Is there anything more dangerous than sympathetic understanding?

Sympathy with joy intensifies the sum of sympathy in the world, sympathy with pain does not really diminish the amount of pain.

No man needs sympathy because he has to work. Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.

Sympathy is the first condition of criticism.

Sympathetic people often don't communicate well, they back reflected images which hide their own depths.

The capacity to give one's attention to a sufferer is a very rare and difficult thing; it is almost a miracle; it is a miracle. Nearly all those who think they have this capacity do not possess it. Warmth of heart, impulsiveness, pity are not enough.

Can I see another's woe, and not be in sorrow too? Can I see another's grief, and not seek for kind relief?

There is nothing sweeter than to be sympathized with.

And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks to his own funeral drest in his shroud.

Pity may represent little more than the impersonal concern which prompts the mailing of a check, but true sympathy is the personal concern which demands the giving of one's soul.