Friday, January 25, 2008

Alice Walker, author

I find it difficult to feel responsible for the suffering of others. That's why I find war so hard to bear. It's the same with animals: I feel the less harm I do, the lighter my heart. I love a light heart. And when I know I'm causing suffering, I feel the heaviness of it. It's a physical pain. So it's self-interest that I don't want to cause harm. -Alice Walker, author (b. 1944)

The first sentence of this quote is ambiguous. At first I thought she meant that she is emotionally handicapped in some way so that she lacks empathy, but by the end it is clear that her problem is just the opposite: she empathizes so much that it hurts physically.


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