Relating With Others Quotes

“There is a reason that all things are as they are, and did you see with my eyes and know with my knowledge, you would perhaps better understand.”
― Bram Stoker

“The trouble with scary people is
everyone's too scared
to tell them how scary they are”
― Janey Colbourne

“If we turn away from our own pain, we may find ourselves projecting this aversion onto others, seeing them as somehow inadequate for being in a troubled situation.”
― Sharon Salzberg, Real Love: The Art of Mindful Connection

“The word 'God' defines a personal relation, not an objective concept. Like the name of the beloved in every love. It does not imply separation and distance. Hearing the beloved name is an immediate awareness, a dimensionless proximity of presence. It is our life wholly transformed into relation.”
― Christos Yannaras, Variations on the Song of Songs

“The life of society moves in a circle. Only those burdened with a common affliction understand each other. Thanks to their affliction they constitute a circle and provide each other mutual support. They glide along the inner borders of their circle, make way for or jostle one another gently in the crowd. Each encourages the other in the hope that it will react upon himself, or –and then it is done passionately –in the immediate enjoyment of this reaction. Each has only that experience which his affliction grants him; nevertheless one hears such comrades exchanging immensely varying experiences. ‘This is how you are,’ one says to the other; ‘instead of complaining, thank God that this is how you are, for if this were not how you are, you would have this or that misfortune, this or that shame.’ How does this man know that? After all, he belongs –his statement betrays it –to the same circle as does the one to whom he spoke; he stands in the same need of comfort.”
― Franz Kafka, Diaries, 1910-1923

“The first step toward feeling compassion for others is to set the intention to try it out.”
― Sharon Salzberg, Real Love: The Art of Mindful Connection

“People don't hate you; people hate themselves.”
― Marion Bekoe

“The easier a language is to learn, the easier it is to remember, the easier it spreads. The more we share a common tongue, the better we can share ideas and relate to one another.”
― Kassandra Dick

“I feel like a clay pot sitting in the furnace. Come morning, I am not certain whether I will be riddled with cracks and find I have become useless, or if I will be rendered stronger."
Esther smiled. "How well you put it. I believe I have been through that blaze myself, and more than once. We all face the flames of life, whether we wear a crown or not." She opened and closed her golden fan. "I beg your pardon, Shoshanah. I know that my needs as queen have added to your burdens when you already carry much."
Sazana's mouth hung open. Had Esther apologized to her? A queen asking pardon of a potter? No. A friend asking pardon of a friend. She smiled warmly. "I only wish I could be a better help to you. To our people."
"Sometimes you have to tend to your own heart before you can help anyone else.”
― Tessa Afshar, The Royal Artisan