Path Quotes - Page 55

I ... had what Kierkegaard called 'the sickness of infinitude,' wandering from one path to another with no real recognition that I was embarked upon a search, and scarcely a clue as to what I might be after. I only knew that at the bottom of each breath there was a hollow place that needed to be filled.

The balance is the penalty of being human: the danger of allowing yourself to feel. For this we walk a narrow path high above rocky ground. On one side we have the descent into animalism, on the other a godhead delusion. Both pulling at us, both tempting. But without these forces tugging at your psyche, stirring it into conflict, you can never love. They awaken us, you see, these warring sides, they arouse our passion.

As we learn to have compassion for ourselves, the circle of compassion for others - what and whom we can work with, and how - becomes wider.

The spiritual path can only be traveled through the daily experience of love.

Too often, we decide to follow a path that is not really our own, one that others have set for us. We forget that...in both cases we will pass through both difficult and happy moments. But when we are living our dream, the difficulties we encounter make sense.

He who does not take insults seriously, is on the path to wisdom.

The intrinsic path to success is to focus on being the person that you are, and put all of your energy and drive into being the best possible version of yourself.

You can have compassion for someone who is suffering and try to help this person but if your relationship with mankind is only one of compassion, it is only another form of contempt and it prevents feelings like admiration, empathy which to my mind are much more positive.

When you have more respect for yourself and put yourself in a position where you feel your sense of value or worth, that's how you know you're on the right path.

There's really only one true path to recovery that's using the 12 step program and finding a belief in something greater than yourself (spirituality).

You can't learn pathos or profundity.

I feel like any other Brazilian citizen, I have a lot of happiness in me. I thank God for showing me the path to follow.

Everytime you fall down or take the wrong path, it isn't wasted. You will surely develop and grow over time.

No place could be less sympathetic to my politics than America.

The whole path of American music has been so much about the recognition of stylistic diversity, and the recognition of the importance of music which was from one of the vernacular traditions.

We must, from here on in, all go down the same path... There may not be another chance.

Steven Pinker says, the invention of printing and the widespread appearance of fiction - this taught empathy. If you read a novel, you're in someone else's head, in three, five different people's heads. Suddenly, the principle of "Don't do anything to anyone that you wouldn't want done to you" becomes real in people's minds. That's a fantastic achievement if fiction is indeed partly responsible for it. That's a great thing to be a part of. In the end, then, I don't know if writers have legislated, but they have civilized.

Sociopaths are just like everybody else in that some of them are really brilliant, some of them are really stupid, and most of them are somewhere in between.

Empathy gives you the ability to enjoy another person's pain.

Intellectual understanding blocks empathy.

It's harder to empathize with those who appear to possess more power, status, or resources.

Empathy before education.

The universe conspires to reveal the truth and to make your path easy if you have the courage to follow the signs.

One of the greatest of all mental pleasures is to have our thoughts often divined: ever entered into with sympathy.

When you are sick of your sickness you will cease to be sick.