“If the only people we are able to extend empathy to are those who are ...” — Clint Smith Quote

If the only people we are able to extend empathy to are those who are like us, who come from the same country we do, or who share our faith, then we misunderstand what empathy is.

Those who support the death penalty are accepting a practice that is both ineffective and fundamentally flawed.

Sometimes a poem should just be about a girl jumping rope. It doesn't have to be something that is imbued with more despair.

I'm not sure that there are days of my life when I'm not confronted with racism. For some, that may seem hyperbolic, but it's true.

If our principles are only our principles when it is convenient for us, when they align with our visceral emotional responses, then they are, in fact, not principles at all.

Empathy goes a long way, for sure. We cannot have healthy, loving, mutually respectful relationships without it. But we're not psychic. At least I'm not. And intuition can only take you so far, especially when a person's sense of safety, comfort, and self-worth hangs in the balance.

Empathy is a virtue, but it should not be a guiding judicial principle.

When you are the head of any philanthropy organization, what you learn is empathy, how to listen and be responsive to people's needs.

I've learned not to be such a show-off and to have a bit more empathy with humanity. Or at least to fake that.

The literary world is filled with good and generous people. But then that's what writing is all about - empathy.