There are two ways to take the phrase "Everybody hurts".  The second way affirms that we all cause pain to someone else.  We are thoughtless and deliberate, manipulative and directly wounding, uncaring and vengeful.  Some of us are "better" at it than others.

Why?  What motivates us to hurt others?  What makes us participate in evil?  I read this week some soldiers of the Syrian government have been targeting and killing medical workers, particularly those who treat "rebels".  Physicians and nurses have been killed, some tortured.  People who have committed themselves to alleviating suffering and illness, in many cases without regard to status or political conviction.  Why would someone want to systematically harm healers?

If I turn the question around, why do people try to avoid hurting others and even try to prevent harm coming to others?  I keep coming back to a fairly simplistic answer:  gratitude.  People who have a sense of wonder and joy at life, no matter what or whom they see as the source, are less likely to try to harm someone else.  They appreciate what they have and don't have a deep need to acquire more, whether it is money or power or anything else that must be gained at someone else's expense.  They don't need to harm someone else for the sake of keeping what they have or lowering everyone else to the level of despair they feel.

They also tend to be able to deal with more pain and ambiguity in life, seem to live at a level of serenity that allows us to believe that we can be less manipulative, wounding and thoughtless.  They draw us to them because of the sense of peace they have that we want and half-understand that we can't take it from them, we have to find it ourselves.  I think it starts with appreciation for all that is.