Empathy and compassion have the power to unite people and promote kindness and understanding.
Great thinkers, leaders, and philosophers throughout history have given us deep insights into the virtues of being compassionate human beings.
Empathy goes beyond sympathy.
Empathy is about seeing things through the other person’s eyes, walking in their shoes, and trying to feel what they feel.
Sharing an emotional experience with someone creates a strong bond that wraps around us and reinforces our need for each other.
As you’ll see from our list of quotes, practicing empathy and compassion brightens the world and gives us hope during tough times.
Importance of Practicing Empathy
All healthy relationships are built on empathy, which is essential in working through conflicts and misunderstandings.
We all look at the world through our own personal lens so learning to practice empathy enables us to view situations from another person’s viewpoint, which helps build deeper connections with others.
A single empathy quote can provide just the insight you need at this moment.
May these quotes awaken you to the profound importance of being empathetic in your daily interactions with others.
73 Powerful Empathy Quotes
Deep Powerful Empathy Quotes
1. “Empathy is the starting point for creating a community and taking action. It’s the impetus for creating change.” – Max Carver
2. “Empathy has no script. There is no right way or wrong way to do it. It’s simply listening, holding space, withholding judgment, emotionally connecting, and communicating that incredibly healing message of ‘You’re not alone.’” – Brene Brown
4. “Empathy is not simply a matter of trying to imagine what others are going through, but having the will to muster enough courage to do something about it.” – Cornel West
5. “The nature of humanity, its essence, is to feel another’s pain as one’s own, and to act to take that pain away. There is a nobility in compassion, a beauty in empathy, a grace in forgiveness.” — John Connolly
6. “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
7. “Empathy is a constant awareness of the fact that your concerns are not everyone’s concerns and that your needs are not everyone’s needs.” — Roman Krznaric
8. “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
9. “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.” — Dr. Vivek Murthy
10. “If you share in a heart-felt sorrow, you can lighten the load of a friend. Sometimes facing the burden together can mend two broken hearts in the end.” — Wes Fesler
11. “Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eye for an instant?” — Henry David Thoreau
13. “If you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.” – Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
14. “Looking at various means of developing compassion, I think empathy is an important factor: the ability to appreciate others’ suffering.” — Dalai Lama
15. “Empathy depends not only on one’s ability to identify someone else’s emotions but also on one’s capacity to put oneself in the other person’s place and to experience an appropriate emotional response.” – Charles G. Morris
16. “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
Empathy Quotes for Kids
17. “The great gift of human beings is that we have the power of empathy.” – Meryl Streep
18. “Empathy is not just a feeling, it is a skill that can be learned and practiced.” – Mary Gordon
19. “You should not judge; you should understand”. – Ernest Hemingway
20. “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” – Mother Teresa
21. “Never look down on anybody unless you’re helping him up.
– Jesse Jackson
22. “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” – Plato
23. “You can only understand people if you feel them in yourself.” – John Steinbeck
24. “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one…just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald
25. “One of the most important things you can do on this earth is to let people know they are not alone.” – Shannon L. Alder
26. “Empathy is a respectful understanding of what others are experiencing.” – Marshall B. Rosenberg
27. “The little things you do can be very significant to others.” – Wayne Gerard Trotman
28. “Sometimes it takes only one act of kindness and caring to change a person’s life.” – Jackie Chan
29. “If you see someone without a smile, give them one of yours.” — Dolly Parton
30. “We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.” — Epictetus
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Short Quotes about Empathy
31. “Empathy is a connection; it’s a ladder out of the shame hole.” – Brene Brown
32. “Empathy is how kind hearts breathe.” – Nitya Prakash
33. “Money is not the root of all evil. A lack of empathy is.” – Cole Todd
34. “There’s something in everyone only they know.” – Ben Harper
35. “It doesn’t hurt to show some empathy.” – John Cornyn
36. “Empathy is the gateway; compassion is the way.” – Scott Perry
37. “Empathy nurtures wisdom. Apathy cultivates ignorance.” – Suzy Kassem
38. “Empathy is about finding echoes of another person in yourself.” – Mohsin Hamid
39. “Each person you meet is an aspect of yourself, clamoring for love.” – Eric Micha’el Leventhal
40. “Empathy requires knowing that you know nothing.” – Leslie Jamison
41. “When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.” – Ernest Hemingway
42. “The opposite of anger is not calmness, its empathy.” – Mehmet Oz
43. “Men build too many walls and not enough bridges.” — Joseph Fort Newton
44. “I care. I care about it all. It takes too much energy not to care.” — Lorraine Hansberry
45. “Empathy is a choice, and it’s a vulnerable one.” — Brené Brown
Famous Quotes about Empathy
46. “I believe empathy is the most essential quality of civilization.” – Roger Ebert
47. “Empathy is the most radical of human emotions.” – Gloria Steinem
48. “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.” — Nelson Mandela
49. “If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from his angle as well as your own.” — Henry Ford
50. “This capacity for empathy leads to a genuine encounter — we have to progress toward this culture of encounter — in which heart speaks to heart.” — Pope Francis
52. “If you look into someone’s face long enough, eventually you’re going to feel that you’re looking at yourself.” — Paul Auster
53. “I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person.” — Walt Whitman
54. “Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize?” — Marcus Aurelius
55. “One doesn’t have to operate with great malice to do great harm. The absence of empathy and understanding are sufficient.” — Charles M. Blow
56. “The death of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism.” — Hannah Arendt
57. “Without suffering, there’d be no compassion.” — Nicholas Sparks
58. ““The more we diminish our own pain, or rank it compared to what others have survived, the less empathetic we are to everyone.” — Brené Brown
59. “If we can share our story with someone who responds with empathy and understanding, shame can’t survive.” — Brené Brown
60. “Stay connected to feel empathy, compassion, and understanding for yourself and others.” — Vanessa Tucker
61. “Compassion, empathy, and love are the real pillars we need to build within ourselves to become human.” — Loknath
62. “Love is that enviable state that knows no envy or vanity, only empathy and a longing to be greater than oneself.” — Anonymous
63. “The functions of intellect are insufficient without courage, love, friendship, compassion, and empathy.” — Dean Koontz
65. “Leadership is about empathy. It is about having the ability to relate to and connect with people for the purpose of inspiring and empowering their lives.” — Oprah Winfrey
65. “Courage gives us a voice and compassion gives us an ear. Without both, there is no opportunity for empathy and connection.” — Brené Brown
66. “Empathy, evidently, existed only within the human community, whereas intelligence to some degree could be found throughout every phylum and order including the arachnida.” — Philip K. Dick
67. “When your own life is threatened, your sense of empathy is blunted by a terrible, selfish hunger for survival.” — Yann Martel
68. “Learning to stand in somebody else’s shoes, to see through their eyes, that’s how peace begins. And it’s up to you to make that happen. Empathy is a quality of character that can change the world.” ―Barak Obama
69. “No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.” ― Theodore Roosevelt
70. The opposite of anger is not calmness. It’s empathy.” – Mehmet Oz
71. “The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others.” – Albert Schweitzer
72. “When I get ready to talk to people, I spend two thirds of the time thinking what they want to hear and one third thinking about what I want to say.” – Abraham Lincoln
73. “Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eye for an instant?” – Henry David Thoreau
Final thoughts
In a world where understanding and connection are more important than ever, these quotes about empathy and compassion serve as a reminder of the power and beauty of this good character trait.
By practicing empathy and compassion with each other, we can make the world a brighter and kinder place for all.
