Pity Quotes - Page 9

• Evil men of every degree will use you, flatter you, lead you on until you are useless; then, if the virtuous do not pity you, or God compassionate, you are without a friend in the universe.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Men, Evil, Degrees

  Henry Ward Beecher (1856). “Lectures to young men: on various important subjects”, p.134

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• Every generation gets a chance to change the world Pity the nation that won't listen to your boys and girls Cos the sweetest melody is the one we haven't heard

  Alvin Toffler

  Change, Girl, Boys

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• Pity it is to slay the meanest thing.

  Thomas Hood

  Thomas Hood (1871). “The poetical works of Thomas Hood, ed. by W.M. Rossetti”, p.25

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• O thou who art able to write a Book, which once in the two centuries or oftener there is a man gifted to do, envy not him whom they name City-builder, and inexpressibly pity him whom they name Conqueror or City-burner! Thou too art a Conqueror and Victor; but of the true sort, namely over the Devil: thou too hast built what will outlast all marble and metal, and be a wonder-bringing City of the Mind, a Temple and Seminary and Prophetic Mount, whereto all kindreds of the Earth will pilgrim.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Art, Book, Writing

  Thomas Carlyle, Rodger L. Tarr, Mark Engel (2000). “Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh in Three Books”, p.129, Univ of California Press

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• Love is the only thing that pays for birth, Or makes death welcome. Oh, dear God above This beautiful but sad, perplexing earth, Pity the hearts that know--or know not--Love!

  Ella Wheeler Wilcox

  Love, Beautiful, Heart

  Ella Wheeler Wilcox (2016). “Complete Poetical Works of Ella Wheeler Wilcox (Delphi Classics)”, p.553, Delphi Classics

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• Kind pity chokes my spleen.

  John Donne

  Kind, Choke, Spleen

  1594-5 Satires, no.3.

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• Being a retired major looks like an ideal thing to me. What a pity you couldn't eternally have been just a retired major.

  Fernando Pessoa

  Looks, Retired, Ideals

  "The Book of Disquiet". Book by Fernando Pessoa, p. 218, 1982.

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• What a pity it is that there are so many words! Whenever one wants to say anything, three or four ways of saying it run into one's head together; and one can't tell which to choose. It is as troublesome and puzzling as choosing a ribbon ... or a husband.

  Julius Charles Hare

  Running, Husband, Together

  Julius Charles Hare, Augustus William Hare, Edward Hayes Plumptre (1871). “Guesses at Truth”, p.210

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• It is a great pity that human beings cannot find all of their satisfaction in scientific contemplativeness.

  Niels Bohr

  Satisfaction, Humans, Human Beings

  "Chandra: A Biography of S. Chandrasekhar‎". Book by Kameshwar C. Wali, 1990.

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• Optimism has always seemed to me the cunning alibi of egoists, anxious to cover up their state of chronic self-satisfaction. They are optimists in order to avoid pitying other men and their misfortune. ~~ Yet pity is a vexed question.

  Georges Bernanos

  Men, Self, Order

  Georges Bernanos (1938). “A diary of my times”

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• They that examine into the Nature of Man, abstract from Art and Education, may observe, that what renders him a Sociable Animal, consists not in his desire of Company, Good-nature, Pity, Affability, and other Graces of a fair Outside; but that his vilest and most hateful Qualities are the most necessary Accomplishments to fit him for the largest, and, according to the World, the happiest and most flourishing Societies.

  Bernard de Mandeville

  Art, Animal, Men

  Bernard de Mandeville (1723). “The Fable of the Bees”, p.1, Jazzybee Verlag

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• Sweat has the power to end a pity party in such a way that even the hostess is happy.

  Kristin Armstrong

  Party, Sweat, Way

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• It is a pity we can't escape from life when we are young.

  Mark Twain

  Young

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• If the impure and the unjust, the drunkard and the licentious, are loathsome to us, what must be the infinite loathing of an infinitely pure Spirit for those who are worldly and selfish, licentious and cruel, ambitious and animal! But with this great loathing is a great pity. And the pity conquers the loathing, appeases it, satisfies it, is reconciled with it, only as it redeems the sinner from his loathsomeness, lifts him up from his degradation, brings him to truth and purity, to love and righteousness; for only thus is he or can he be brought to God.

  Lyman Abbott

  Selfish, Animal, Ambitious

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• The offence is what is improperly called the death of an infant, who has ceased to be, before knowing what existence is, a result of a nature not to give the slightest inquietude to the most timid imagination; and which can cause no regrets but to the very person who, through a sentiment of shame and pity, has refused to prolong a life begun under the auspices of misery.

  Jeremy Bentham

  Regret, Knowing, Giving

  Jeremy Bentham, Etienne Dumont (1871). “Theory of Legislation”, p.265

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• Pity is for this life, pity is the worm inside the meat, pity is the meat, pity is the shaking pencil, pity is the shaking voice-- not enough money, not enough love--pity for all of us--it is our grace, walking down the ramp or on the moving sidewalk, sitting in a chair, reading the paper, pity, turning a leaf to the light, arranging a thorn.

  Jane Austen

  Moving, Reading, Voice

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• A slave's soul has no worth, my brothers; it lacks strength to tread on this great earth with gallantry and freedom. I pity the poor slaves, they're nought but airy mist, a light breeze scatters them, a fragrance knocks them down; it's only just they crawl on the earth on hands and knees. Today I'll write a hymn to God and pray for this great grace.

  Nikos Kazantzakis

  Brother, Writing, Light

  Nikos Kazantzakis (1958). “The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel”, New York : Simon and Schuster

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• Who looks at me, beholdeth sorrows all, All pain, all torture, woe and all distress; I have no need on other harms to call, As anguish, languor, cruel bitterness, Discomfort, dread, and madness more and less; Methinks from heaven above the tears must rain In pity for my harsh and cruel pain.

  Geoffrey Chaucer

  Pain, Rain, Heaven

  Geoffrey Chaucer (2012). “Troilus and Cressida”, p.173, Courier Corporation

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• Some paradox of our natures leads us, when once we have made our fellow men the objects of our enlightened interest, to go on to make them the objects of our pity , then of our wisdom , ultimately of our coercion.

  Lionel Trilling

  Men, Goes On, Fellow Man

  Lionel Trilling (2012). “The Liberal Imagination”, p.221, New York Review of Books

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• Self-pity is an ignoble emotion, but we all feel it, and the orthodox critical line that it represents some kind of artistic flaw is dubious, a form of emotional correctness.

  Nick Hornby

  Emotional, Self, Dubious

  Nick Hornby (2003). “Songbook”, p.49, Penguin

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• Lord Chiltern recognizes the great happiness of having a grievance. It would be a pity that so great a blessing should be thrown away upon him.

  Anthony Trollope

  Blessing, Would Be, Lord

  Anthony Trollope (185?). “Phineas Redux”, p.109

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• Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, Look upon a little child; Pity my simplicity, Suffer me to come to thee.

  Charles Wesley

  Jesus, Children, Simplicity

  'Gentle Jesus, Meek and Mild'

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• Their [the Jews] rotten and unbending stiffneckedness deserves that they be oppressed unendingly and without measure or end and that they die in their misery without the pity of anyone.

  John Calvin

  Rotten, Misery, Ends

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• I realized how valuable the art and practice of writing letters are, and how important it is to remind people of what a treasure letters--handwritten letters--can be. In our throwaway era of quick phone calls, faxes, and email, it's all to easy never to find the time to write letters. That's a great pity--for historians and the rest of us.

  Nancy Reagan

  Art, Writing, Phones

  Nancy Reagan (2001). “I Love You, Ronnie: The Letters of Ronald Reagan to Nancy Reagan”, p.1, Random House

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• Baby, in a world without pity Do you think what I'm askin's too much I just want to feel you in my arms Share a little of that Human Touch.

  Bruce Springsteen

  Baby, Thinking, World

  Song: Human Touch

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