Tuesday, 30 July 2013

Pity - Quotes

He best can pity who has felt the woe. - John Gay

If Pity come as Pity, bid her stay; but if in guise of Love, chase her away. - Richard Garnett

If the secret sorrows of everyone could be read on their forehead, how many who now cause envy would suddenly become the objects of pity? - Italian Proverb

It is only at first that pity, like morphine, is a solace to the invalid, a remedy, a drug, but unless you know the correct dosage and when to stop, it becomes a virulent poison. The first few injections do good, they soothe, they deaden the pain. But the devil of it is that the organism, the body, just like the soul, has an uncanny capacity for adaptation. Just as the nervous system cries out for more and more morphine, so do the emotions cry out for more and more pity, in the end more than one can give. Inevitably there comes a moment when one has to say 'no', and then one must not mind the other person's hating one more for this ultimate refusal than if one had never helped him at all. - Stefan Zweig

More helpful than all wisdom is one draught of simple human pity that will not forsake us. - George Eliot

Pity is a hierarchical concept. It implies a looking down upon another. It is condescension. Pity arises out of the maintenance of distance between people. It has nothing of the adventure of intimacy and commitment that are essential to compassion. - Andrew Purves

Pity is more spectator-like than compassion; we can pity people while maintaining a safe emotional distance from them. - Aaron Ben-Ze’ev

Pity the laden one; this wandering woe may visit you and me. - George Eliot

The recognition of pain and fear in others give rise in us to pity, and in our pity is our humanity, our redemption. - Dean Koontz

Those who do not complain are never pitied. - Jane Austen

To be the object of pity is a situation very humiliating. For although Pity is said to be fitter to love, and a certain degree of tender affection is always mixed with it, there is no doubt at the same time such an inferiority in being pitied as is not consistent with dignity of character. - Unknown

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