Welcome to our collection of Empathy Quotes! Empathy is a powerful and essential human quality that allows us to understand and connect with others on a deeper level. It enables us to share in their emotions, experiences, and perspectives, fostering compassion, kindness, and a sense of unity in our diverse world. In this compilation, you will find a curated selection of thought-provoking quotes on empathy from various sources, including philosophers, writers, leaders, and everyday individuals. These quotes encapsulate the beauty and significance of empathy in our lives and relationships, serving as reminders of the profound impact it can have.
Whether you’re looking for inspiration, seeking to enhance your understanding of empathy, or simply hoping to share these meaningful quotes with others, you’re in the right place. Feel free to copy these quotes, place them on images, or enhance them with stylish fonts to create your own visual reminders of the importance of empathy in our world. Explore these insightful quotes below and let them inspire you to cultivate empathy in your daily life and interactions.
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
Writing fiction is an act of imaginative empathy. Andrew Sean Greer
I tend to side with people who are considered the underdog. I have empathy. Amanda de Cadenet
The opposite of anger is not calmness, its empathy. Mehmet Oz
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
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
I have such a crush on Tony Robbins and his passion, empathy, and sheer talent. Krysten Ritter
Humankind seems to have an enormous capacity for savagery, for brutality, for lack of empathy, for lack of compassion. Annie Lennox
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
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
Empathy and social skills are social intelligence, the interpersonal part of emotional intelligence. That’s why they look alike. Daniel Goleman
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
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
Empathy, humanity and support for each other is more important than revenue, than growth. Eric Yuan
I’ve been fascinated by the idea that evil is the absence of empathy. John Connolly
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
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
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
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
The great gift of human beings is that we have the power of empathy. Meryl Streep
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
True contentment comes with empathy. Tim Finn
An exchange of empathy provides an entry point for a lot of people to see what healing feels like. Tarana Burke
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Artificial intelligence is growing up fast, as are robots whose facial expressions can elicit empathy and make your mirror neurons quiver. Diane Ackerman
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
Human morality is unthinkable without empathy. Frans de Waal
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
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 struggle of my life created empathy – I could relate to pain, being abandoned, having people not love me. Oprah Winfrey
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 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
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
There’s a power in empathy. Tarana Burke
Empathy is about finding echoes of another person in yourself. Mohsin Hamid
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
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
A prerequisite to empathy is simply paying attention to the person in pain. Daniel Goleman
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
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
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
In order to have understanding, you need forgiveness, compassion, and empathy. Rooney Mara
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
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
Empathy is the starting point for creating a community and taking action. It’s the impetus for creating change. Max Carver
Empathy is not a betrayal of one’s cause. 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
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
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
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 you start to develop your powers of empathy and imagination, the whole world opens up to you. Susan Sarandon
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
Empathy is one of our greatest tools of business that is most underused. Daniel Lubetzky
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
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
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
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
One of the ultimate challenges for biology is to understand the brain’s processing of unconscious and conscious perception, emotion, and empathy. Eric Kandel
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
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
Empathy is a necessary step for truth and reconciliation. Simon Baron-Cohen
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
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
Traits like humility, courage, and empathy are easily overlooked – but it’s immensely important to find them in your closest relationships. Laura Linney
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
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
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
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
‘Me Too’ is about letting – using the power of empathy to stomp out shame. Tarana Burke
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
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
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
There is zero correlation between IQ and emotional empathy… They’re controlled by different parts of the brain. Daniel Goleman
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
Empathy is important, openness, honesty, and an understanding for others. Niko Kovac
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
I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it. Maya Angelou
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
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
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
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
My own feeling is we need more compassion, we need more empathy, we need more togetherness, in terms of working together. Cindy McCain
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
