Sydney Pollack Quotes

Having family responsibilities and concerns just has to make you a more understanding person.

My mother taught me caring and sensitivity towards the feelings of others, animals as well as humans. She gave me much good, practical advice for getting through life.

A woman can't teach a man how to be a man. But she can teach you how to nurture, how to care, how to love, and how to give.

They're all qualities wrongly called feminine: attention to detail, patience, empathy. I don't have children, but I was raised as a female to have those qualities because they're perceived as feminine. Until men are raised with those qualities, too, they won't have the full circle of human qualities.

Instead of getting hard ourselves and trying to compete, women should try and give their best qualities to men - bring them softness, teach them how to cry.

Human morality is unthinkable without empathy.

It's interesting that one of the definitions of the word 'human' is 'sympathetic.' More and more people are beginning to show that they understand why that is important.

My laundry list of wants in a partner is basically kindness. I want someone who is kind, and that's kind of where it begins and ends. I'm open to being surprised.

No one has yet realized the wealth of sympathy, the kindness and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure.

I'm quite a good listener, and I'm good at looking after people.

Teach my children to love! They'll learn to hate on their own.

We could be much more empathic as a society.

Being a mom makes you far more compassionate. You have more empathy for people, more love. I was always taught to say thank you, and I'm very grateful. And my kids have that quality, too.

I am emotionally strong, passionate, empathetic, and sensitive towards others, especially the people I love.

I have a lot of empathy, and I think that's where mothering starts. You are there to empathise and facilitate.

What makes us different from other species is our capacity for compassion and empathy with the struggles of other people.

You really need to have a lot of empathy for the work you're doing and the people who you're ultimately trying to help, whether that's a business colleague, a boss, or, ultimately, the user of the software you're building.

Patriarchy values the hard over the soft; the tough over the tender; punishment, vengeance, and vindictiveness over compassion, negotiation, and reconciliation. The 'hard' qualities are linked to power, success, and masculinity - and exalted. The 'soft' qualities are identified with weakness, powerlessness, and femininity - and denigrated.

As I allow myself my own weaknesses, I should tolerate the weaknesses of others.

He refused to let hate make him hate.

We all have that capacity to reach out to people we don't even know and care about them ...

We must challenge a culture that is based on too much meanness and not enough meaning.

Sympathy butters no parsnips.

The act of feeling what you believe other people feel is morally corosive.... If we want to be good and caring people, if we want to make the world a better place, then we are better off withouit empathy.

I have striven not to laugh at human actions, not to weep at them, nor to hate them, but to understand them.