#pity

Is it a small thing to quench the flames of hell with the holy tears of pity -- to unbind the martyr from the stake -- break all the chains -- put out the fires of civil war -- stay the sword of the fanatic, and tear the bloody hands of the Church from the white throat of Science? Is it a small thing to make men truly free -- to destroy the dogmas of ignorance, prejudice and power -- the poisoned fables of superstition, and drive from the beautiful face of the earth the fiend of fear? ↗

— Robert G. Ingersoll

#freedom #goodness #kindness #liberty #morality

No weekends for the gods now. Wars flicker, earth licks its open sores, fresh breakage, fresh promotions, chance assassinations, no advance. Only man thinning out his own kind sounds through the Sabbath noon, the blind swipe of the pruner and his knife busy about the tree of life... Pity the planet, all joy gone from this sweet volcanic cone; peace to our children when they fall in small war on the heels of small war - until the end of time to police th eearth, a ghost orbiting forever lost in our monotonous sublime. ↗

— Robert Lowell

#man #pity #planet #war #wars

I shot up out of my chair. “Change of plans. Finish your drink so we can go.” Jay responded flatly, “Go where exactly?” “I’m not sure but we’ll know it when we see it.” He looked at his glass and back to me. “Why bother?” I looked him the eye, seeing pain there and forcing myself not to flinch from it. “Because pity parties suck” I started walking toward the exit and over my shoulder asked “You coming?” He downed the rest of his drink and followed me out the door. ↗

— Amanda Kelly

#pity #strong-women #change

Only a Woman, divine, could know all that a woman can suffer. ↗

— Willa Cather

#suffering #virgin-mary #woman #death

Old people, who have felt blows and toil and known the world's hard hand, need, even more than children do, a woman's tenderness. ↗

— Willa Cather

#pity #virgin-mary #woman #death

I don’t feel pity for those, who give up by ending their own lives. They must not be so coward; in fact they are the most powerful people in the world, because everyone is scare of death, and they aren’t. ↗

— M.F. Moonzajer

#life #pity #scared #death

I had great pity on Ansje, because she always acted very happy, but I believed that it was really a front. I could see through it. Inside she was crying because she was really very sad. You pity people like that -- the ones who try to lie to themselves -- because they suffer so much and don't face reality. ↗

— Diet Eman

#lying-to-ourselves #pity #reality #suffering #diet

When one has suffered or fears suffering, one pities those who suffer; but when one is suffering, one pities only oneself. ↗

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

#education

On my license, it says I'm an organ donor, but the truth is I'd consider being an organ martyr. I'm sure I'm worth a lot more dead than alive - the sum of the parts equal more than the whole. I wonder who might wind up walking around with my liver, my lungs, even my eyeballs. I wonder what poor asshole would get stuck with whatever it is in me that passes for a heart. ↗

— Jodi Picoult

#self-pity #self-sacrifice #equality

Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door. ↗

— William Blake

#innocence #pity #william-blake #experience