quotations about pity
Pity is fear which has been mediated by a certain distance--and by a certain closeness. We do not feel pity for ourselves or for those so close to us as to be parts of ourselves; we feel pity only for others. On the other hand, we do not feel pity for misfortune pure and simple; we do not feel pity for men qua men. We feel pity for unfortunate men who are like ourselves, because then we imagine ourselves in the place of the other.
JAMES M. REDFIELD
Nature and Culture in the Iliad
Pity and love are nearly allied.
EDWARD COUNSEL
Maxims
A man who is prevented from helping by his own pity is like a man who, when he saw another blind, put out his own eyes in sorrow, instead of leading the blind.
JESSIE ETHEL SAMPTER
The Seekers
All pity is self-pity.
W. H. AUDEN
"Interlude: West's Disease", The Dyer's Hand and Other Essays
Self-pity is like a clog in the pipe that stops the flow of life. It is the hand that takes rather than gives.
J. NICOLE WILLIAMSON
Being Fathered for a Divine Purpose
Pity is the most agreeable feeling among those who have little pride and no prospects of great conquests.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
The Gay Science
I pity the poor wretch, though he's my enemy. He's yoked to an evil delusion, but the same fate could be mine. I see clearly: we who live are all phantoms, fleeing shadows.
SOPHOCLES
Ajax
Pity is a noose we can hang ourselves with if we're not careful.
JARED ESTES
"Estes speaks at Memorial Auditorium", Wellington Daily News, April 20, 2016
Pity is like a knife, sometimes, and it may pierce one who employs it more shrewdly than the victim it would save.
EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON
Matthias at the Door
Do not scorn pity that is the gift of a gentle heart.
J. R. R. TOLKIEN
The Lord of the Rings