When we are completely self-absorbed, we are vulnerable and fall easy prey to confusion, impotence, and anxiety. But when we experience a powerful sense of empathy with the suffering of others, our impotent resignation gives way to courage, depression to love, narrow-mindedness to openness toward all those around us. Increasing compassion and loving-kindness, the ultimate in positive emotions, develops our readiness to offer relief to the suffering of others while reducing the importance of our own problems.
— Matthieu Ricard, Happiness