If you asked me, which is the singular human quality without which Human civilization as we know it, would not have existed as we know it, my answer would be simple. Empathy. Not sympathy, not Love, not Courage nor Bravado, neither Curiosity.
What then, is empathy? Simply put, empathy is the ability of you being able to relate to my human condition. Empathy is the human ability to have an inkling, have a feeling, about how another human might be feeling and going through based on the experience obtained from one’s own past.
But then you will say — “That sounds like sympathy!” It isn’t, sadly. Sympathy and Empathy differ. Sympathy requires no emotional investment from the sympathiser. Empathy demands some level of emotional history with the feeling of the other person.
The fabric of reality, or, the reality which our individual brain weaves for our personal selves plays a great role in deciding if we will be someone having empathy or someone devoid of it. Key to identifying self in the bigger scheme of things.
All other human values flow from empathy. Altruism is a direct consequence of empathy.
So if you find yourself someone who is kind enough to have empathy, never lose them. For it may very much be so that a person without empathy is exactly the one with whom you lose – yourself!