Empathy

Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize?
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 

We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.
~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison

When we fully understand the brevity of life, its fleeting joys and unavoidable pains; when we accept the facts that all men and women are approaching an inevitable doom: the consciousness of it should make us more kindly and considerate of each other. This feeling should make men and women use their best efforts to help their fellow travelers on the road, to make the path brighter and easier as we journey on. It should bring a closer kinship, a better understanding, and a deeper sympathy for the wayfarers who must live a common life and die a common death.
~ Clarence Darrow, The Essential Words and Writings of Clarence Darrow

One reason we rush so quickly to the vulgar satisfactions of judgment, and love to revel in our righteous outrage, is that it spares us from the impotent pain of empathy, and the harder, messier work of understanding.
~ Tim Kreider, We Learn Nothing

Empathy, he once had decided, must be limited to herbivores or anyhow omnivores who could depart from a meat diet. Because, ultimately, the empathic gift blurred the boundaries between hunter and victim, between the successful and the defeated.
               ~~snip~~
Mankind needs more empathy.
~ Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Be me a little.
~ John Ajvide Lindqvist, Let the Right One In 

I hear tell, empathy and compassion are now on the endangered species list.