Our emotional mind will harness the rational mind to its purposes, for our feelings and reactions-- rationalizations-- justifying them in terms of the present moment, without realizing the influence of our emotional memory.

Simple inattention kills empathy, let alone compassion. So the first step in compassion is to notice the other's need. It all begins with the simple act of attention.

For better or worse, intelligence can come to nothing when emotions hold sway.

In a high-IQ job pool, soft skills like discipline, drive and empathy mark those who emerge as outstanding.

Emotional self-control is NOT the same as overcontrol, the stifling of all feeling and spontaneity....when such emotional suppression is chronic, it can impair thinking, hamper intellectual performance and interfere with smooth social interaction. By contrast, emotional competence implies we have a choice as to how we express our feelings.

Western business people often don't get the importance of establishing human relationships.

The emotional brain responds to an event more quickly than the thinking brain.