"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."
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Original Language: English
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Sources
Stefan Zweig, Beware of Pity (1939), trans. Phyllis and Trevor Blewitt (London: Cassell and Co Ltd, 1939), "Author's Note", p. vi.
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Pity
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