Hannah Arendt - Clydebuilt: The Ships that Made the Commonwealth TV - Gunnar Myrdal - Roger Ebert - Richard Dawkins TV - The Genius of British Art TV - Simon Baron-Cohen - Duc de la Rochefoucauld - Elisabeth Kubler-Ross - F Scott Fitzgerald - Neil deGrasse Tyson - Eric Kandel - Jim Davidson - Steven Pinker - Horizon TV - Mahatma Gandhi - Simon Schama TV - Audrey Hepburn -
The death of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism. Hannah Arendt
The men on this Scottish steamer would play a heroic and until now untold part in this tragedy. Clydebuilt: The Ships that Made the Commonwealth II: CS Mackay-Bennett, BBC 2019
The Mackay-Bennett was one of three idle ships in port, but crucially the only boat with a hull big enough to carry the estimated numbers of dead, and a crew tough enough and experienced enough to stomach the terrible task of recovering them. ibid.
They decided to claim the [unclaimed Titanic] child as their own. Pulling together their wages, they paid for the cost of the burial and a headstone. And on the morning of 4th May 1912 the Mackay-Bennett cable men carried the tiny coffin through the cemetery and to its final resting place. ibid.
The big majority of Americans, who are comparatively well off, have developed an ability to have enclaves of people living in the greatest misery without almost noticing them. Gunnar Myrdal, Swedish economist & sociologist
I believe empathy is the most essential quality of civilization. Roger Ebert
Science shows we humans are hard-wired to have empathy. Richard Dawkins, Sex, Death and The Meaning of Life I: Sin, Channel 4 2012
I find myself deeply agreeing with you as a fellow human being using the same gift of empathy. As a Darwinian however it’s slightly more difficult to understand. I think I can kind of do it. I sometimes do wonder where this profound sense of empathy – this utter inability to be happy when another creature is suffering, which we all have – where that precisely comes from I think we can make a Darwinian story, but it’s not entirely obvious. Professor Richard Dawkins, interviewing Ian McEwan
He [Hogarth] shows a new empathy to the marginalised ... High and low, comic and serous. The Genius of British Art: Hogarth, Channel 4 2010
We’ve made real progress in identifying which regions of the brain are involved when somebody is trying to figure out what someone else is thinking or feeling ... I identify ten different regions of the brain which I call the Empathy Circuit. Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, interview Andrew Marr, Radio 4 2nd May 2011
There are many ways to lose your empathy. We’ve already talked about early experience ... biology ... cultural factors. ibid.
If you are low on Empathy, you may be the last person to know it. ibid.
The Empathy Circuit in the brain can fluctuate from moment to moment ... even if you’ve had a bad day. ibid.
Empathy is a skill like any human skill. ibid.
Think of empathy deficit as a disability. ibid.
We are all strong enough to bear the misfortunes of others. Duc de la Rochefoucauld, Maximes, 1678
The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
Humans aren’t as good as we should be in our capacity to empathize with feelings and thoughts of others, be they humans or other animals on Earth. So maybe part of our formal education should be training in empathy. Imagine how different the world would be if, in fact, that were reading, writing, arithmetic, empathy. Neil deGrasse Tyson
One of the ultimate challenges for biology is to understand the brain’s processing of unconscious and conscious perception, emotion, and empathy. Eric Kandel
There’s people starving in the Third World. Fuck ’em. Jim Davidson, British right-wing comedian on stage
Human nature is complex. Even if we do have inclinations toward violence, we also have inclination to empathy, to cooperation, to self-control. Steven Pinker
Oxytocin [hormone] seems to be the key to empathy. Horizon: Are You Good or Evil? BBC 2011
It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings. Mahatma Gandhi
And what fired Bewick’s radicalism wasn’t just anger, it was an emotion new to politics: sympathy. What moved him was an overwhelming feeling for the victims of injustice, poverty and suffering. A recognition that deep down we are all bonded by our shared human nation. It was a call to action echoed in pulpits up and down the country ... For the first time there was a politics of suffering. Simon Schama, A History of Britain s3e1: Forces of Nature, BBC 2002
William Wordsworth had been born in the Lake District ... He too had grown up in love with nature; now that love would extend to all of downtrodden humanity. ibid.
Nothing is more important than empathy for another human being’s suffering. Nothing. Not career, not wealth, not intelligence, certainly not status. We have to feel for one another if we’re going to survive with dignity. Audrey Hepburn