Best empathy & reading Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“When I got the script to this movie, The Good Girl, I read it in an hour. The writer, Mike White, has an ability to create characters that are so creepy and dysfunctional and human, with this duality that makes people feel empathy for them at the same time. My first thought was 'Was this sent to the right person?' I called my agent. 'Are they sure? Let's say yes before they realize they've sent it to the wrong person!'”

“Reading can almost be viewed as empathy training. Movies have better action scenes, sure. But books are uniquely suited to showing you the inside of another person's head. That is the root of empathy. That's the first step to understanding you're not alone in the world.”

World Firsts Persons Book Action Reading Understanding Steps Scene Empathy Training Roots First Steps Not Alone Understanding You

Author:Patrick Rothfuss

“Even worse than seeing women's privacy violated on social media is reading the accompanying comments that show such a lack of empathy.”

Shows Reading Social Seeing Media Empathy Social Media Privacy Comment Lack Of Empathy

Author:Emma Watson

“Literature has done great work for feminism - writing and reading are a practice of empathy - and great literature will continue to do so.”

Writing Done Reading Literature Practice Feminism Empathy Great Work Writing And Reading Great Literature

Author:Julianna Baggott

“Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman was one of those books I read in my mid-twenties that was life-changing. I think I had a very black-and-white view of Marie Antoinette before, but in reading that book, I developed a lot of empathy for her. She was just caught up in history. There was no place for a woman to do anything at that time anyway.”

Thinking Book Reading Empathy Caught Up

Author:Elizabeth Peyton

“One should learn from a book. Books have a lot to teach us. They have a lot of empathy to impart to us, but they should also be fun. This stuff is fun! You shouldn't pick up a book and say, "Oh my god, I'm gonna better myself by reading this." You may better yourself by reading this, but who cares? Just have fun.”

Book Care Reading Fun Teach Empathy Having Fun

Author:Gary Shteyngart

“Reading fiction not only develops our imagination and creativity, it gives us the skills to be alone. It gives us the ability to feel empathy for people we've never met, living lives we couldn't possibly experience for ourselves, because the book puts us inside the character's skin.”

People Giving Feels Book Character Reading Imagination Ability Fiction Creativity Mets Skills Empathy Skins Live Life Imagination And Creativity Reading Fiction

Author:Ann Patchett

“I think the act of reading imbues the reader with a sensitivity toward the outside world that people who don't read can sometimes lack. I know it seems like a contradiction in terms; after all reading is such a solitary, internalizing act that it appears to represent a disengagement from day-to-day life. But reading, and particularly the reading of fiction, encourages us to view the world in new and challenging ways...It allows us to inhabit the consciousness of another which is a precursor to empathy, and empathy is, for me, one of the marks of a decent human being.”

Source: The Book of Lost Things: A Novel

“Writing, or at least good writing, is an outgrowth of that urge to use language to communicate complex ideas and experiences between people. And that's true whether you're reading Shakespeare or bad vampire fiction-reading is always an act of empathy. It's always an imagining of what it's like to be someone else.”

People Writing Ideas Use Reading Language Fiction Empathy Complexes Communicate Vampire Urges Good Writing Reading Shakespeare

Author:John Green

“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.'”

Ifs World Should Writing Different Facts Would Be Reading Imagine Empathy Training Formal Arithmetic Formal Education Reading Writing

Author:Neil deGrasse Tyson

“Empathically accurate perceivers are those who are consistently good at 'reading' other people's thoughts and feelings. All else being equal, they are likely to be the most tactful advisors, the most diplomatic officials, the most effective negotiators, the most electable politicians, the most productive salespersons, the most successful teachers, and the most insightful therapists.”

“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.”

Thinking Feels Humans Feelings Reading Acting Novel Behavior Empathy Exciting Species Insight Human Behavior Reading Novels

Author:Claire Danes

“Poetry is for me Eucharistic. You take someone else's suffering into your body, their passion comes into your body, and in doing that you commune, you take communion, you make a community with others.”

Inspirational Book Body Poetry Suffering Passion Reading Community Compassion Empathy Your Body Poetry Is Sympathy Reading Books Communion Essayists Communes Eucharistic

Author:Mary Karr

“That's what reading was for my mother, and became for me - a way to escape, a private time machine, a place that began with moral instruction but soon morphed into empathy and imagination.”

Way Mother Reading Imagination Education Moral Learning Empathy Machines Instruction Time Machine

Author:Ramona Koval

“Writing fiction, like reading fiction, is a practice in empathy.”

Writing Reading Fiction Practice Empathy Writing Fiction Reading Fiction

Author:Jennifer Haigh

“A narcissist with power will attempt to prove in the world only what is already in his head. He can't 'see' otherwise. For him, the 'outside world' is not beyond him and does not question or challenge him and his ideas. He is the world. Others will assent to his distorted worldview, because he is powerful, not because he is believable. If he possesses any reflection, that will be exactly what will gnaw at the narcissist with power most of all: his 'truths' are inauthentic, and he is a human being without integrity. The very narcissism and power he possesses prevent him from an ongoing relationship with the truth, which begins with self-humility and the curiosity this can create in a person.”

Truth Culture Reading Honesty Morality Empathy Philosophy Of Life Truth Quotes Reading Books Sergio Troncoso Philsophy

Author:Sergio Troncoso

“A story is not an escape from the world—it is a return to it, through the wild path of empathy.”

Wisdom Humanity Reading Literature Understanding Fiction Compassion Empathy Storytelling Connection

Author:Lawrence Nault

“The version of me who read the book felt incredibly sad for the version of me who wrote it.”

Writing Book Reading Understanding Compassion Empathy Self Awareness Judgement

Book:Heaven and Hurricanes

Source: Heaven and Hurricanes

“Fiction is a blessing to those of us who suffer from mental illness; I'm sure many would agree. To be able to escape into the minds and hearts of other people, is such a uniquely thrilling experience, that everyone should indulge in this freedom as often as possible. It will not only expand your mind in what is possible, but your heart as well, growing empathy for those who live lives so different from your own.”

Mind Heart Reading Fiction Books Empathy Mental Health Mental Illness Read Fictional Worlds

Book:With a Reckless Abandon

Source: With a Reckless Abandon

“Do you know what it is?' [Toby] said thoughtfully. 'It's that they haven't had anything really awful happen to them. No wonder they seem so superficial and unfeeling.' It was certainly an interesting theory, ... [but] surely one didn't need to have suffered in order to possess empathy for those who had? All it required was a bit of imagination and a well-stocked library.”

Suffering Reading Books Empathy

Book:The FitzOsbornes in Exile

Source: The FitzOsbornes in Exile

“If you will read and listen, you will admit a multiplicity of voices and points of view, consider them with some humility, allow them gracious entrance however strident or discordant some of them may sound, then you will grow and change, and each of these voices will become a constituent part of who you become, an atom of growing being. It is literature and only literature than can do this.”

Self Reading Literature Empathy

Book:Darke

Source: Darke

“Reading is the act of listening and speaking at the same time, with someone you've never met, but love. Even if you hate them, it's a loving thing to do. You speak someone else's words to yourself, and hear them for the first time. What you're doing now is listening to me, in the parlor of your mind, but also speaking to yourself, thinking about the parts of me you like or the parts that aren't funny enough. You evaluate, like Mrs. Miller says. You think and wrestle with every word.”

Thinking Reading Books Empathy Hearing

Book:Everything Sad Is Untrue

Source: Everything Sad Is Untrue

“For me, stories are about communication. Writing, or at least good writing, is an outgrowth of that urge to use language to communicate complex ideas and experiences between people. Reading is always an act of empathy. It's always an imagining of what it's like to be someone else.”

Writing Stories Reading Literature Empathy Prose Experiences

Author:John Green

“No other thing possesses that mystical faculty to make people see with other people's eyes. The Library is a bridge of books between cultures.”

Culture Reading Books Empathy Library Connection Reading Books Libraries Understanding Others Bridge

Book:The Paris Library

Source: The Paris Library

Empathy Quotes

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Empathy Quotes