator might exhibit targeted sensitivity to a student’s unique circumstances. This is humane and laudable. In most instances though, trigger warnings are not a manifestation of justified empathy but are symptomatic of an ailing culture.’ – Gad Saad

‘It’s – you know, acting’s all about relatability and finding empathy for a character, which is essentially, kind of, you’re finding empathy with a part of yourself, which is a part of a character that was written by someone else, which was essentially kind of a part of them as well because it was a voice in their head they wrote down.’ – Anthony Carrigan

‘Leadership requires the ability to engage and to create empathy for communities with disparate needs and ideas. Telling an effective story – especially in romantic suspense – demands a similar skill set.’ – Stacey Abrams

‘The joy of great fiction is that it transports the reader to another world, where new characters live in otherwise unimaginable ways. It is one of the most powerful ways of generating empathy that I know.’ – Neal Katyal

‘My goal with ‘Beyond’ is really to create a strong sense of empathy between the player and Jodie Holmes.’ – David Cage

‘A more courageous empathy is needed in our country to see the struggles of people from factory towns to farm towns to city towns who can’t even afford the rent in their cities anymore because costs are going so high.’ – Cory Booker

‘Watching the news, there seems to be an empathy failure and miscommunication.’ – Sara Pascoe

‘If we accept ourselves as animals, and have empathy and tolerance, compassion to others, understand that humans are territorial, aggressive and have gender aspects, then we can change things.’ – Sara Pascoe

‘Filmmaking is a language where you empathise with human situations. Unless you have empathy for characters, you shouldn’t be a filmmaker.’ – Rajiv Menon

‘I always had a lot of empathy for the deep outcast weirdos in school. I was kind of like the more sociable weirdo, but I was always talking to the real weird ones.’ – Weyes Blood

‘My parents were a little more on the hippie spectrum of Christianity – they weren’t liberal Christians by any means, they were pretty conservative – but they preached mostly about love and caring for people, so I grew up with a lot of compassion and empathy.’ – Weyes Blood

‘I feel empathy wherever and whenever someone feels cornered in life. Whenever someone puts in sweat and blood and does not get the acceptance and appreciation one deserves, I resonate with it.’ – Tanushree Dutta

‘I have a lot of empathy for quarterbacks.’ – Archie Manning

‘I am more interested in teaching my children empathy than subscribing to our ‘me’ culture and obsessing about ‘how do I feel’ all the time.’ – Gina Miller

‘Employ empathy.’ – Adam Conover

‘Negotiation is empathy. It’s almost trite to say that if you can’t put yourself in the seat of the other person you’re speaking with, you’re not going to do well. It’s not about being a bully, not about making offers people can’t refuse.’ – Marc Randolph

‘The arts are the most uniquely suited to provide young people with critical-thinking skills, problem-solving, teamwork and collaboration, empathy and tolerance and compassion, looking at the other point of views.’ – Emma Walton Hamilton

‘If I had to name my superpower, it’s probably empathy.’ – Miguel McKelvey

‘Michigan has always been a swing state, so we understand that the goal is to have two political parties, debating the issues with empathy and respect.’ – Elissa Slotkin

‘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.’ – Ro Khanna

‘I don’t believe we would’ve had nearly as diverse a Congress if it weren’t for social media. I don’t think that there would be the same appreciation or empathy for human rights across the world if it weren’t for social media.’ – Ro Khanna

‘Sen. Akaka’s care, empathy and compassion were evident to everyone who knew him.’ – Mazie Hirono

‘One important lesson I learned over and over is that, when you walk into any troubled organization, there is a delicate balance between expressing human empathy and yet not passively sweeping hard truths under the rug.’ – Ben Sasse

‘Good history is good story-telling. And good story-telling demands empathy; it requires understanding different actors, differing motivations, competing goals.’ – Ben Sasse

‘Democrats have long held an advantage over Republicans on health care, mostly due to a perceived empathy problem in my party.’ – Ben Sasse

‘Becoming a reader grows our horizons, our appetite for the good, the true and the beautiful, and our empathy.’ – Ben Sasse

‘I’m a believer in forgiveness. I have worked with people who have been in gangs and now dedicate their lives to helping inner city kids. I’ve run offender services with teachings of responsibility, empathy and understanding of the victims at their heart. I’ve seen people change.’ – Jess Phillips

‘While we have to take personal responsibility for our actions, I have a great deal of empathy for people who are unconsciously racially biased, and indeed count myself among their number.’ – John Barnes

‘Almost all human beings have the capacity for empathy. Everyone has the potential to be at least troubled, or feel genuine anguish, about the suffering of other human beings.’ – Owen Jones

‘The only way to combat hate is by demonstrating empathy and love.’ – Carmen Carrera

‘I think with empathy… It’s more looking out at the people. And that includes the Republicans, you know the people that might be opposed to us. Trying to understand why is it that they want what they want. And then how do we find common ground. I mean sometimes there is no common ground to be had if it’s only about profit.’ – Jane O’Meara Sanders

‘I need my ‘art work’ or ‘entertainment work’ or whatever to have empathy for or connection to the way I experience the world as a person.’ – Oneohtrix Point Never

‘My theory is that the female brain is predominantly hard-wired for empathy, and that the male brain is predominantly hard-wired for understanding and building systems.’ – Simon Baron-Cohen

‘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.’ – Simon Baron-Cohen

‘Empathy is about two people – two people meeting, getting to know each other and tuning in to what the other person is thinking and feeling.’ – Simon Baron-Cohen

‘When you see yourself as the center of things, it deprives you of a certain level of empathy.’ – Taylor Goldsmith

‘We think empathy is innate, but it’s not. It’s a muscle you’re working.’ – Julien Baker

‘Twitter was an alternative community for me. A different kind of community. I knew I was making people angry. But it didn’t matter, they weren’t my community. But the longer I was on Twitter and the more I came to know these people, to like and respect them, the more I could see the empathy and grief and sorrow they were expressing.’ – Megan Phelps-Roper

‘My life was forever changed by people who took the time and had the patience to learn my story and to share theirs with me. They forsook judgment and came to me with kindness and empathy and the impact of that decision was huge.’ – Megan Phelps-Roper

‘As a caregiver, I always thought I had empathy for Chris’s situation, and certainly one family member’s disability affects the whole family dynamic in myriad ways. But as I go through various tests and discomforts and uncertainty about the future that cancer can bring, I feel a strong, visceral connection to what Chris went through.’ – Dana Reeve

‘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.’ – Spencer Matthews

‘I do have a bit of empathy I suppose, but it has come more recently as I’m knocking on 30’s door and I think I’m getting there.’ – Spencer Matthews

‘Empathy is much bigger than sympathy. When the character is empathised with, that means you have succeeded as an actor. So even if it’s a villain, the audiences don’t hate you… they understand why you have turned into a villain.’ – Neeraj Kabi

‘My journey has mainly been driven by empathy towards people who I thought were suffering.’ – Sonam Wangchuk

‘I’ve had people hate me for my appearance. I think it gets me a certain level of empathy with the audience. If I was white and handsome and privileged, I probably couldn’t talk about what I talk about because people wouldn’t believe that I have empathy or I could be evenhanded and objective. It’s strange.’ – Ralphie May

‘I love the theatre and Miller is one of my all-time favourite playwrights. ‘All My Sons’ is a very socialist play, which exposes the lack of empathy that can accompany capitalism when it is left unchecked.’ – David Lammy

‘We don’t always talk about that as a leadership quality. I think what’s really important is having empathy, understanding the experiences of how someone is going to experience what you have to say.’ – Julie Sweet

‘If you can use songs as a tool, vehicle for empathy and a deeper understanding of how people are feeling and how people’s emotions work, there’s a lot of good that can come from that.’ – Finneas

‘Wisdom would dictate that a sense of proportion, empathy and balance should drive how the Workers’ Party approaches Singapore politics.’ – Pritam Singh

‘As long as our people, youth, businesses and individuals engage the issues of the day civilly in our democracy, and treat their fellow Singaporeans and foreigners within our midst with dignity and empathy, and endeavor for a more caring society, the best years of Singapore, a Singapore for all, are ahead of us.’ – Pritam Singh

‘The more extreme the story, the more successful it becomes. Emotions on high, empathy engaged, we become primed to help.’ – Maria Konnikova

‘I do not shy away from accepting that I had a troubled past, but in the journey of coming out of that dark phase, I understand humans better. I am less judgmental and more compassionate. I learned empathy and forgiveness, and that gives me confidence as a person.’ – Amit Sadh

‘When you are the head of any philanthropy organization, what you learn is empathy, how to listen and be responsive to people’s needs.’ – Jacky Rosen

‘I have to work hard to show people that I’m more than what they see physically; that I’m talented, and that I care and have empathy for people.’ – Liza Soberano

‘Trump’s lying, his self-regard, his self-soothing, his lack of empathy, his narcissistic rage, his contempt for norms, rules, laws, facts and simple truths – have all come home to roost.’ – George T. Conway III

‘The rage of someone who continues to strive so hard and work so hard but is interrupted every day by society, by racism, by white supremacy, by the patriarchy – how can you not feel empathy?’ – Wunmi Mosaku

‘In a crazy, high-pressure environment like a film set, eventually a peculiar kind of empathy develops for your co-workers.’ – Padmapriya Janakiraman

‘Dwyane is just sensational. Look, he has all the qualities of a champion, of a winner, of a Hall of Fame player and talent, but his humanity, empathy and his ability to articulate his feelings separates him from everybody else.’ – Erik Spoelstra

‘I think it’s gonna take a sincere empathy and compassion for people of all races, to really reflect and process on the true history of the black community in this country. The history has been filled with incredible oppression and we really have to acknowledge that, to start to change the lens of how we see true equality.’ – Erik Spoelstra

‘I found being a coach in ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ series hard because I had to care about others. I don’t feel a lot of empathy with others. Having kids is going to be a scary one for me – I guess I’m going to have to learn.’ – Forrest Griffin

‘Acting is probably the only profession where you are relying only on empathy.’ – Richa Chadha

‘I don’t know if cinema can change society, but if it can make us show some empathy, that’s a good start.’ – Shriya Saran

‘I think I identify as a comedian before kind of anything else. Before I identify as a person, as a human being with empathy.’ – Patti Harrison

‘We grow up with certain cultural references but we need empathy to understand other people.’ – Santhosh Narayanan

‘I like good food and I’ve always had a very natural empathy with women.’ – Mick Hucknall

‘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.’ – Tobias Harris

‘Here’s what I think is good about ‘Ted Lasso’ and what I’m proud of in it, as a writer: It’s about kindness and teamwork and empathy, and being curious and not judgmental, but it does all of that through storytelling and plot.’ – Brett Goldstein

‘I have genuine empathy for the fact that if you’re a professional footballer, you’ve often started at three years old, you’ve been found, you’ve been scouted, you play, you play, you play, you make millions, you live this incredible life. And then you reach 35, and suddenly you have to stop doing it, and you haven’t been taught anything else.’ – Brett Goldstein

‘Unfortunately, people not just in India but globally seem to be lacking empathy. Not just during the pandemic, but in other times too.’ – Abhinav Bindra

‘We need to see kindness and we need to see empathy and compassion. That’s something we need to see in leadership as well.’ – Phil Dunster

‘I learned a lot of empathy and openness from my parents. I know so many people who don’t have that experience.’ – Arlo Parks

‘For me, being a top coach means more than just teaching football. That includes empathy, it means that you can speak to a group, that you can deal with the media – you have to be able to do all of that. I would not describe myself as blind in this regard, but a top coach also includes titles.’ – Julian Nagelsmann

‘Empathy is an uncomfortable force in politics.’ – Dawn Foster

‘I think to really write songs, you need empathy. You have to put yourself in other people’s shoes.’ – Ryan Bingham

‘We have become a society that lacks empathy. Are we teaching empathy? The Internet desensitises, too.’ – Jo Frost

‘I want to see more families have more compassion, more empathy in understanding that not every family is sitting there intentionally saying, ‘I don’t care about everybody else.’ They’re just trying to do the best that they can.’ – Jo Frost

‘We often want the world to think we are strong and everything is perfect, when the reality is sometimes we are hurting and need a shoulder to cry on or just compassion or empathy.’ – Kenya Moore

‘I think my biggest role as a parent is teaching empathy.’ – Stephanie Land

‘Weight is an intensely personal, sensitive and often tricky issue for women and it is something women talk about a lot among themselves, usually with empathy and support.’ – Katty Kay

‘I think that music is a deeply personal thing for me that I can tell my stories and experiences through. Acting is a really great opportunity to practice empathy and experience other people’s perspectives and lives.’ – Miles Robbins

‘Reading faces is a crucial part of children’s socialization and helps them learn empathy.’ – Miranda Devine

‘In drama we are taught to view both sides equally. With empathy. That’s how you play ‘Richard the Third.’ By walking in his uneven shoes. Not by being divisive, judgmental and taking sides.’ – Maureen Lipman

‘I absolutely hate sympathy and, while I appreciate the empathy people feel for me, I want to be as normal as possible.’ – Rob Burrow

‘I think having a diversity of stories is important in also just spreading empathy and understanding. I think it’s a really big part of how we, for better or worse, interact with each other and people we don’t know.’ – Nia DaCosta

‘I have a background in social work and social care, so I’ve got that natural ability to have empathy with people and have a conversation where I can draw information out.’ – Judi Love

‘It’s essential for people to socialise with each other, to play games, to open up, to role-play. It brings empathy and that is vital for us to care about each other.’ – Paterson Joseph