The punitive use of force tends to generate hostility and to reinforce resistance to the very behavior we are seeking.

It's harder to empathize with those who appear to possess more power, status, or resources.

Conflicts, even of long standing duration, can be resolved if we can just keep the flow of communication going in which people come out of their heads and stop criticizing and analyzing each other, and instead get in touch with their needs, and hear the needs of others, and realize the interdependence that we all have in relation to each other. We can't win at somebody else's expense. We can only fully be satisfied when the other person's needs are fulfilled as well as our own.

Everything we do is in service of our needs. When this one concept is applied to our view of others, we'll see that we have no real enemies, that what others do to us is the best possible thing they know to do to get their needs met.

We can't win at somebody else's expense. We can only fully be satisfied when the other person's needs are fulfilled as well as our own.

With empathy, I'm fully with them, not full of them — that's sympathy.

Often, instead of offering empathy, we have a strong urge to give advice or reassurance and to explain our own position or feeling.