Oprah Winfrey, an undeniably successful guide to millions, once explained the three things every human being wants most are to be seen, heard, and understood. This is the essence of empathy.

I listened so hard because it felt like, while she was telling me stories, she was massaging my soul, letting me know that I was not alone, that I will never have to be alone, that there are friends and family and churches and coffee shops. I was not going to be cast into space.

When I walked into the Christian section of a bookstore, the message was clear: Faith is something you do alone. Rick does not have much tolerance for people living alone. He's like Bill Clinton in that he feels everyone's pain. If Rick thinks somebody is lonely, he can't sleep at night. He wants us all to live with each other and play nice so he can get some rest. Tortured soul.

It bears repeating. The more we talk about the problems our customers experience, the more interest they will have in our brand.

Advertisers personify the problems their customers face in order to capture their imagination and give their frustrations a focal point.

Empathetic statements start with words like, "We understand how it feels to..." or "Nobody should have to experience..." or "Like you, we are frustrated by..." or, in the case of one Toyota commercial inviting Toyota owners to engage their local Toyota service center, simply, "We care about your Toyota".

True charity never envies others when they prosper, nor rejoices in the calamities of others when they are in trouble.

The greater are our affections the deeper are our afflictions, and the more we love the more we have to weep.

Man is shut out from Heaven and Peace and Truth only in so far as he shuts out others from his sympathy. Where his sympathy ends his darkness and torment and turmoils begin.

Sympathy is bliss; in it is revealed the highest, purest blessedness. It is divine, for in its reciprocal light all thought of self is lost, and there remains only the pure joy of oneness with others.

To sympathise with another is to receive his being into our own, to become one with him, for unselfish love indissolubly unites, and he whose sympathy reaches out to and embraces all humankind and all living creatures has realised his identity and oneness with all, and comprehends the universal Love and Law and Wisdom.

Those who are in pain — most of the world's populations at any given moment — do not do a lot of thinking, speaking, or writing about suffering. All their energy goes into surviving. That is why a lot of what is said and written about suffering seems hollow to those actually in pain.