Some thoughts on empathy:

"If we are to love our neighbors, before doing anything else we must see our neighbors. With our imagination as well as our eyes, that is to say like artists, we must see not just their faces but the life behind and within their faces. Here it is love that is the frame we see them in."
― Frederick Buechner, Whistling in the Dark: A Doubter's Dictionary

"Anyone who has experienced a certain amount of loss in their life has empathy for those who have experienced loss."
Anderson Cooper

"The discoveries of how we can grow and the insights we need to have really come from the inside out. To have genuine empathy, not as a make-nice tool but as an understanding, is essential to the next step."
Patricia Sun

"Self-absorption in all its forms kills empathy, let alone compassion. When we focus on ourselves, our world contracts as our problems and preoccupations loom large. But when we focus on others, our world expands. Our own problems drift to the periphery of the mind and so seem smaller, and we increase our capacity for connection - or compassionate action."
― Daniel Goleman, Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships