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 would be no more, If all were as happy as we.”

“With downcast looks the joyless victor sate, For Pity melts the mind to Love.”

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

“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…”

“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.”

“Is there a spot where Pity’s foot,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?”

“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.”

“Pity makes suffering contagious.”

“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.”

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

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

“Duncan 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;A begging prince what beggar pities not?”

“Tear-falling pity dwells not in his eye.”

“I shall despair. There is no creature loves me;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,For policy sits above conscience.”

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

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

“O, brother man! fold to thy heart thy brother; Each smile a hymn, each kindly deed a prayer.”

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

“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.”

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

“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.”

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

“Of all the paths that lead to a woman's lovePity's the straightest.”

“Pity, some say, is the parent of future love.”

“Pity speaks to griefMore sweetly than a band of instruments.”

“For pity melts the mind to love.Honour but an empty bubble.”

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

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

“At length some pity warm'd the master's breastAnd 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.”

“Soft pity never leaves the gentle breastWhere love has been received a welcome guest.”

“Pity's akin to love; and every thoughtOf that soft kind is welcome to my soul.”