Sympathy, Empathy, and Compassion

Last week I overheard a great comparison between sympathy, empathy, and compassion: Say you walk by a hiker crushed under a giant boulder, gasping for air.

With sympathy, you say to the hiker, “I understand you are suffering”, then you move on.

With empathy, you say to the hiker, “I understand you are suffering, let me feel your pain.” You find another giant stone, put yourself under it, and start gasping for air.

With compassion, you say to the hiker, “I understand you are suffering, let me see if I could remove the stone.”

My learning from the story is that both empathy and compassion requires sympathy to begin with. However, empathy means suffering together, but compassion means witnessing the suffering without walking away.