For some moments in life there are no words.
—David Seltzer (b.1940) American Screenwriter, Director, Producer
Sympathy is never wasted except when you give it to yourself.
—John W. Raper (1870–1950) American Journalist, Aphorist
To love with the spirit is to pity, and he who pities most loves most.
—Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) Spanish Educator, Philosopher, Author
To be in one’s own heart in kindly sympathy with all things; this is the nature of righteousness.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
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 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
There is a kind of sympathy in souls that fits them for each other; and we may be assured when we see two persons engaged in the warmths of a mutual affection, that there are certain qualities in both their minds which bear a resemblance to one another.
—Richard Steele (1672–1729) Irish Writer, 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
One cannot weep for the entire world, it is beyond human strength. One must choose.
—Jean Anouilh (1910–87) French Dramatist
God put self-pity by the side of despair like the cure by the side of the disease.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Novelist
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
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
Tears are God’s gift to us. Our holy water. They heal us as they flow.
—Rita Schiano (b.1957) American Motivational Author, Speaker
The people that I care about are the people out there on the street. I can identify with them.
—Diana, Princess of Wales (1961–97) English Royal, Humanitarian, Peace Activist
For death is no more than a turning of us over from time to eternity.
—William Penn (1644–1718) American Entrepreneur, Philosopher, Political Leader
The capacity to give one’s attention to a sufferer is a very rare and difficult thing; it is almost a miracle; it is a miracle. Nearly all those who think they have this capacity do not possess it. Warmth of heart, impulsiveness, pity are not enough.
—Simone Weil (1909–1943) French Philosopher, Political Activist
Sympathetic people often don’t communicate well, they back reflected images which hide their own depths.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
No radiant pearl, which crested fortune wears, no gem, that twinkling hangs from beauty’s ears; not the bright stars, which night’s blue arch adorn; nor rising sun, that gilds the vernal morn; shine with such lustre as the tear that flows down virtue’s manly cheek for others’ woes.
—Charles Darwin (1809–82) English Naturalist
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
Sympathy is a supporting atmosphere, and in it we unfold easily and well.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
When someone you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure.
—Unknown
Only in adulthood can any intelligent understanding of the meaning of one’s existence in this world be gained from one’s experiences in it.
—Bruno Bettelheim (1903–90) Austrian Psychoanalyst, Educational Psychologist
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
Pity is for the living, envy is for the dead.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Because it is dangerous to ignore the existence of the irrational. The more cultivated a person is, the more intelligent, the more repressed, then the more he needs some method of channeling the primitive impulses he’s worked so hard to subdue. Otherwise those powerful old forces will mass and strengthen until they are violent enough to break free, more violent for the delay, often strong enough to sweep the will away entirely.
—Donna Tartt (b.1963) American Novelist
He that sympathizes in all the happiness of others, perhaps himself enjoys the safest happiness; and he that is warned by the folly of others has perhaps attained the soundest wisdom.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
It is a lively spark of nobleness to descend in most favor to one when he is lowest in affliction.
—Philip Sidney (1554–86) English Soldier Poet, Courtier
If tears could build a stairway,
And memories a lane,
I’d walk right up to Heaven
And bring you home again.
—Unknown
It is the eternal truth in the political as well as the mystical body, that, where one members suffers, all the members suffer with it.
—Junius Unidentified English Writer
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
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