Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat. We must find each other.
—Mother Teresa (1910–97) Roman Catholic Missionary, Nun
From the voiceless lips of the unreplying dead there comes no word, but in the night of death hope sees a star and listening love can hear the rustle of a wing.
—Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–99) American Lawyer, Orator, Agnostic
Sympathy is never wasted except when you give it to yourself.
—John W. Raper (1870–1950) American Journalist, Aphorist
With a soul that ever felt the sting of sorrow, sorrow is a sacred thing.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
The only true knowledge of our fellowman is that which enables us to feel with him—which gives us a fine ear for the heart-pulses that are beating under the mere clothes of circumstance and opinion.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
Sympathy for victims is always counter-balanced by an equal and opposite feeling of resentment towards them.
—Ben Elton (b.1959) English Comedian, Writer
It may, indeed, be said that sympathy exists in all minds, as Faraday has discovered that magnetism exists in all metals; but a certain temperature is required to develop the hidden property, whether in the metal or the mind.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
Pity may represent little more than the impersonal concern which prompts the mailing of a check, but true sympathy is the personal concern which demands the giving of one’s soul.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
When Man evolved Pity, he did a queer thing—deprived himself of the power of living life as it is without wishing it to become something different.
—John Galsworthy (1867–1933) English Novelist, Playwright
A human life is a story told by God.
—Hans Christian Andersen (1805–75) Danish Author, Poet, Short Story Writer
And with the morn those angel faces smile
Which I have loved long since and lost awhile.
—John Henry Newman (1801–90) British Theologian, Poet
Seldom in the business and transactions of ordinary life, do we find the sympathy we want.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Pity is treason.
—Maximilien Robespierre (1758–94) French Revolutionary
Open your hearts to sympathy, but close them to despondency. The flower which opens to receive the light of day shuts against rain.
—James Beattie
Pity is a thing often vowed, seldom felt; hatred is a thing often felt, seldom avowed.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
The world has no sympathy with any but positive griefs; it will pity you for what you lose, but never for what you lack.
—Sophie Swetchine (1782–1857) Russian Mystic, Writer
Good-night! good-night! as we so oft have said
Beneath this roof at midnight, in the days
That are no more, and shall no more return.
Thou hast but taken up thy lamp and gone to bed;
I stay a little longer, as one stays
To cover up the embers that still burn.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
No man needs sympathy because he has to work. Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Explorer
Sympathy with joy intensifies the sum of sympathy in the world, sympathy with pain does not really diminish the amount of pain.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
It is certain my belief gains quite infinitely the very moment I can convince another mind thereof.
—Novalis (1772–1801) German Romantic Poet, Novelist
And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks to his own funeral drest in his shroud.
—Walt Whitman (1819–92) American Poet, Essayist, Journalist, American, Poet, Essayist, Journalist
Humane sentiments are baseless, mad, and improper; they are incredibly feeble; never do they withstand the gainsaying passions, never do they resist bare necessity.
—Marquis de Sade (1740–1814) French Political leader, Revolutionary, Novelist, Poet, Critic
Sympathy has to be the first and foremost thing in one’s life, sympathy and the feeling of oneness. There cannot be anything greater than the feeling of oneness.
—Sri Chinmoy (1931–2007) Indian Yoga Teacher
Every man rejoices twice when he has a partner of his joy; a friend shares my sorrow and makes it but a moiety, but he swells my joy and makes it double.
—Jeremy Taylor
Self-pity comes so naturally to all of us. The most solid happiness can be shaken by the compassion of a fool.
—Andre Maurois (1885–1967) French Novelist, Biographer
Is there anything more dangerous than sympathetic understanding?
—Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish Painter, Sculptor, Artist
The more sympathies we gain or awaken for what is beautiful, by so much deeper will be our sympathy for that which is most beautiful, the human soul.
—James Russell Lowell (1819–91) American Poet, Critic
Nobody can tell what I suffer! But it is always so. Those who do not complain are never pitied.
—Jane Austen (1775–1817) English Novelist
Pity costs nothing and ain’t worth nothing.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) (1818–85) American Humorist, Author, Lecturer
Happy is the man who has that in his soul which acts upon the dejected as April airs upon violet roots. Gifts from the hand are silver and gold, but the heart gives that which neither silver nor gold can buy. To be full of goodness, full of cheerfulness, full of sympathy, full of helpful hope, causes a man to carry blessings of which he is himself as unconscious as a lamp is of its own shining. Such a one moves on human life as stars move on dark seas to bewildered mariners; as the sun wheels, bringing all the season with him from the south.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer