Ellen Glasgow Quotes

We all like to see people sea-sick when we are not ourselves.

A shocking occurrence ceases to be shocking when it occurs daily.

I've been fascinated by the idea that evil is the absence of empathy.

It is possible that the contemplation of cruelty will not make us humane but cruel; that the reiteration of the badness of our spiritual condition will make us consent to it.

Sensual excess drives out pity in man.

There are no conditions of life to which a man cannot get accustomed, especially if he sees them accepted by everyone around him.

We have to be aware of our fragilities as human beings - when we see cruelty, to understand that in certain conditions, we could be cruel, too.

What is there so offensive to which habit has not the power to reconcile us?

People are kind of used to me shooting.

I've met so many people, often the scum of the earth, and found them, you know, quite decent. I am an uncomfortable stranger to moral indignation.

Scenes of blood and cruelty are shocking to our ear and heart. What man has nerve to do, man has not nerve to hear.

"Sentimentalist" is the abuse with which people counter the accusation that they are cruel, thereby implying that to be sentimental is worse that to be cruel, which it isn't.

I can't stand what people do to each other. I think we're brilliant as a species. I think we are amazing. I think that God is incredible, that He just gave us everything. Everything in our face. Everything for us to use. And sometimes we're such shitheads. And it makes me crazy.

People always get used to beauty though.

All pity choked with custom of fell deeds.

It's fashionable to be indifferent to other people's suffering

It is the curse of humanity that it learns to tolerate even the most horrible situations by habituation.

There aren't any good guys, and there aren't any bad guys. There's just us. People. Doing our best to get by.

Pity is not natural to man. Children always are cruel. Savages are always cruel.

He gives me a little shrug, like, of course, why else? And at this point, I really have no right to be surprised by people's capacity for kindness and generosity, but still, I am. I'm floored every time.

people are not good to each other. perhaps if they were our deaths would not be so sad.

Life is unjust, people can be cruel, and yet if you harden your heart, you will lose what little love there is in this world.

It’s much easier to be cruel than one might think.

My work is basically an outgrowth of the anger I feel about the human condition. The aspects of it that make me angry are our capacity for cruelty and the ability people have to ignore situations they don't like.