Marshall B. Rosenberg Quotes About Empathy

Quotes about: Empathy

• Your presence is the most precious gift you can give to another human being.

  Marshall B. Rosenberg

  Inspirational, People, Giving

  Marshall B. Rosenberg (2004). “Teaching Children Compassionately: How Students and Teachers Can Succeed with Mutual Understanding”, p.31, PuddleDancer Press

• The objective of Nonviolent Communication is not to change people and their behavior in order to get our way: it is to establish relationships based on honesty and empathy, which will eventually fulfill everyone's needs.

  Marshall B. Rosenberg

  Honesty, Communication, Order

• Empathy is a respectful understanding of what others are experiencing. Instead of offering empathy, we often have a strong urge to give advice or reassurance and to explain our own position or feeling. Empathy, however, calls upon us to empty our mind and listen to others with our whole being.

  Marshall B. Rosenberg

  Respect, Strong, Offering

• Empathy lies in our ability to be present without opinion.

  Marshall B. Rosenberg

  Lying, Empathy, Opinion

• When you ride the wave, the thrill is so exhilarating that you forget everything else. You live in the moment where nothing else matters, so intent on riding the wave perfectly that you and the wave become one. Pain and worry disappear, replaced by euphoria, akin to flow. Similarly, when giving empathy, you want to strive for this kind of total presence for the person you are listening to.

  Marshall B. Rosenberg

  Pain, Forget Everything, Giving

• Empathy is a respectful understanding of what others are experiencing.

  Marshall B. Rosenberg

  Empathy, Understanding, Respectful

  "Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life". Book by Marshall B. Rosenberg, www.huffingtonpost.com. 1999.

• Intellectual understanding blocks empathy.

  Marshall B. Rosenberg

  Block, Empathy, Understanding

• Our ability to offer empathy can allow us to stay vulnerable, defuse potential violence, help us hear the word 'no' without taking it as a rejection, revive lifeless conversation, and even hear the feelings and needs expressed through silence.

  Marshall B. Rosenberg

  Silence, Rejection, Empathy

• In empathy, you don't speak at all. You speak with the eyes. You speak with your body. If you say any words at all, it's because you are not sure you are with the person. So you may say some words. But the words are not empathy. Empathy is when the other person feels the connection with what's alive in you.

  Marshall B. Rosenberg

  Eye, Empathy, Connections

• 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

  Empathy, Understanding, Listening

• To do this, you can bring in nothing from the past. So the more psychology you've studied, the harder it will be to empathize. The more you know the person, the harder it will be to empathize. Diagnoses and past experiences can instantly knock you off the board. This doesn't mean denying the past. Past experiences can stimulate what's alive in this moment. But are you present to what was alive then or what the person is feeling and needing in this moment?

  Marshall B. Rosenberg

  Mean, Past, Empathy

• Our goal is to create a quality of empathic connection that allows everyone's needs to be met.

  Marshall B. Rosenberg

  Goal, Empathy, Quality

  Marshall B. Rosenberg (2004). “Teaching Children Compassionately: How Students and Teachers Can Succeed with Mutual Understanding”, p.39, PuddleDancer Press

• If you think ahead to what to say next - like how to fix it or make the person feel better - BOOM! Off the board. You're into the future. Empathy requires staying with the energy that's here right now. Not using any technique. Just being present. When I have really connected to this energy, it's like I wasn't there. I call this "watching the magic show". In this presence, a very precious energy works through us that can heal anything, and this relieves me from my "fix-it" tendencies.

  Marshall B. Rosenberg

  Feel Better, Thinking, Empathy

• Empathy before education.

  Marshall B. Rosenberg

  Communication, Empathy, Nonviolent Communication

• I recommend allowing others the opportunity to fully express themselves before turning our attention to solutions or requests for relief. When we proceed too quickly to what people might be requesting, we may not convey our genuine interest in their feelings and needs; instead, they may get the impression that we're in a hurry to either be free of them or to fix their problem. Furthermore, an initial message is often like the tip of an iceberg; it may be followed by yet unexpressed, but related - and often more powerful - feelings.

  Marshall B. Rosenberg

  Powerful, Opportunity, People

• I wouldn't expect someone who's been injured to hear my side until they felt that I had fully understood the depth of their pain.

  Marshall B. Rosenberg

  Pain, Empathy, Listening

• Often, instead of offering empathy, we have a strong urge to give advice or reassurance and to explain our own position or feeling.

  Marshall B. Rosenberg

  Strong, Offering, Giving

• Have you ever been surfing? Imagine you're on your surfboard now, waiting for the big one to come. Get ready to get carried with that energy. Now, here it comes. That's empathy. No words - just being with that energy. When I connect with what's alive in another person, I have feelings similar to when I'm surfing.

  Marshall B. Rosenberg

  Empathy, Waiting, Feelings

• NVC enhances inner communication by helping us translate negative internal messages into feelings and needs. Our ability to distinguish our own feelings and needs and to empathize with them can free us from depression.

  Marshall B. Rosenberg

  Communication, Empathy, Feelings

• All that has been integrated into NVC has been known for centuries about consciousness, language, communication skills, and use of power that enable us to maintain a perspective of empathy for ourselves and others, even under trying conditions.

  Marshall B. Rosenberg

  Communication, Skills, Perspective

• The more we empathize with the other party, the safer we feel.

  Marshall B. Rosenberg

  Party, Empathy, Feels

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

  Marshall B. Rosenberg

  Empathy, Resources, Harder

• By maintaining our attention on what's going on within others, we offer them a chance to fully explore and express their interior selves. We would stem this flow if we were to shift attention too quickly either to their request or to our own desire to express ourselves.

  Marshall B. Rosenberg

  Self, Empathy, Desire

• We need empathy to give empathy.

  Marshall B. Rosenberg

  Giving, Empathy, Needs

• The number one rule of our training is empathy before education.

  Marshall B. Rosenberg

  Numbers, Empathy, Training

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