“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”

Someone once said, “Try to understand men. If you understand each other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and almost always leads to love.” 
I'm rather fond of that sentiment. When is it never a good time to have empathy with another person? To be able to understand them in away, that allows you to see into who they are; How they react, how they love, how they hate, how they cope. 
I know that I will never be the perfect person, but striving to listen with compassion and creativity, will allow me to somehow understand each and every person I meet better. I think the worse things in life is never being able to understand another person, to never know another person, or to never relate to another person. You can spend your whole life alone, but it's those moments that you spend with other people that allows you to leave your mark on the world. 

Understanding, empathy, sympathy, compassion, are they really that hard to come by? Sometimes they can be,but sometimes all it takes is a little work.