quotations about sympathy
One who can listen to our tale of grief,
And feel a pleasure, if he bring relief?
The face which spoke its sorrow and its pain
Then quickly learns to wear bright smiles again,
And gloomy shadows, brooding o'er the heart,
All fly, when Sympathy performs her part.
J. STRATTON
Fireside Poems
SYMPATHY, akin to pity, may be styled one of the passions or deep feelings of the human heart, the inmost soul. Without sympathy we are without all that is Godlike in our nature, and more fit to be classed with "fiends" than with our fellow mortals. The heart that cannot be touched by the sight of human woe and suffering, must indeed be a hard heart. I should pick out as a truly courageous and brave man, and one likely to be foremost in any danger, he who could first shed the tear of sympathy for a brother or sister in distress. A hard heart is never really a brave heart. It is in the power of everyone to give sympathy in distress, if they cannot give assistance. A kind word to one in distress is like helping to hold up a falling heart, or like a push behind when going up a steep hill. The beasts of the field, and the birds of the air, often feel deep sympathy for one another when in pain or suffering. I have seen it made apparent in many ways. Then remembering your immortal and never-dying souls, and Christ's great sympathy for you, be not worse than the beasts of the earth, but sympathise one with the other when in pain, mental or bodily.
T. AUGUSTUS FORBES LEITH
"On Sympathy", Short Essays
Like the sea-anemone, which feels the first returning wave upon the rock, and throws out all its tendrils, so the tender nature of some individuals will give forth all its sympathies at the slightest intimations of woe.
JOHN EVERETT
The Bible Class Magazine, Volume 8
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
Miscellaneous Prose Works
And sympathy is what we need my friends
'Cause there's not enough love to go 'round
BING CROSBY
"Sympathy"
To be without sympathy is to be alone in the world--without friends or country, home or kindred.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
Yet, taught by time, my heart has learned to glow
For other's good, and melt at other's woe.
HOMER
The Odyssey
If your heart is filled with human sympathy you are sure to have friends.
LEWIS F. KORNS
Thoughts
To weep and lament over misfortunes, when it draws the sympathizing tear, brings no light recompense.
AESCHYLUS
attributed, Day's Collacon
Sympathy beyond the confines of man, that is, humanity to the lower animals, seems to be one of the latest moral acquisitions.
CHARLES DARWIN
The Descent of Man
Dislike is much easier to handle than sympathy.
AMIE KAUFMAN
These Broken Stars
We must laugh at man to avoid crying for him.
NAPOLEON BONAPARTE
The Table Talk and Opinions of Napoleon Bonaparte
When we fully understand the brevity of life, its fleeting joys and unavoidable pains; when we accept the facts that all men and women are approaching an inevitable doom: the consciousness of it should make us more kindly and considerate of each other. This feeling should make men and women use their best efforts to help their fellow travelers on the road, to make the path brighter and easier as we journey on. It should bring a closer kinship, a better understanding, and a deeper sympathy for the wayfarers who must live a common life and die a common death.
CLARENCE DARROW
The Essential Writings of Clarence Darrow
A man's sympathy extends just so far as his wisdom reaches, and no further; and a man only grows wiser as he grows tenderer and more compassionate. To narrow one's sympathy is to narrow one's heart, and so to darken and embitter one's life.
JAMES ALLEN
Byways to Blessedness
Sympathy is as lightning; it is quick as thought; it waits not to make its selections; it is irrespective of considerations, and of partialities, and of tastes, and of cold prudence.
ISAAC TAYLOR
attributed, Day's Collacon
For I no sooner in my heart divin'd,
My heart, which by a secret harmony
Still moves with thine, joined in connection sweet.
JOHN MILTON
Paradise Lost
One advantage gained by calamities, is to know how to sympathize with others in the like troubles.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
Though sympathy can't alter facts, it can help to make them more bearable.
BRAM STOKER
Dracula
He watch'd and wept, he pray'd and felt for all.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH
The Deserted Village
Who can tell what metals the gods use in forging the subtle bond which we call sympathy, which we might as well call love.
KATE CHOPIN
The Awakening