Top 200 Empathy Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “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.”

— Barack Obama

Also featured in: Changing the World Quotes, Perspective Quotes, Peace Quotes, Compassion Quotes

2. “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

3. “Empathy is a respectful understanding of what others are experiencing. Instead of offering empathy, we often have a strong urge to give advice or reassurance and to explain our own position or feeling. Empathy, however, calls upon us to empty our mind and listen to others with our whole being.”

— Marshall B. Rosenberg

Also featured in: Psychology Quotes, Wellness Wednesday Quotes, Communication Quotes

4. “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

Also featured in: Care Quotes, Meaningful Quotes, Positive Motivational Quotes

5. “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

Also featured in: Meaningful Quotes, Fiction Quotes, Perspective Quotes, Quotes About Humanity

6. “My religion is kindness.”

— Dalai Lama XIV

Also featured in: Be Kind Quotes, Feel Good Quotes, Values Quotes

7. “My pain may be the reason for somebody’s laugh. But my laugh must never be the reason for somebody’s pain.”

— Charlie Chaplin

Also featured in: Relationship Quotes, Emotional Quotes, Intelligent Quotes, Quotes About Humanity

8. “If you put shame in a petri dish, it needs three ingredients to grow exponentially: secrecy, silence, and judgment. If you put the same amount of shame in the petri dish and douse it with empathy, it can’t survive.”

— Brené Brown

Also featured in: Psychology Quotes, Emotion Quotes, Mental Health Quotes

9. “When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over. He does not need punishment; he needs help. That’s the message he is sending.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

Also featured in: Emotion Quotes, Spiritual Growth Quotes, Kindness Quotes, Buddhist Quotes

10. “Never be so busy as not to think of others.”

— Mother Teresa

Also featured in: Care Quotes, Be Kind Quotes, Helping Others Quotes

11. “We think we listen, but very rarely do we listen with real understanding, true empathy. Yet listening, of this very special kind, is one of the most potent forces for change that I know.”

— Carl R. Rogers

Also featured in: Psychology Quotes, Mental Health Quotes, Humanism Quotes, Compassion Quotes

12. “We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It’s easy to say “It’s not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.” Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes.”

— Fred Rogers

Also featured in: Inspirational Quotes, Care Quotes, Make A Difference Quotes, Helping Others Quotes

13. “If we can share our story with someone who responds with empathy and understanding, shame can’t survive.”

— Brené Brown

Also featured in: Psychology Quotes, Mental Health Quotes, Compassion Quotes

14. “There are three ways to ultimate success: The first way is to be kind. The second way is to be kind. The third way is to be kind.”

— Fred Rogers

Also featured in: Care Quotes, Be Kind Quotes, Values Quotes, Friendship Quotes

15. “Real love means loving kindness and compassion, the kind of love that does not have any conditions.”

— Nhat Hanh

Also featured in: Love Quotes, Spiritual Growth Quotes, Wellness Quotes, Real Quotes

16. “The objective of Nonviolent Communication is not to change people and their behavior in order to get our way: it is to establish relationships based on honesty and empathy, which will eventually fulfill everyone’s needs.”

— Marshall B. Rosenberg

Also featured in: Compassion Quotes, New Relationship Quotes

17. “Every criticism, judgment, diagnosis, and expression of anger is the tragic expression of an unmet need.”

— Marshall B. Rosenberg

Also featured in: Mental Health Quotes

18. “I am determined to practice deep listening. I am determined to practice loving speech.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

Also featured in: Peace of Mind Quotes, Mindfulness Quotes, Harmony Quotes, Compassion Quotes

19. “A truly compassionate attitude toward others does not change even if they behave negatively or hurt you.”

— Dalai Lama XIV

Also featured in: Spiritual Growth Quotes, Humanism Quotes, Kindness Quotes

20. “Empathy is the capacity to think and feel oneself into the inner life of another person.”

— Heinz Kohut

21. “I must be willing to give whatever it takes to do good to others. This requires that I be willing to give until it hurts. Otherwise, there is no true love in me, and I bring injustice, not peace, to those around me.”

— Mother Teresa

Also featured in: Care Quotes, Service Quotes, Morality Quotes

22. “Empathy and social skills are social intelligence, the interpersonal part of emotional intelligence. That’s why they look alike.”

— Daniel Goleman

Also featured in: Psychology Quotes, Intelligence Quotes

23. “The essence of all religions is love, compassion and tolerance. Kindness is my true religion. No matter whether you are learned or not, whether you believe in the next life or not, whether you believe in God or Buddha or some other religion or not, in day-to-day life you must be a kind person.”

— Dalai Lama XIV

Also featured in: Care Quotes, Be Kind Quotes, Acceptance Quotes

24. “You are helpful, and you are loved, and you are forgiven, and you are not alone.”

— John Green

Also featured in: Acceptance Quotes, Recovery Quotes, You Are Loved Quotes, Forgiveness Quotes

25. “Shame cannot survive being spoken. It cannot survive empathy.”

— Brené Brown

Also featured in: Psychology Quotes, Recovery Quotes, Wellness Wednesday Quotes

26. “Leadership is not about being in charge. Leadership is about taking care of those in your charge.”

— Simon Sinek

Also featured in: Leadership Quotes, Inspirational Quotes for Work, Positive Work Quotes

27. “Deep listening is the kind of listening that can help relieve the suffering of another person. You can call it compassionate listening. You listen with only one purpose: to help him or her to empty his heart.”

— Nhat Hanh

Also featured in: Care Quotes, Mindfulness Quotes, Helping Others Quotes, Peace Quotes

28. “We need more light about each other. Light creates understanding, understanding creates love, love creates patience, and patience creates unity.”

— Malcolm X

Also featured in: Sunday Inspirational Quotes, Harmony Quotes, Quotes About People, Diversity Quotes

29. “Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.”

— Bertrand Russell

Also featured in: Strong Quotes, Deep Quotes About Life, Philosophical Quotes, Quotes About Humanity

30. “Rapport is the ability to enter someone else’s world, to make him feel that you understand him, that you have a strong common bond.”

— Tony Robbins

Also featured in: Relationship Quotes, Strong Quotes, Quotes About People

31. “Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.”

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

Also featured in: Short Quotes About Life, Perspective Quotes, Kindness Quotes, Quotes About People

32. “When you are listening to somebody, completely, attentively, then you are listening not only to the words, but also to the feeling of what is being conveyed, to the whole of it, not part of it.”

— Jiddu Krishnamurti

Also featured in: Deep Quotes, Truth Quotes, Quotes About Feelings

33. “The only time you look in your neighbor’s bowl is to make sure that they have enough. You don’t look in your neighbor’s bowl to see if you have as much as them.”

— Louis C.K.

Also featured in: Human Nature Quotes, Kindness Quotes, Generosity Quotes, Selfishness Quotes

34. “There is no greater disability in society, than the inability to see a person as more.”

— Robert M. Hensel

Also featured in: Identity Quotes, Quotes About Humanity, Quotes About People, Respect Quotes

35. “Compassion is not a virtue – it is a commitment. It’s not something we have or don’t have – it’s something we choose to practice.”

— Brené Brown

Also featured in: Values Quotes, Mental Health Quotes, Commitment Quotes

36. “People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

Also featured in: Harmony Quotes, Quotes About Humanity, Quotes About People

37. “More than machinery, we need humanity.”

— Charlie Chaplin

Also featured in: Human Nature Quotes, Quotes About Humanity, Caring Quotes, Artist Quotes

38. “When you start to develop your powers of empathy and imagination, the whole world opens up to you.”

— Susan Sarandon

Also featured in: Kindness Quotes, Imagination Quotes

39. “The nobler sort of man emphasizes the good qualities in others, and does not accentuate the bad. The inferior does.”

— Confucius

Also featured in: Be Kind Quotes, Personality Quotes, Human Nature Quotes

40. “To listen is to lean in, softly, with a willingness to be changed by what we hear.”

— Mark Nepo

Also featured in: Transformation Quotes, Wellness Wednesday Quotes

41. “I call him religious who understands the suffering of others.”

— Mahatma Gandhi

Also featured in: Peace Quotes, Caring Quotes, Suffering Quotes

42. “There are many causes I would die for. There is not a single cause I would kill for.”

— Mahatma Gandhi

Also featured in: Integrity Quotes, Humanism Quotes, Smart Quotes

43. “When you're struggling with something, look at all the people around you and realize that every single person you see is struggling with something, and to them, it's just as hard as what you're going through.”

— Nicholas Sparks

Also featured in: Life is Hard Quotes, Suffering Quotes, Sympathy Quotes

44. “And if those children are unresponsive, maybe you can’t teach them yet, but you can love them. And if you love them today, maybe you can teach them tomorrow.”

— Jeffrey R. Holland

Also featured in: Care Quotes, Love You Quotes, Teacher Quotes, Quotes About Children

45. “Imagine others complexly.”

— John Green

46. “The reality of the other person is not in what he reveals to you, but in what he cannot reveal to you. Therefore, if you would understand him, listen not to what he says but rather to what he does not say.”

— Khalil Gibran

Also featured in: Human Nature Quotes, Quotes About Reality, Quotes About Listening

47. “A friend is one to whom one may pour out the contents of one’s heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that gentle hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.”

— George Eliot

Also featured in: Care Quotes, Friendship Quotes, True Friendship Quotes

48. “Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Also featured in: Care Quotes, Be Kind Quotes, Harmony Quotes, Love Is Quotes

49. “We are each of us angels with only one wing, and we can only fly by embracing one another.”

— Luciano De Crescenzo

Also featured in: Cute Quotes, Harmony Quotes, Moving Quotes, Romantic Quotes

50. “In a world where you can be anything, choose to be kind.”

— Nitya Prakash

Also featured in: Be Kind Quotes, Cute Quotes, Kindness Quotes, Virtue Quotes