Sometimes life feels overwhelming, especially as an empath. So I’ve compiled a massive list of inspiring quotes for empaths and also quotes about empathy. As you probably know, having empathy does not necessarily make you an empath. Empaths take empathy beyond feeling compassionate toward someone.
As empaths, we feel and experience what another person may be going through. And this is why we often feel overwhelmed, emotional, and drained. It’s my hope that these quotes and resources will help.
How to get the most out of these quotes
The quotes about being an empath are a gentle reminder that we’re sensitive, often misunderstood, but nothing is wrong with us. We are gifted and can manage our feelings and life so that everything doesn’t feel so overwhelming.
Empathy quotes also remind us that compassion and understanding are good traits that can change the world.
Sometimes we need these subtle reminders to stand in our power and embrace our whole selves.
I encourage you to write down quotes that resonate deeply with you. Keep them in your journal. Tuck them into your favorite notebook. Or stick them on a piece of paper and tape it to your mirror if you choose. Whatever you do, allow these quotes to enter your life.
It’s easy to bounce around the internet reading quotes and articles. I know this. I’m guilty of doing it, too. So, I’ve created journal prompts inspired by the quotes.
Here are your quotes
Inspiring quotes for empaths about self-care
This post contains some affiliate links below for your convenience (that means if you make a purchase after clicking a link, I’ll earn a small commission, but it won’t cost you a penny more).
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“Being an empath is a huge asset when you learn to manage it.” –Judith Ofloff,
“Create boundaries. Honor your limits. Say no. Take a break. Let go. Stay grounded. Nurture your body. Love your vulnerability. And if all else fails, breathe deeply.”
― Aletheia Luna,
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“Some people are far more cognizant than others but sensitivity has its own cross to bear and ample insight, in many cases, can bring on disquietude.”
― Donna Lynn Hope
Quotes about how other people perceive empaths:
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“Why is sensitivity perceived as being dangerous? When we’re sensitive, we feel things we were taught not to feel. When we’re sensitive, we are completely open to attack. When we’re sensitive, we are awake and in touch with our hearts – and this can be very threatening to the status quo indeed.”
―Aletheia Luna,
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“Empaths have often been labeled as ‘overly sensitive’ and told to ‘get a thicker skin.’ As children and adults, we are shamed for our sensitivities rather than supported….But at this point in my life, I wouldn’t give up being an empath for anything. It lets me sense the secrets of the universe and know passion beyond my wildest dreams.” –Judith Orloff,
“As empaths, we are not here to be sponges or enablers. We are here to be helpers, guides, and supporters.”
― Aletheia Luna,
Intuition quotes for empaths:
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“The Empath is often said to have such a great degree of empathy that they can literally feel what others feel, and thus intuitively know many of the yearnings, sensitivities, tastes and even thought patterns of the people they’re around.”
― Aletheia Luna,
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“Intuition is a wonderful gift but it can be both a blessing and a curse. If you can easily tune in to the grief of another, it is very easy to lose your way if you have not yet resolved your own present or past trauma and grief. If you have not healed from your own grief and you turn around and give all you have to give, you will find yourself drowning. Soon there will be nothing left of you.”
― Kate McGahan,
Empath quotes about healing others
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“The sad thing that many of us empaths don’t realize is that often our desire to heal others is a disguised cry for help for our own healing. Because many of us weren’t taught how to value or nurture ourselves at a young age, we tend to unconsciously seek out our own healing in the healing of others.”
― Mateo Sol,
“We empaths have many marvelous traits. We have huge hearts and the instinct to help others in need or who are less fortunate.”Judith Orloff, MD, he Empath’s Survival Guide; Life Strategies for Sensitive People
Empath quotes on the intensity of our feelings:
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“Empaths feel more deeply, more intensely, and more persistently than those around us. We even feel what other people are afraid to feel within themselves.”
― Mateo Sol,
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“Empaths are not overly sensitive. They have a gift but must learn to manage their sensitivities.” Judith Orloff,
Quotes on Empathy
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“The highest form of knowledge is empathy.” –Bill Bullard
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“Empathy is the medicine the world needs.” –The Empath’s Survival Guide
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“Learning to give empathy to myself and others as often as I can each day has rendered astounding benefits….Empathy leads to compassion and compassion to forgiveness and connection. “
Judith Hanson Lasater,
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“Emotional empathy is what motivates us to help others. “-Brian Goldman,
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“Remember that the greatest thing about being empathetic is that when someone accomplishes something awesome, you will feel just as awesome as if you accomplished it yourself.”- Michael Unks,
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“Empathy is an important and valuable skill to have in many aspects in life. Not only does it contribute to strong bonds and general trust, but it allows us to gain insight of the emotions and thoughts of other people. In a sense, it offers you a chance to experience life the way someone else does.” Tuan Luu, Coaching Books
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“We can influence a person and actually change a person’s thinking by the words we use. We can show kindness and empathy by the phrases we use and the actions we take.” Catherine Pulsifer
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“There’s nothing that inspires that deep sense of belonging like shared empathy!” –Brene Brown, Daring Greatly; How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, Lead
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“A human being is a part of a whole, called by us ‘universe’, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest…a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a person nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” – Albert Einstein
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“Empathy is simply listening, holding space, withholding judgment, emotionally connecting, and communicating that incredibly healing message of you’re not alone.” – Brene Brown
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“Empathy means both understanding others on their own terms and bringing them within the orbit of one’s own experience.” – Jacob A. Belzen
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“Empathy is really the opposite of spiritual meanness. It’s the capacity to understand that every war is both won and lost. And that someone else’s pain is as meaningful as your own.” – Barbara Kingsolver
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“When you show deep empathy toward others, their defensive energy goes down, and positive energy replaces it. That’s when you can get more creative in solving problems.” – Stephen Covey
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“Empathy is connection; it’s a ladder out of the shame hole” – Brené Brown
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“The great gift of human beings is that we have the power of empathy.” – Meryl Streep
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“Empathy is a respectful understanding of what others are experiencing.” – Marshall B. Rosenberg
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“If it is not tempered by compassion, and empathy, reason can lead men and women into a moral void.” – Karen Armstrong
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“Empathy represents the foundation skill for all the social competencies important for work.” – Daniel Goleman
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The nature of humanity, its essence, is to feel another’s pain as one’s own, and to act to take that pain away. There is a nobility in compassion, a beauty in empathy, a grace in forgiveness.” – John Connolly
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“Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eyes for an instant?”-Henry David Thoreau
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“The Chinese philosopher Chuang-Tzu stated that true empathy requires listening with the whole being: The hearing that is only in the ears is one thing. The hearing of the understanding is another. But the hearing of the spirit is not limited to any one faculty, to the ear, or to the mind. Hence it demands the emptiness of all the faculties. And when the faculties are empty, then the whole being listens. There is then a direct grasp of what is right there before you that can never be heard with the ear or understood with the mind.” -Marshall B. Rosenberg
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“I have a very strong feeling that the opposite of love is not hate – it’s apathy. It’s not giving a damn.” -Leo Buscaglia
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“Empathy isn’t just listening, it’s asking the questions whose answers need to be listened to. Empathy requires inquiry as much as imagination. Empathy requires knowing you know nothing. Empathy means acknowledging a horizon of context that extends perpetually beyond what you can see.” -Leslie Jamison
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“The way of being with another person which is termed empathic…means temporarily living in their life, moving abut in it delicately without making judgment… to be with another in this way means that for the time being you lay aside the views and values you hold for yourself in order to enter the other’s world without prejudice…a complex, demanding, strong yet subtle and gentle way of being.” -Carl Rogers
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“I believe empathy is the most essential quality of civilization.” -Roger Ebert
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“We all are born with a certain package. We are who we are: where we were born, who we were born as, how we were raised. We’re kind of stuck inside that person, and the purpose of civilization and growth is to be able to reach out and empathize a little bit with other people. And for me, the movies are like a machine that generates empathy. It lets you understand a little bit more about different hopes, aspirations, dreams and fears. It helps us to identify with the people who are sharing this journey with us. “-Roger Ebert
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“Suffering and joy teach us, if we allow them, how to make the leap of empathy, which transports us into the soul and heart of another person. ” -William Fritz
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“There is no reconciliation until you recognize the dignity of the other, until you see their view- you have to enter into the pain of the people. You’ve got to feel their need. “-John M. Perkins
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“Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.” -Albert Einstein
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“Empathy takes time, and efficiency is for things, not people. ” -Stephen Covey
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“To embrace suffering culminates in greater empathy, the capacity to feel what it is like for the other to suffer, which is the ground for unsentimental compassion and love.” -Stephen Batchelor
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“If your emotional abilities aren’t in hand, if you don’t have self-awareness, if you are not able to manage your distressing emotions, if you can’t have empathy and have effective relationships, then no matter how smart you are, you are not going to get very far.” -Daniel Goleman
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“What I learned is, we have to listen to each other, even when we don’t agree, even when we think we hate each other. We have to listen to each other’s narratives. Not interrupt defensively, or with hostility, but really try to open our hearts and listen with empathy. I learned so much from that meeting. It was a very difficult thing to do and it was one of the best things that I ever did in my life. Look what scares you in the face, and try to understand it. Empathy, I have learned, is revolutionary.”-Jane Fonda
