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Empathy is a worthless emotion. It does not change what needs to be done, nor does it lend strength to the one that must do it. At best, empathy merely compels one to do what was already good for valid reasons. At worst, it promotes an illogical decision that causes more harm than is avoided.

Empathy is a senseless emotion. It caters to the complacent and punishes the conscientious: for what act, even a compassionate one—no, especially a compassionate one—does not also require some measure of cruelty? It is a senseless, vindictive thing—instilling guilt in the one who chooses a lesser evil. Empathy buries pragmatism; it is the destroyer of reason; the lash that strikes the diligent.

Empathy is a controlling emotion. It strips away one's desires and replaces them with those of another. It smothers the individual; to be rid of it would be like breathing clean air after a lifetime lived in the dust. For what good is it to understand other people, to feel for them, in a world where everyone is against you?

Excerpt from The Book of Ascension, Volume IV, Chapter III