Self-empathy in NVC means checking in with your own feelings and needs.

Every criticism, judgment, diagnosis, and expression of anger is the tragic expression of an unmet need.

Your presence is the most precious gift you can give to another human being.

All violence is the result of people tricking themselves into believing that their pain derives from other people and that consequently those people deserve to be punished.

We are never angry because of what others say or do. It is our thinking that makes us angry.

Instead of playing the game "Making Life Wonderful", we often play the game called "Who's Right". Do you know that game? It's a game where everybody loses.

Empathy is a respectful understanding of what others are experiencing.

People have been trained to criticize, insult, and otherwise communicate in ways that create distance among people.

You don't have to be brilliant. It's enough to become progressively less stupid.

Most of us grew up speaking a language that encourages us to label, compare, demand, and pronounce judgments rather than to be aware of what we are feeling and needing.

The most dangerous of all behaviors may consist of doing things 'because we're supposed to.

I love it when I come across a word I don't know. And I would never treat my audience like they weren't smart enough to come along with me.

I started when I was 8 years old, which is obviously nowadays pretty late, but I guess in my generation it was all right. I had plenty of other interests and I didn't do only tennis.

The only foreplay I really need is for a guy to kiss my hip bone. The hip is the most erotic and neglected body part. Kiss the hip bone with your lips.

No one can tell you who you are and what you are made of, only you yourself know what you are made of, and only you yourself can do the work to become who you want to be.

Freedom is not only a gift, but a summons to personal responsibility.

To elope is cowardly; it is running away from danger; and danger has become so rare in modern life.

My heart stopped twice. They had to stab me to drain the blood from my lungs because I was drowning in my own blood.

John Kennedy really did extend the reach of the American people and said, like Lincoln said in a way, that our reach is farther than our grasp - and we should aim high.

Many dreams is what we had and plenty wishes.

People power. It has no limits.