Robert A. BurtonCompassion, empathy, and humility can only arise out of recognizing that our common desires are differently expressed.
About This Quote
Compassion, empathy, and humility can only arise out of recognizing that our common desires are differently expressed. Compassion is defined as: the quality of showing pity and kindness to others. Empathy is defined as: the ability to understand or share the feelings or emotions of another person. Humility is defined as: a state of mind in which a person recognizes their own lowliness and weakness and is self-deprecating. This quote is more than just a definition for these three terms. It captures the essence of each of them.
These three characteristics are what makes us human and that's what makes us special. What makes one person willing to help another even when he has his own problems and needs help too is compassion. When we see him in pain and we know we can't help him we still try to help him because we care about him and we want to see him happy.
This trait of compassion is very rare in today's world where people only think about themselves before anyone else. You would never know such a thing exists if you only knew the world from the perspective of those who possess this trait. The world would be a much better place if more people possessed this trait.
Those who do not possess it will never see how precious this trait really is until they lose it. Empathy is also called "the ability to understand or share the feelings or emotions of another person." The fact that you have this ability shows that you are able to care for other people by sharing their emotions through your actions instead of just thinking about them when you are not present. While caring for others, you will be kind enough to show others the same compassion but in different ways because everyone has different needs in different situations. Humility means "a state of mind in which a person recognizes their own lowliness and weakness and is self-deprecating." To be humble means that you know what your strengths are but don't use them in order to get ahead or impress others. You are also aware how vulnerable you are when someone attacks you with words or actions because you are human after all, not an object to be used or destroyed by anyone else for any reason whatsoever.
This quote reminds us that no one should ever take advantage of us since it hurts our pride, our spirits, our egos, our very minds...which result in unhappiness...and sometimes lead us to take advantage ourselves...by hurting ourselves physically...which leads us back to unhappiness...which leads
Source: On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When Youre Not
Some Similar Quotes
- Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.
- I love mankind, he said, "but I find to my amazement that the more I love mankind as a whole, the less I love man in particular.
- To love another human in all of her splendor and imperfect perfection , it is a magnificent task...tremendous and foolish and human.
- People say I make strange choices, but they’re not strange for me. My sickness is that I’m fascinated by human behavior, by what’s underneath the surface, by the worlds inside people.
- Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.