Barack Obama Quotes

Maybe the biggest problem is that there's no empathy. Nobody puts themselves in the place of others. Everyone thinks they are the only one to suffer. Or that they're the only ones who like ice cream or take their kids on vacation.

When people are really suffering, and we know they're suffering, that question can be a very difficult one. Inadvertently, I think without anyone meaning it, it communicates a lack of empathy.

We can't love our neighbors till we know how crooked their hearts are.

Empathy may be the single most important quality that must be nurtured to give peace a fighting chance.

I am truly passionate and concerned about the lack of empathy that people show towards one another.

Changing your attitude from self-centerdness to understanding requires desire and commitment to always try to see things from the other persons point of view.

People just tell me I'm supposed to be sensitive, and I'm not. But I think I'm very emotional. I'm very caring.

I believe sharing stories and experiences is the best way to teach people to empathize!

To listen with empathy is the most important human skill.

I would like to think that as a result of not just my own experiences, but at least being empathetic and compassionate about other people's experiences and plights and tragedies, that I am affected by it and learn from it.

We think empathy is innate, but it's not. It's a muscle you're working.

Simple inattention kills empathy, let alone compassion. So the first step in compassion is to notice the other's need. It all begins with the simple act of attention.

Empathy is what separates human beings from teenage boys.

All wars derive from lack of empathy: the incapacity of one to understand and accept the likeness or difference of another. Whether in nations or the encounters of race and sex, competition then replaces compassion, subjection excludes mutuality.

I think sometimes the very reason we go through something is so that we can be empathetic with another person later on.

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.

I hate the very human inclination towards insensitivity

You are still young, so you think only of your own self. You do not notice the tribulations that occur all around you, to other people. Do not protest; it is true. I am not condemning you. I was as selfish as you, when I was your age. It is the custom of the young to be selfish... But someday you will understand that nobody passes through this world without suffering-no matter what you think of them and their supposed good fortune.

Why do people always think hurting others is all right, as long as they hurt themselves as well?

I'm sensitive to the things I see.

We lack social awareness because we're so focused on what we're going to say next - and how what other people are saying affects us - that we completely lose sight of other people. This is a problem because people are complicated. You can't hope to understand someone until you focus all of your attention in his or her direction.

We're a whole culture of people who have a really hard time seeing beyond themselves.

The beauty of social awareness is that a few simple adjustments to what you say can vastly improve your relationships with other people.

You have to remind people of their own struggles. It's a responsibility.

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.