Pity is the most pleasant feeling in those who have not much pride and have no prospect of great conquests; for them the easy prey - and that is what all who suffer are - is enchanting.
Compassion is a living, breathing, organic emotion that vibrates through you and links you to those around you.
Not being untutored in suffering, I learn to pity those in affliction
Compassion and pity are very different. Whereas compassion reflects the yearning of the heart to merge and take on some of the suffering, pity is a controlled set of thoughts designed to assure separateness. Compassion is the spontaneous response of love; pity, the involuntary reflex of fear.
Compassion is not helpless pity, but an awareness and determination that demands action.
One can show no greater respect than to weep for a stranger.
I don't notice any sympathy for them in [ Nicholas Kristof] column. If you're writing a column saying the people for Trump are Nazis and Klansman and North Korean dictators.
Compassion is the ability to see how it all is.
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.
I think I love most people best when they are in adversity; for pity is one of my prevailing passions.
They tell us that "Pity is akin to Love;" if so, Pity must be a poor relation.
Sometimes, in difficult circumstances, one can confuse compassion with love.
Sympathy is a sweet thing.
To have compassion for those who suffer is a human quality which everyone should possess, especially those who have required comfort themselves in the past and have managed to find it in others.
