You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it. —Harper Lee in To Kill a Mockingbird More about this quote Tags: understanding understand empathy opinion Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
We live together, we act on, and react to, one another; but always and in all circumstances we are by ourselves. The martyrs go hand in hand into the arena; they are crucified alone. Embraced, the lovers desperately try to fuse their insulated ecstasies into a single self-transcendence; in vain. By its very nature every embodied spirit is doomed to suffer and enjoy in solitude. Sensations, feelings, insights, fancies—all these are private and, except through symbols and at second hand, incommunicable. We can pool information about experiences, but never the experiences themselves. From family to nation, every human group is a society of island universes. —Aldous Huxley in The Doors of Perception More about this quote Tags: solitude alone Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
There is always something ridiculous about the emotions of people whom one has ceased to love. —Oscar Wilde in The Picture of Dorian Gray More about this quote Tags: love hate emotions apathy Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I'm a human being first and foremost, and as such I'm for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole. —Malcolm X More about this quote Tags: justice honesty truth Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Talent hits a target no one else can hit; genius hits a target no one else can see. —Arthur Schopenhauer More about this quote Tags: talent genius invisible Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
The infinite possibilities each day holds should stagger the mind. The sheer number of experiences I could have is uncountable, breathtaking, and I'm sitting here refreshing my inbox. We live in trapped loops, reliving a few days over and over, and we envision only a handful of paths laid out ahead of us. We see the same things each day, we respond the same way, we think the same thoughts, each day a slight variation of the last, every moment smoothly following the the gentle curves of societal norms. we act like if we just get through today, tomorrow our dreams will come back to us. And no, I don't have all the answers. I don't know how to jolly myself into seeing what each moment could become. But I do know one thing: the solution doesn't involve watering down my every little idea and creative impulse for the sake of some day easing my fit into a mold. It doesn't involve tempering my life to better fit someone's expectations. It doesn't involve constantly holding back for fear of shaking things up. This is very important, so I want to say it as clearly as I can: Fuck. That. Shit. —Randall Munroe More about this quote Tags: wonder fear power change boredom comfort possibilities loops societal norms Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Life moves on, whether we act as cowards or as heroes. Life has no other discipline to impose, if we would but realize it, than to accept life unquestioningly. Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate or despise, serves to defeat us in the end. What seems nasty, painful, evil, can become a source of beauty, joy and strength, if faced with an open mind. Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such. —Henry Miller in The World of Sex More about this quote Tags: empathy love non-judgement acceptance clear-seeing beauty open-mindedness Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
What I need is someone who will make me do what I can. —Ralph Waldo Emerson More about this quote Tags: doing inspiration capability Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. —Dwight D. Eisenhower More about this quote Tags: justice war hunger humanity Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Years ago I recognized my kinship with all living things, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on the Earth. I said then and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free. —Eugene Debs More about this quote Tags: politics empathy commonality privilege kinship Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
If you pay attention to the world, it’s an amazing place. If you don’t, it’s whatever you think it is. —Reggie Watts More about this quote Tags: attention wonder amazing delusion Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Every life, properly understood, is compelling. Anyone aspiring to be an artist knows there’s no such thing as why-bother or nothing-to-see. —David Shields More about this quote Tags: understanding empathy importance life Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Honesty without kindness, humor, and goodheartedness can be just mean. —Pema Chödrön in When Things Fall Apart More about this quote Tags: honesty kindness humor mean Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Ideals are a curse because they prevent you from thinking directly, simply and truly, when you are faced with facts. The ideal, the what should be, is an escape from what is. The what is is the fact that you are afraid—afraid of what your parents will say, of what people will think, afraid of society, afraid of disease, death; and if you face what is, look at it, go into it even though it brings you misery, and understand it, then you will find that your mind becomes extraordinarily simple, clear; and in that very clarity there is the cessation of fear. —Jiddu Krishnamurti in Think on These Things More about this quote Tags: fear simplicity society facts thinking misery ideal Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
The mind which is alert, watchful, which is free of fear, is an innocent mind; and it is only the innocent mind that can understand reality, truth or God. —Jiddu Krishnamurti in Think on These Things More about this quote Tags: truth understanding reality God mindfulness fear innocence Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email