The quality of mercy is not strained;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed—
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
The greatest attribute of heaven is mercy.
—Francis Beaumont (1584–1616) English Elizabethan Dramatist
A gentleman has his eyes on all those present; he is tender toward the bashful, gentle toward the distant, and merciful toward the absent.
—Lawrence G. Lovasik
We hand folks over to God’s mercy, and show none ourselves.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
Mercy turns her back to the unmerciful.
—Francis Quarles (1592–1644) English Religious Poet
He who has compassion on his fellow man is accounted of the true seed of Abraham.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
By compassion we make others’ misery our own, and so, by relieving them, we relieve ourselves also.
—Thomas Browne (1605–82) English Author, Physician
When a man has compassion for others, God has compassion for him.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
He who judges without mercy will himself be judged.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
O God, how beautiful the thought, how merciful the blest decree, that grace can always be found when sought, and nought shut out the soul from thee.
—Eliza Cook (1818–89) English Author, Poet
Wilt thou draw near the nature of the gods? Draw near them then in being merciful; sweet mercy is nobility’s true badge.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
In peace we can make many of them ignore good and evil entirely; in danger, the issue is forced upon them in a guise to which even we cannot blind them. There is here a cruel dilemma before us. If we promoted justice and charity among men, we should be playing directly into the Enemy’s hands; but if we guide them to the opposite behaviour, this sooner or later produces (for He permits it to produce) a war or a revolution, and the undisguisable issue of cowardice or courage awakes thousands of men from moral stupor. This, indeed, is probably one of the Enemy’s motives for creating a dangerous world-a world in which moral issues really come to the point. He sees as well as you do that courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means, at the point of highest reality. A chastity or honesty, or mercy, which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions. Pilate was merciful till it became risky.
—C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) Irish-British Academic, Author, Literary Scholar
A merciful person is merciful to their animals.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
Religion and education are no match for evil without the grace of God.
—Benjamin Haydon (1786–1846) English Painter, Writer
Mercy among the virtues is like the moon among the stars,—not so sparkling and vivid as many, but dispensing a calm radiance that hallows the whole. It is the bow that rests upon the bosom of the cloud when the storm is past. It is the light that hovers above the judgment seat.
—Edwin Hubbell Chapin (1814–80) American Preacher, Poet
Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
In case of doubt we should always lean on the side of mercy.
—Unknown
We are called to play the good Samaritan on life’s roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be beaten and robbed as they make their journey through life. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it understands that an edifice that produces beggars needs restructuring.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
Clemency is the support of justice.
—Russian Proverb
Mercy to him that shows it, is the rule.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
To deserve mercy, practise mercy.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
Mercy is like the rainbow, which God hath set in the clouds; it never shines after it is night.—If we refuse mercy here, we shall have justice in eternity.
—Jeremy Taylor
A God all mercy is a God unjust.
—Edward Young (1683–1765) English Poet
As freely as the firmament embraces the world, or the sun pours forth impartially his beams, so mercy must encircle both friend and foe.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
The mercy we to others show, Heaven will show to us.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
To sin because mercy abounds is the devil’s logic; he that sins because of God’s mercy, shall have judgment without mercy.—Mercy is not for them that sin and fear not, but for them that fear and sin not.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr. (1874–1956) American Business Executive
We shall show mercy, but we shall not ask for it.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of justice and mercy.
—Wendell Berry (b.1934) American Poet, Novelist, Environmentalist
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