Henri Nouwen Quotes

There's no text that can replace a loving touch when someone we love is hurting.

The greatest healing therapy is friendship and love.

We are easily comforted for the misfortunes of our friends, when those misfortunes give us an occasion of expressing our affection and solicitude.

He shouldn't be alone at a time like this. This is a special time for me to be around as much as I can. He needs his family and his friends and his fans.

Rejoicing in our joy, not suffering over our suffering, makes someone a friend.

I also think that what's wrong with all of us is that we don't show enough love toward each other.

When you are in trouble, people who call to sympathize are really looking for the particulars.

When you're sick, nobody takes care of you like your mom.

The more sympathy you give, the less you need.

Cancer is a growth hormone for empathy, and empathy makes us useful to each other in ways we were not, could not have been, before.

I think when you suffer a tremendous loss, everybody needs love and support in tangible ways. And that's what people have done for us.

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

In the sick room, ten cents' worth of human understanding equals ten dollars' worth of medical science.

The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing... not healing, not curing... that is a friend who cares.

I want everyone to know there is always someone there for you.

Those who are unhappy have no need for anything in this world but people capable of giving them their attention.

Difficult as it is really to listen to someone in affliction, it is just as difficult for him to know that compassion is listening to him.

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

Sympathy butters no parsnips.

People call me and they want talk, they need to get something off their mind, I got all the time in the world for them.

Often we can help each other most by leaving each other alone; at other times we need the hand-grasp and the word of cheer.

People respond to real problems from the heart.

You need somebody just to say, 'Hey, I'm here for you. Do you need anything?' If you can get somebody like that, you can make it, no question about it. You can make it.

What's interesting to me is that people engage survivors from a place of pity all the time - a place of sympathy.

We forget some of the oldest medicines we have are love and compassion, and they can be deployed by everyone.