Quotes & anectdotes from
the wise,
the foolish,
the courageous &
the drunk

sympathy

All sympathy not consistent with acknowledged virtue is but disguised selfishness.

Sympathy is charming, but it does not make up for pain.

If there was less sympathy in the world, there would be less trouble in the world.

Those who weep recover more quickly than those who smile.

Grief knits two hearts in closer bonds than happiness ever can and common sufferings are far stronger links than common joys.

I joined the Party definitely in 1923 after having already been in sympathy with it before.

Marriage must be a relation either of sympathy or of conquest.

To desire and expect nothing for oneself and to have profound sympathy for others is genuine holiness.

Excessive sorrow laughs. Excessive joy weeps.

I would rather be kept alive in the efficient if cold altruism of a large hospital than expire in a gush of warm sympathy in a small one.

Tears are the silent language of grief.

I feel sympathy for the working class lad. I've always championed about ticket prices and try to equate that to people's salaries.

Interest does not tie nations together it sometimes separates them. But sympathy and understanding does unite them.

Deliberately seek opportunities for kindness, sympathy, and patience.

When we are out of sympathy with the young, then I think our work in this world is over.

The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual. The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community.

There is no greater sorrow than to recall happiness in times of misery.

If you suppress grief too much, it can well redouble.

Truly, it is in darkness that one finds the light, so when we are in sorrow, then this light is nearest of all to us.

Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath and a glass of wine.

When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

Our trials, our sorrows, and our grieves develop us.

Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people.

The heart forgets its sorrow and ache.

There is no grief like the grief that does not speak.

Sorrow is a fruit. God does not make it grow on limbs too weak to bear it.

He bit his lip in a manner which immediately awakened my maternal sympathy, and I helped him bite it.

Here bring your wounded hearts, here tell your anguish Earth has no sorrow that Heaven cannot heal.

It's hard for me to think of others because I'm not particularly in sympathy with the music of this century.

Our sympathy is cold to the relation of distant misery.

Grief is only the memory of widowed affections.

Children require guidance and sympathy far more than instruction.

The only cure for grief is action.

The natural effect of sorrow over the dead is to refine and elevate the mind.

When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.

Sympathy is two hearts tugging at one load.

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength.

And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks to his own funeral drest in his shroud.

I sometimes get that wonderful sympathy between me and the audience, telling me I've reached their hearts. And when I do, the thrill is mine.

I will indulge my sorrows, and give way to all the pangs and fury of despair.

Women have no sympathy and my experience of women is almost as large as Europe.

Autumn wins you best by this its mute appeal to sympathy for its decay.

It is in our faults and failings, not in our virtues, that we touch each other, and find sympathy. It is in our follies that we are one.

Recognition of belligerency as an expression of sympathy is all very well.

Any mind that is capable of real sorrow is capable of good.

One often calms one's grief by recounting it.

Happiness is beneficial for the body, but it is grief that develops the powers of the mind.

Teetotallers lack the sympathy and generosity of men that drink.

It appears to be a law that you cannot have a deep sympathy with both man and nature.

The true humanist maintains a just balance between sympathy and selection.

We must not permit our respect for the dead or our sympathy for the living to lead us into an act of injustice to the balance of the living.

The more sympathy you give, the less you need.

The humanitarian lays stress almost solely upon breadth of knowledge and sympathy.

You will find that the woman who is really kind to dogs is always one who has failed to inspire sympathy in men.

Sympathy is the first condition of criticism.