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date: 12 February 2025

Compassion 

  1. Intellectual disgrace
    Stares from every human face,
    And the seas of pity lie
    Locked and frozen in each eye.
     
    W. H. Auden 1907–73 English poet: ‘In Memory of W. B. Yeats’ (1940) pt. 3
  2. Hatred is a tonic, it makes one live, it inspires vengeance; but pity kills, it makes our weakness weaker.
    Honoré de Balzac 1799–1850 French novelist: La Peau de Chagrin (1831)
  3. Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door.
     
    William Blake 1757–1827 English poet: Songs of Innocence (1789) ‘Holy Thursday’
  4. If you want others to be happy, practise compassion. If you want to be happy, practise compassion.
    Dalai Lama 1935–  the spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism: attributed
  5. O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
    To be consoled as to console;
    To be understood as to understand.
     
    St Francis of Assisi 1181–1226 Italian monk: ‘Prayer of St Francis’; attributed
  6. Our sympathy is cold to the relation of distant misery.
    Edward Gibbon 1737–94 English historian: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88) ch. 49
  7. Any victim demands allegiance.
    Graham Greene 1904–91 English novelist: The Heart of the Matter (1948) bk. 3, pt. 1, ch. 1
  8. If a madman were to come into this room with a stick in his hand, no doubt we should pity the state of his mind; but our primary consideration would be to take care of ourselves. We should knock him down first, and pity him afterwards.
    Samuel Johnson 1709–84 English poet, critic, and lexicographer: House of Commons, 3 April 1776
  9. We are all strong enough to bear the misfortunes of others.
    Duc de la Rochefoucauld 1613–80 French moralist: Maximes (1678) no. 19
  10. Be pitiful, for every man is fighting a hard battle.
    frequently quoted as ‘Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle’ and wrongly attributed to Plato
    Ian Maclaren (John Watson) 1850–1907 English Presbyterian minister and writer: in Zion's Herald January 1898; see Quote Investigator
  11. The fact that I have no remedy for the sorrows of the world is no reason for my accepting yours. It simply supports the strong probability that yours is a fake.
    H. L. Mencken 1880–1956 American journalist and literary critic: Notebooks (1956) ‘Minority Report’
  12. Only the hopeless are starkly sincere and…only the unhappy can either give or take sympathy.
    Jean Rhys c.1890–1979 British novelist and short-story writer: The Left Bank (1927)
  13. The quality of mercy is not strained,
    It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
    Upon the place beneath.
     
    William Shakespeare 1564–1616 English dramatist: The Merchant of Venice (1596–8) act 4, sc. 1, l. [182] (Oxford Standard Authors ed.)
  14. But yet the pity of it, Iago! O! Iago, the pity of it, Iago!
    William Shakespeare 1564–1616 English dramatist: Othello (1602–4) act 4, sc. 1, l. [205] (Oxford Standard Authors ed.)
  15. If you see anybody fallen by the wayside and lying in the ditch, it isn't much good climbing into the ditch and lying by his side.
    Dick Sheppard 1880–1937 British clergyman: Carolyn Scott Dick Sheppard (1977)
  16. When times get rough,
    And friends just can't be found
    Like a bridge over troubled water
    I will lay me down.
     
    Paul Simon 1942–  American singer and songwriter: ‘Bridge over Troubled Water’ (1970 song)