The more I talked with him, the more I reflected that empathy is one of the most complex forms of attention we have and the most precious. Many of the most important advances in human history have been advances in empathy the realization by at least some white people that other ethnic groups have feelings and abilities and dreams just like them; the realization by some men that the way they have exerted power over women was illegitimate and caused real suffering; the realization by many heterosexuals that gay love is just like straight love. Empathy makes progress possible, and every time you widen human empathy, you open the universe a little more.

— Stolen Focus by Johann Hari (Page 87)