I always feel uncomfortable when people speak about ordinary mortals because I've never met an ordinary man, woman or child.

If you honestly feel you have done something so terrible that you cannot be forgiven, then I am willing to share your sins with you. When we die, if we should have to stand before God and be judged,...

She was not sure that her deafness had strengthened her character. She was not even sure she had met a challenge. A silent world was as natural to her as a noisy one must be to them, she reflected....

I have no idea how I managed to pass as normal in school, except that other people are generally caught up in their own lives and seldom notice despair in others if those despairing make an effort to...

Some part of me instinctively reached out, and in an odd way understood this pain, never imagining that I would someday look in the mirror and see their sadness and insanity in my own eyes.

I guess he had listened to more beefs and more problems from more people than any of us. A guy that'll really listen to you, listen and care about what you're saying, is something rare.

What are others worth that they have the nerve to sneer at any human being?

I tried to find something I already knew about life that might help me reach out and touch my brother and get him to look at me and himself.

You're not a monster. You're a mirror.

Reading was like visiting distant friends.

What do the people closest to you value? Make a list of the most important people in your life - from home, work, church, hobbies, and so on. After making the list, write what each person values most....

You can't tell me that I don't know you. I see you. I see you better than you see yourself. And everything about you is beautiful.

"You," she said, "are the ugliest man I ever saw." Sadly, the man answered, "Perhaps so, but I can't help that." "No," the woman allowed, "but you might stay at home."

Jimmy looked back over at his wife, and Celeste could feel the tenderest of aches in the look. She could feel another teardrop piece of Jimmy's heart detach and free - fall down the inside of his...

What might have happened to them to make them the way they were? It did not change what they now did, but it changed, profoundly, how he perceived their motivations, their place in the world.

The biology of empathy allows us to comprehend our connection to each other, to other living things, and to the physical world that supports life.

I don't like to bust drunk drivers. I don't like to listen to their explanations, watch their pitiful attempts to affect sobriety, or see the sheen of fear break out in their eyes when they realize...

...always felt the pain of her friends so keenly that she could not speak easy, fluent words of comforting. Besides, she remembered how well-meant speeches had hurt her in her own sorrow and was...

They were very much the same, each attempting to force his picture of reality upon me and neither giving a hoot in hell for how things looked to me.

It's amazing that the heart makes no noise when it cracks.

But nevertheless, the fact remained, it was almost impossible to dislike anyone if one looked at them.

You turned your head to look at me. Your eyes looked so big in your face, so mysterious - wide and flickering like a butterfly - wing mask. When you saw me the wails turned to sobs, and then just...

"Why, you mean you didn't get abducted and dragged across country purely to make us a story for us to chew over endlessly?" asked Pip, tossing his shock of tow-colored hair indignantly. "The nerve!"

I went to Cambodia to be humbled by the pain of others, and I was humbled down to the ground.

"I saw that you can't do anything for anybody. We can't save each other. Or ourselves." "What have you left, then? Isolation and despair! You're denying brotherhood, Shevek!" the tall girl cried....

Do you know why most survivors of the Holocaust are vegan? It's because they know what it's like to be treated like an animal.

Oh, Newt. You never met a monster you couldn't love.

I cannot help thinking that there is something to admire in every one, even if you do not approve of them.

Compassion quickly arises from noble hearts that feel the sharp stings suffered by others as if in their own flesh.

We become neighbors when we are willing to cross the road for one another. There is a lot of road crossing to do. We are all very busy in our own circles. We have our own people to go to and our own...