100 Empathy Quotes for Kids to Inspire Kindness (2026)

Empathy is one of the most important social–emotional skills kids can learn, and sometimes a simple quote is the best way to spark a conversation. Whether you’re a parent, teacher, or counselor, these quotes help kids understand kindness, compassion, and what it means to truly listen.

Below you’ll find age-appropriate empathy quotes, grouped by theme to make them easy to use in morning meetings, lessons, or daily life.

💡If you’re looking for more ways to spark meaningful conversations with kids, you might also like our roundup of Best Getting to Know You Activities for Kids.

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Best Empathy Quotes for Kids (Short & Simple)

Here are a few simple, kid-friendly empathy quotes that are easy to remember and great for classrooms, morning meetings, or everyday conversations:

• “Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.” — Dalai Lama
• “Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are endless.” — Mother Teresa
• “Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart.” — A.A. Milne
• “To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.” — Dr. Seuss
• “A warm smile is the universal language of kindness.” — William Arthur Ward
• “You can only understand people if you feel them in yourself.” — John Steinbeck
• “A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions.” — Amelia Earhart
• “When you start to develop your powers of empathy and imagination, the whole world opens up to you.” — Susan Sarandon
• “Treat everyone with politeness and kindness, not because they are nice, but because you are.” — Roy T. Bennett
• “The opposite of anger is not calmness — it’s empathy.” — Mehmet Oz
• “Empathy is a hand outstretched in the darkness, saying, ‘You’re not alone.’” — Pádraig Ó Tuama

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What Is Empathy? Quotes That Explain It

Empathy isn’t just kindness — it’s the ability to step into someone else’s experience. These quotes help explain what empathy really is and why it matters:

• “Empathy is seeing with the eyes of another, listening with the ears of another, and feeling with the heart of another.” — Alfred Adler
• “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.” — Harper Lee
• “The great gift of human beings is that we have the power of empathy.” — Meryl Streep
• “Empathy is about finding echoes of another person in yourself.” — Mohsin Hamid
• “Empathy is the starting point for creating a community and taking action.” — Max Carver
• “Empathy is really the opposite of spiritual meanness… someone else’s pain is as meaningful as your own.” — Barbara Kingsolver
• “Empathy is the most mysterious transaction the human soul can have.” — Sue Monk Kidd
• “The highest form of knowledge is empathy.” — Bill Bullard
• “The only way to change someone’s mind is to connect with them from the heart.” — Rasheed Ogunlaru
• “When you show deep empathy toward others, their defensive energy goes down.” — Stephen Covey
• “Empathy isn’t just listening — it’s asking the questions whose answers need to be listened to.” — Leslie Jamison
• “Empathy is a choice, and a vulnerable one.” — Brené Brown
• “Empathy is a quality of character that can change the world.” — Barack Obama
• “Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself: What fault of mine most nearly resembles this one?” — Marcus Aurelius
• “You can only understand people if you feel them in yourself.” — John Steinbeck
• “I’ve talked to nearly 30,000 people… they all wanted to know: Do you see me? Do you hear me?” — Oprah Winfrey
• “To love our neighbor as ourselves is the key to social morality.” — John Locke

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Quotes About Listening & Understanding Others

Listening is the very nature of kindness. Offering a listening ear is a great way to practice compassion, even if you can’t solve the person’s problems.

1. “The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them.” – Ralph G. Nichols
2. “To listen closely and reply well is the highest perfection we are able to attain in the art of conversation.” – François de La Rochefoucauld
3. “Most of the successful people I’ve known are the ones who do more listening than talking.” – Bernard Baruch
4. “When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new.” – Dalai Lama
5. “The art of conversation lies in listening.” – Malcom Forbes
6. “Listening is an attitude of the heart, a genuine desire to be with another which both attracts and heals.” – J. Isham
7. “You cannot truly listen to anyone and do anything else at the same time.” – M. Scott Peck
8. “The biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand. We listen to reply.” – Stephen R. Covey
9. “One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say.” – Bryant H. McGill
10. “Listening is about being present, not just about being quiet.” – Krista Tippett
11. “Friends are those rare people who ask how we are and then wait to hear the answer.” – Ed Cunningham
12. “Listening is not merely not talking, though even that is beyond most of our powers; it means taking a vigorous, human interest in what is being told us.” – Alice Duer Miller
13. “Sometimes all a person wants is an empathetic ear; all he or she needs is to talk it out. Just offering a listening ear and an understanding heart for his or her suffering can be a big comfort.” – Roy T. Bennett
14. “So when you are listening to somebody, completely, attentively, then you are listening not only to the words, but also to the feeling of what is being conveyed, to the whole of it, not part of it.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
15. “The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when someone asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.” – Henry David Thoreau
16. “When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.” – Ernest Hemingway

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Quotes About Kindness & Compassion

You’ve heard it said that a single act of kindness can change a person’s life. Well, kind words are just as potent. A small act of kindness like an honest compliment or a warm smile can have a positive impact, turning someone’s bad day around. Words have the power to heal; they are the starting point of all kind deeds. Here are some kindness quotes you’ll love:

1. Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” – Mark Twain
2. “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” – A.A. Milne
3. “Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” – Mother Teresa
4. “Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.” – Dalai Lama
5. “Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.” – Lao Tzu
6. “The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.” – Mark Twain
7. “Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much.” – Blaise Pascal
8. “Kindness is more than deeds. It is an attitude, an expression, a look, a touch. It is anything that lifts another person.” – Plato
9. “The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.” – Oscar Wilde
10. “Treat everyone with politeness and kindness, not because they are nice, but because you are.” – Roy T. Bennett
11. “You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
12. “Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you.” – Princess Diana
13. “A warm smile is the universal language of kindness.” – William Arthur Ward
14. “Words have the power to both destroy and heal. When words are both true and kind, they can change our world.” – Gautama Buddha
15. “To belittle, you have to be little.” – Kahlil Gibran
16. “Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind.” – Henry James
17. “The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.” – Mark Twain
18. “Sometimes it takes only one act of kindness and caring to change a person’s life.” – Jackie Chan
19. “A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees.” – Amelia Earhart
20. “Kindness covers all of my political beliefs.” – Roger Ebert
21. “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” – Aesop
22. “The simplest acts of kindness are by far more powerful than a thousand heads bowing in prayer.” – Mahatma Gandhi

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Inspirational Quotes About Helping Others

Many great thinkers, including Albert Schweitzer and Anne Frank, believed the purpose of human life is to serve and show compassion and the will to help others. That starts with a little kindness.

Here are some inspirational quotes about the purpose of human life:

1. The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
2. The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others.” – Albert Schweitzer
3. “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” – Anne Frank
4. “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” – Mahatma Gandhi
5. “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?'” – Martin Luther King Jr.
6. “The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others.” – Albert Schweitzer
7. “We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give.” – Winston Churchill
8. “To ease another’s heartache is to forget one’s own.” – Abraham Lincoln
9. “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” – Anne Frank
10. “You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.” – John Bunyan
11. “What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.” – Nelson Mandela
12. “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” – Aesop
13. “Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” – Desmond Tutu
14. “Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.” – Albert Einstein
15. “Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.” – Muhammad Ali
16. “Success is not how high you have climbed, but how you make a positive difference to the world.” – Roy T. Bennett
17. “To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.” – David Viscott
18. “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou
19. “Never look down on anybody unless you’re helping them up.” – Jesse Jackson
20. “To do more for the world than the world does for you – that is success.” – Henry Ford
21. “If you see someone without a smile, give ’em yours.” – Dolly Parton
22. “Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” – Desmond Tutu
23. “We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity; more than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness.” – Charlie Chaplin
24. “Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them to become what they are capable of being.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Simple Kindness Ideas for Kids

Small acts of kindness are an easy way for kids to practice empathy in everyday life. These simple ideas help them notice others’ needs and make a positive difference.

1. Leave a Kind Note: Slip a kind or encouraging note into a library book.
2. Sidewalk Chalk Messages: Write uplifting messages or draw happy faces on the sidewalk.
3. Plant a Tree: Make the world a greener place, one sapling at a time.
4. Bake Cookies for Neighbors: Because who doesn’t love cookies?
5. Feed the Birds: Spread some birdseed in a local park.
6. Pet-Sit for Free: Offer to take care of a neighbor’s pet while they’re away.
7. Compliment the First Three People You Talk To: Brighten their day with kind words.
8. Recycle: Spend an afternoon picking up trash and recycling it.
9. Lawn Care: Mow an elderly neighbor’s lawn or help with their gardening.
10. Donation Station: Collect unused toys and clothes and donate them.
11. Hold the Door: It’s simple but always appreciated!
12. Tip Generously: Make someone’s day with an extra-large tip.
13. Free Lemonade Stand: Because kindness is refreshing.
14. Return Shopping Carts: Help out at your local grocery store.
15. Say Thank You: Write a heartfelt thank-you note to someone who’s made a difference in your life.

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Family & Community Service Ideas

Doing community service with kids is a great way to foster empathy. Here are some good ideas for where to start:

1. Local Food Bank: Spend a day volunteering at a local food bank, sorting or distributing food.
2. Animal Shelter: Offer to walk dogs or play with cats at your local animal shelter.
3. Senior Center Visits: Spend time chatting or playing games with seniors who might not have regular visitors.
4. Beach/River Cleanup: Make a day of it and head to your nearest beach or river for a cleanup project.
5. Community Garden: Lend a hand at a community garden, planting flowers or vegetables.
6. Read to Kids: Volunteer at libraries or schools to read books to younger children.
7. Charity Runs/Walks: Participate as a family in a charity run or walk to raise money for a good cause.
8. Care Packages: Create care packages for the homeless or troops overseas.
9. Tutoring: Offer your skills as a family to help tutor kids who are struggling in school.
10. Crafting for a Cause: Make simple crafts like friendship bracelets or knit scarves to donate to hospitals, shelters, or nursing homes.

These activities can instill a sense of social responsibility in your kids while offering valuable family bonding time. Plus, they’re great for building a lifetime habit of empathy and community involvement.

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How to Teach Empathy to Kids

Empathy isn’t something kids learn all at once — it grows through everyday moments and simple conversations. Here are a few gentle ways to help it take root:

1. Model empathy in daily life

Kids notice how we treat others. When they see you listening, apologizing, or offering help, they learn to do the same.

2. Use books and stories

Stories are perfect for practicing perspective-taking. Pause and ask questions like, “How do you think that character feels right now?”

3. Talk openly about feelings

Name your emotions and invite kids to name theirs. Understanding their own feelings makes it easier to understand someone else’s.

4. Practice seeing things from another’s point of view

Simple prompts like, “What do you think your friend needed in that moment?” help kids stretch their empathy muscles.

5. Celebrate kind moments

Point out when your child shows empathy — even in small ways. Noticing and naming these moments helps them stick.

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Teaching empathy to kids is important, but modeling it in real life matters just as much. If you’re looking for more ways to put kindness into action at home, you may like our list of At-Home Community Service Ideas for Kids.

For a real-world example, our interview with Mariah Antetokounmpo shares how her family supports the Milwaukee Diaper Mission and encourages kindness in everyday life.

Each small act of understanding or generosity brings us one step closer to a more compassionate world — for us, for our kids, and for the communities we’re part of.

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