Pity

"If you wish me well, do not stand pitying me, but lend me some succour as fast as you can; for pity is but cold comfort when one is up to the chin in water, and within a hair's breadth of starving or drowning."

"Pity makes the world Soft to the weak and noble for the strong."

"Pity and need Make all flesh kin. There is no caste in blood."

"[P]ity comes To those that pity."

"Pity would be no more, If we did not make somebody Poor. And Mercy no more could be, If all were as happy as we."

"Friends should be very delicate and careful in administering pity as medicine, when enemies use the same article as poison."

"To share the suffering of them we pity ranks above redress."

"Pity in woman is a great beautifier."

"Plurumque in summo periculo timor misericordiam non recipit."

"Anon hire herte hath pite of his wo, And with that pite love com in also."

"For pitee renneth soone in gentil herte."

"When foes insult, and prudent friends dispense, In pity's strains, the worst of insolence, Oft with thee, Lloyd, I steal an hour from grief, And in thy social converse find relief."

"Pitiful is the person who is afraid of taking risks. Perhaps this person will never be disappointed or disillusioned; perhaps she won't suffer the way people do when they have a dream to follow. But when the person looks back — and at some point everyone looks back — she will hear her heart, saying, "What have you done with the miracles that God planted in your days? What have you done with the talents God bestowed on you? You buried yourself in a cave because you were fearful of losing these talents. So this is your heritage: the certainty that you wasted your life." Pitiful are the people who must realize this. Because when they are finally able to believe in miracles, their life's magic moments will have already passed them by."

"Ô! qu'il est doux de plaindre Le sort d'un ennemi, quand il n'est plus à craindre!"

"Pity speaks to grief More sweetly than a band of instruments."

"But they that han't pity, why I pities they."

"With downcast looks the joyless victor sate, Revolving in his alter'd soul The various turns of chance below; And, now and then, a sigh he, stole, And tears began to flow The mighty master smiled to see That Love was in the next degree, 'Twas but a kindred sound to move: For Pity melts the mind to Love."

"More helpful than all wisdom is one draught of simple human pity that will not forsake us."

"For purest pity is the eye of love Melting at sight of sorrow."

"Of all the paths [that] lead to a woman's love, Pity's the straightest."

"Pity, some say, 's the parent Of future love."

"Yet, let it not be thought that I would exclude pity from the human mind. There are scarcely any that are not, to some degree, possessed of this pleasing softness; but it is at best but a short-lived passion, and seldom affords distress more than transitory assistance; with some it scarce lasts from the first impulse till the hand can be put into the pocket…"

"Taught by that Power that pities me, I learn to pity them."

"Careless their merits, or their faults to scan, His pity gave ere charity began."

"He that woll maister be, He mot [must] be servant to pite."

"When you visualized a man or woman carefully, you could always begin to feel pity — that was a quality God's image carried with it. When you saw the lines at the corners of the eyes, the shape of the mouth, how the hair grew, it was impossible to hate. Hate was just a failure of imagination."

"A common pity does not love express; Pity is love when grown into excess."

"I find a pity hangs upon his heart Like gentle dew, that cools all cruel passions."

"Pity is not natural to man. Children are always cruel. Savages are always cruel. Pity is acquired and improved by the cultivation of reason."

"I pitied him in his blindness: But can I boast "I see"? Perhaps there walks a spirit Close by, who pities me,— A spirit who hears me tapping The five-sensed cane of mind Amid such unguessed glories That I am worse than blind."

"Is there a spot where Pity’s foot, Although unsandalled, fears to tread, A silence where her voice is mute, Where tears, and only tears, are shed? It is the desolated home Where Hope was yet a recent guest, Where Hope again may never come, Or come, and only speak of rest."

"Be pitiful, for every man is fighting a hard battle."

"Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?"

"La plaincte et la commiseration sont meslees à quelque estimation de la chose qu'on plaind."

"To show pity is felt as a sign of contempt because one has clearly ceased to be an object of fear as soon as one is pitied."

"Die Griechen haben ein eigenes Wort für die Empörung über das Unglück des andern: dieser Affekt war unter christlichen Völkern unstatthaft und hat sich wenig entwickelt, und so fehlt ihnen auch der Name für diesen männlicheren Bruder des Mitleidens."

"Pity makes suffering contagious."

"Pity should cover both sin and woe."

"Pity is not enough better than indifference to benefit materially either agent or recipient."

"At length some pity warm'd the master's breast ('Twas then, his threshold first receiv'd a guest), Slow creaking turns the door with jealous care, And half he welcomes in the shivering pair."

"O God, show compassion on the wicked. The virtuous have already been blessed by Thee in being virtuous."

"How different is […] the ready hand, tearful eye, and soothing voice, from the ostentatious appearance which is called pity!"

"He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the LORD; and that which he hath given will he pay him again."

"Pity is an emotion equally unpleasant to the bestower as to the recipient."

"Pity is the most useless article in the world. [...] It's the reverse side of gloating, you ought to know that."

"We pity in others only those evils which we have ourselves experienced."

"Piety to mankind must be three-fourths pity."

"The entire world would perish, if pity were not to limit anger."

"My pity hath been balm to heal their wounds, My mildness hath allay'd their swelling griefs."

"Duncan Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been So clear in his great office, that his virtues Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against The deep damnation of his taking-off; And pity, like a naked new-born babe, Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubins, horsed Upon the sightless couriers of the air, Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, That tears shall drown the wind."

"Villain, thou know'st no law of God nor man No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity."

"My friend, I spy some pity in thy looks; O, if thine eye be not a flatterer, Come thou on my side, and entreat for me, As you would beg, were you in my distress: A begging prince what beggar pities not?"

"Tear-falling pity dwells not in his eye."

"I shall despair. There is no creature loves me; And if I die, no soul shall pity me: Nay, wherefore should they, since that I myself Find in myself no pity to myself?"

"Is there no pity sitting in the clouds, That sees into the bottom of my grief?"

"But, I perceive, Men must learn now with pity to dispense; For policy sits above conscience."

"Pity is the virtue of the law, And none but tyrants use it cruelly."

"Soft pity never leaves the gentle breast Where love has been received a welcome guest."

"In the just and generous heart, the humble and the weak inspire compassion, and call for pity and forbearance."

"Now, pity is the touch of God In human hearts."

"Pity's akin to love; and every thought Of that soft kind is welcome to my soul."

"No obligation to justice does force a man to be cruel, or to use the sharpest sentence. A just man does justice to every man and to every thing; and then, if he be also wise, be knows there is a debt of mercy and compassion due to the infirmities of man's nature; and that is to be paid: and he that is cruel and ungentle to a sinning person, and does the worst to him, dies in his debt and is unjust. Pity, and forbearance, and long-sufferance, and fair interpretation, and excusing our brother, and taking in the best sense, and passing the gentlest sentence, are as certainly our duty, and owing to every person that does offend and can repent, as calling to account can be owing to the law, and are first to be paid; and he that does not so is an unjust person."

"The world is full of love and pity, I say. Had there been less suffering, there would have been less kindness."

"With that power I should have power too great and terrible. And over me the Ring would gain a power still greater and more deadly....Do not tempt me! For I do not wish to become like the Dark Lord himself. Yet the way of the Ring to my heart is by pity, pity for weakness and the desire of strength to do good. Do not tempt me! I dare not take it, not even to keep it safe, unused. The wish to wield it would be too great for my strength. I shall have such need of it. Great perils lie before me."

"Do not scorn pity that is the gift of a gentle heart."

"So great was her sorrow, as the Music unfolded, that her song turned to lamentation long before its end, and the sound of mourning was woven into the themes of the World before it began. But she does not weep for herself; and those who hearken to her learn pity, and endurance in hope."

"To love with the spirit is to pity, and he who pities most loves most."

"Pity essentially depends on clarity of vision."

"O, brother man! fold to thy heart thy brother; Where pity dwells, the peace of God is there; To worship rightly is to love each other, Each smile a hymn, each kindly deed a prayer."

"When beauty in distress appears, An irresistless charm it bears; In every breast does pity move, Pity, the tenderest part of love."

"A pity beyond all telling Is hid in the heart of love."

"There are two kinds of pity. One, the weak and sentimental kind, which is really no more than the heart's impatience to be rid as quickly as possible of the painful emotions aroused by the sight of another's unhappiness, that pity which is not compassion, but only an instinctive desire to fortify one's own soul against the sufferings of another; and the other, the only kind that counts, the unsentimental but creative kind, which knows what it is about, and is determined to hold out, in patience and forbearance, to the very limit of its strength and even beyond."

"Sääli on sairautta. (Tyrnävä, Northern Bothnia)"