Bob Odenkirk Quotes

Compassion automatically invites you to relate with people because you no longer regard people as a drain on your energy.

I take people very seriously. People are all I take seriously, in fact. Therefore, I have nothing but sympathy for how people behave - and nothing but laughter to console them with.

I know it might sound weird, but empathy is one of the greatest creators of energy. It's counterintuitive because it's selfless.

I don't understand why people aren't a little more generous with each other.

Instead of condemning people, let's try to understand them. Let's try to figure out why they do what they do. That's a lot more profitable and intriguing than criticism; and it breeds sympathy, tolerance and kindness.

Some people think that without that spark of empathy we would do nothing, but that's just flat-out wrong. You could feel compassion for somebody without the spark of empathy.

In fact, most of the time, people with similar information, similar beliefs and similar apparent choices will choose similar actions. So if you want to know why someone does what they do, start with what they know, what they believe and where they came from. Dismissing actions we don't admire merely because we don't care enough to have empathy is rarely going to help us make the change we seek. It doesn't help us understand, and it creates a gulf that drives us apart.

Personally I don't believe in bad people. I think there's always a reason for people acting badly.

Most people, no matter what they do, they don't think they're a bad person. The place where their actions are coming from is a complicated place and a whole personal history. I definitely think that it helped me to look at the world a little less judgmentally.

I think certain people are the way they are for certain reasons that we can't necessarily judge without knowing.

Empathy is the greatest virtue. From it, all virtues flow. Without it, all virtues are an act.

Understanding people certainly impacts your ability to communicate with others.

I've been able to read people my entire life, because I've interviewed people now for 20-some-odd years. So you can read people that way.

If the people who hurt us have anger or desperation within them then they suffer. When you see that someone suffers, you might be motivated by a desire to help him not to suffer anymore.

Have compassion for everyone you meet, even if they don’t want it.

Compassion and love, that's all.

I think that the most necessary quality for any person to have is imagination. It makes people able to put themselves in other people's places. It makes them kind and sympathetic and understanding.

What in your life allows you to give up to other people, and allows you to forgive others and accept forgiveness.

Talk to people, not above them.

Life's very difficult and full of surprises. At all events, I've got as far as that. To be humble and kind, to go straight ahead, to love people rather than pity them, to remember the submerged - well, one can't do all these things at once, worse luck, because they're so contradictory. It's then that proportion comes in - to live by proportion. Don't begin with proportion. Only prigs do that. Let proportion come in as a last resource, when the better things have failed.

The best thing you can do for yourself is to accept other people’s behavior and the choices they make. You may not agree with them, you may even wish them to do things differently, but accept it. Just as you would appreciate other people accepting the choices that you make.

Don't treat people the way they treat you. Treat them better.

All altruism springs from putting yourself in the other person's place.

Go beyond yourself and reach out to other people with a sincere love, respect, caring, and understanding of their needs.

people do terrible things, sometimes, for the best reasons.