Pity Quotes - Page 14

• But human nature cannot be content on a diet of honey and if there is nothing in one's life that requires pity, one must invent it; for to go through life unpitied would be an unthinkable loss.

  Angela Thirkell

  Loss, Would Be, Honey

  Angela Thirkell (1968). “The Brandons, and others”, Hamish Hamilton

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• For the world is founded and built up on death, and the reality of death is neither to be questioned nor feared. Death is a dark dream, but it is not a nightmare. It is mankind's lack of pity, mankind's fatal propensity for torture, that is the nightmare.

  Mary Webb

  Death, Dream, Dark

  Mary Webb (2016). “Gone To Earth”, p.194, Mary Webb

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• In music everything is prolonged, everything is edified, and when the enchantment has ceased, we are still bathed in its clarity; solitude is accompanied by a new hope between pity for ourselves - which makes us more indulgent and more understanding - and the certitude of finding something again, that which lives for ever in music.

  Nadia Boulanger

  Music, Solitude, Understanding

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• The pity of living only once is that there is no way, ever, to be sure which sorrows are inevitable.

  Rosellen Brown

  Sorrow, Way, Inevitable

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• These are the lords
  That have bought titles: men may merchandise
  Wares, ay and traffic in all commodities
  From sea to sea, and from shore to shore:
  But in my thought, of all things that are sold,
  'Tis pity honor should be bought for gold:
  It cuts off all desert.

  Eliza Haywood

  Cutting, Men, Sea

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• Let us not doubt that God has a father's pity towards us, and that in the removal of that which is dearest to us He is still loving and kind. Death separates, but it also unites. It reunites whom it separates.

  Abraham Coles

  Death, Father, Doubt

  Abraham Coles (1892). “Abraham Coles: Biographical Sketch, Memorial Tributes, Selections from His Works, (some Hitherto Unpublished.)”

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• It's a pity we're still officially living in an age called the Holocene. The Anthropocene - human dominance of biological, chemical and geological processes on Earth - is already an undeniable reality.

  Paul J. Crutzen

  Reality, Age, Dominance

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• If Pity come as Pity, bid her stay; But if in guise of Love, chase her away.

  Richard B. Garnett

  Guise, Ifs

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• It always seems to me that one of the saddest things about the death of a literary man is the fact that the breaking-up of his collection of books almost invariably follows; the building up of a good library, the work of a lifetime, has been so much labour lost, so far as future generations are concerned. Talent, yes, and genius too, are displayed not only in writing books but also in buying them, and it is a pity that the ruthless hammer of the auctioneer should render so much energy and skill fruitless.

  Stuart Dodgson Collingwood

  Book, Writing, Men

  Stuart Dodgson Collingwood (1898). “The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll (Rev. C.L. Dodgson)”

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• You lose such a lot of time just sleeping ... when you might just be living! ... It seems such a pity we can't live nights too.

  Eleanor Porter

  Sleep, Night, Might

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• pity runs its course. An hour comes when no hand but your own can build your future.

  Zelda Popkin

  Running, Hands, Hours

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• For the last six or seven years the circus has no longer been in fashion. That is a pity. One should go to the circus, beyond any question of fashion, at least one or two times a year-I am not speaking here to the real enthusiasts, they know better than I what they have to do.

  Adrienne Monnier

  Fashion, Real, Years

  Adrienne Monnier (1976). “The Very Rich Hours of Adrienne Monnier”, p.237, U of Nebraska Press

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• Pity is something only weakness wants.

  Mabel Seeley

  Weakness, Want

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• How despicable is that humanity, which can be contented to pity, where it might assuage!

  Ann Radcliffe

  Humanity, Might, Despicable

  Ann Radcliffe (1795). “The Mysteries of Udolfo: A Romance Interspersed with Some Pieces of Poetry”, p.215

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• We see how much a man has, and therefore we envy him; did we see how little he enjoys, we should rather pity him.

  Jeremiah Seed

  Men, Envy, Littles

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• When the red wrath perisheth, when the dulled swords fail, These three who have walked with Death these shall prevail. Hell bade all its millions rise; Paradise sends three: Pity, and Self-sacrifice, and Charity.

  Theodosia Garrison

  War, Sacrifice, Wrath

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• If pity was always equally alive and acting in all individuals and in all circumstances, we could do away with moral. Unfortunately, it is not compassion, but rather it's contrary, selfishness, that act most strongly in us.

  African Spir

  Compassion, Acting, Selfishness

  "Paroles d'un sage: Choix de pensées d'African Spir" ("Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir") by Hélène Claparède-Spir, (p. 57), 1937.

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• Pity makes a thin drink, indeed.

  Caroline Pafford Miller

  Drink

  Caroline Pafford Miller (1944). “Lebanon”

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• The tale of the Divine Pity was never yet believed from lips that were not felt to be moved by human pity.

  George Eliot

  Lips, Divine, Tales

  George Eliot (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated)”, p.3792, Delphi Classics

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• Milk-livered man,
  That bear'st a cheek for blows, a head for wrongs;
  Who hast not in thy brows an eye discerning
  Thine honor from thy suffering; [that not know'st
  Fools do those villains pity who are punished
  Ere they have done their mischief. Where's thy drum?
  France spreads his banners in our noiseless land,
  With plumed helm thy state begins to threat,
  Whilst thou, a moral fool, sits still and cries
  'Alack, why does he so?']

  William Shakespeare

  Eye, Blow, Men

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• Our grandsire, Adam, ere of Eve possesst,
  Alone, and e'en in Paradise unblest,
  With mournful looks the blissful scenes survey'd,
  And wander'd in the solitary shade.
  The Maker say, took pity, and bestow'd
  Woman, the last, the best reserv'd of God.

  Alexander Pope

  Women, Shade, Lasts

  Alexander Pope, Alexander Dyce (1851). “The poetical works of Alexander Pope”, p.255

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• 1. Find a subject you care about.
  2. Do not ramble, though.
  3. Keep it simple.
  4. Have the guts to cut.
  5. Sound like yourself.
  6. Say what you mean to say.
  7. Pity the readers.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Mean, Cutting, Simple

  FaceBook post by Kurt Vonnegut from Jan 12, 2015

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• It is a pity that Elizabeth and I cannot marry each other. Our children would have gained mastery over the whole world.

  Pope Sixtus V

  Children, Mastery, World

  "Woman Through the Ages: Volume 2". Book by Emil Reich, p. 38, 1908.

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• Of all the well-meant emotions pity is the cruelest to share.

  Joan Slonczewski

  Emotion, Share, Wells

  "A Door into Ocean". Book by Joan Slonczewski, 1986.

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• Pity's tears are spontaneous.

  Anna Cora Mowatt

  Tears, Spontaneous

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