{ "type": "topic", "site": { "name": "Leafy Quotes", "language": "en", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com" }, "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.", "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion", "heading": "Quotes about compassion", "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion.json", "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion.md", "quotes_count": 99, "authors_count": 65, "parent": null, "children": [ { "name": "empathy", "slug": "empathy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/empathy", "heading": "Quotes about empathy" } ], "quotes": [ { "id": "f19ba452-fa0e-4e9c-b78f-8793b158af8b", "slug": "thinking-deeply-and", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virgil/the-aeneid/thinking-deeply-and", "text": "Thinking deeply, and pitying deep in his soul the injustice they suffer.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Virgil", "slug": "virgil", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virgil" }, "book": { "title": "The Aeneid", "slug": "the-aeneid", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virgil/the-aeneid" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "justice", "slug": "justice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Aeneid#Book_VI", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T08:09:58" }, { "id": "58eb6e19-6084-4e49-bd46-df0a996a8b05", "slug": "to-these-tears", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virgil/the-aeneid/to-these-tears", "text": "To these tears we grant life and pity him besides.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Virgil", "slug": "virgil", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virgil" }, "book": { "title": "The Aeneid", "slug": "the-aeneid", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virgil/the-aeneid" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" }, { "name": "mercy", "slug": "mercy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mercy" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Aeneid#Book_II", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T08:09:56" }, { "id": "d8d9791d-7967-48f0-9cb3-94ee42a57aff", "slug": "no-stranger-to-trouble", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virgil/the-aeneid/no-stranger-to-trouble", "text": "No stranger to trouble myself I am learning to care for the unhappy.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Virgil", "slug": "virgil", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virgil" }, "book": { "title": "The Aeneid", "slug": "the-aeneid", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virgil/the-aeneid" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 793, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Virgil#Book_I", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T08:09:53" }, { "id": "d06ef761-be3b-4624-8ef2-431fb0a8d739", "slug": "even-here-merit", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virgil/the-aeneid/even-here-merit", "text": "Even here, merit will have its true reward...\n\neven here, the world is a world of tears\n\nand the burdens of mortality touch the heart.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Virgil", "slug": "virgil", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virgil" }, "book": { "title": "The Aeneid", "slug": "the-aeneid", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/virgil/the-aeneid" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Virgil#Book_I", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T08:09:53" }, { "id": "565115a5-4c8d-4376-af56-17b07e4f41e9", "slug": "when-the-rabbit", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shi-naian/the-water-margin/when-the-rabbit", "text": "When the rabbit dies, the fox mourns. All are of the same animal kingdom.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Shī Nàiān", "slug": "shi-naian", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shi-naian" }, "book": { "title": "The Water Margin", "slug": "the-water-margin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shi-naian/the-water-margin" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Water_Margin#Quotations", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:49:57" }, { "id": "80026ed2-6564-4a64-9026-d7d15bece0fc", "slug": "it-is-human", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard/fear-and-trembling/it-is-human", "text": "It is human to lament, human to weep with them that weep, but it is greater to believe, more blessed to contemplate the believer.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Søren Kierkegaard", "slug": "soren-kierkegaard", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard" }, "book": { "title": "Fear and Trembling", "slug": "fear-and-trembling", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard/fear-and-trembling" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "faith", "slug": "faith", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/faith" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fear_and_Trembling#A_Panegyric_Upon_Abraham", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:01:58" }, { "id": "74ed377f-4ba4-48dd-b36d-336a1618db50", "slug": "as-if-pity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/rabbit-run/as-if-pity", "text": "As if pity is, as he has been taught, not a helpless outcry but a powerful tide that could redeem the world...", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Hoyer Updike", "slug": "john-hoyer-updike", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike" }, "book": { "title": "Rabbit, Run", "slug": "rabbit-run", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/rabbit-run" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Updike#Rabbit,_Run_(1960)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:01:55" }, { "id": "eede7772-3577-4ca1-846a-5b0c22f62a32", "slug": "pity-and-love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harriet-e-wilson/our-nig/pity-and-love", "text": "Pity and love know little severance. One attends the other. (Chapter I)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Harriet E. Wilson", "slug": "harriet-e-wilson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harriet-e-wilson" }, "book": { "title": "Our Nig", "slug": "our-nig", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harriet-e-wilson/our-nig" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "love", "slug": "love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harriet_E._Wilson#Our_Nig_(1859_novel)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:06:30" }, { "id": "68ee65de-ed57-4309-8d01-135e7a044541", "slug": "it-was-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-roth/the-radetzky-march/it-was-the", "text": "It was the face of a woman who had grown old but was still beautiful. Indeed, the nurse’s coif rejuvenated her, as it does all women, because it is in their nature to be rejuvenated by kindness and compassion and also by the external insignia of compassion.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Joseph Roth", "slug": "joseph-roth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-roth" }, "book": { "title": "The Radetzky March", "slug": "the-radetzky-march", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-roth/the-radetzky-march" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 326, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "beauty", "slug": "beauty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/beauty" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joseph_Roth#The_Radetzky_March_(1932)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:06:29" }, { "id": "486fb0e9-ca54-4731-a8e5-ca51440d0c4a", "slug": "he-could-remember", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sebastian-faulks/birdsong/he-could-remember", "text": "He could remember this compassion but he no longer felt it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sebastian Faulks", "slug": "sebastian-faulks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sebastian-faulks" }, "book": { "title": "Birdsong", "slug": "birdsong", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sebastian-faulks/birdsong" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 440, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sebastian_Faulks#Birdsong_(1993)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:06:27" }, { "id": "94d265e6-0b71-4c26-a19c-8b1973aceed3", "slug": "it-is-only", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shon-faye/the-transgender-issue/it-is-only", "text": "It is only through solidarity, compassion and radical reimagining that we can build a more just and joyful world for all of us.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Shon Faye", "slug": "shon-faye", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shon-faye" }, "book": { "title": "The Transgender Issue", "slug": "the-transgender-issue", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shon-faye/the-transgender-issue" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" }, { "name": "solidarity", "slug": "solidarity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/solidarity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Shon_Faye#Introduction", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:09" }, { "id": "f69e69e6-71b0-472a-833c-5682937b338d", "slug": "the-movements-other", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/adam-hochschild/king-leopolds-ghost/the-movements-other", "text": "The movement's other great achievement is this. Among its supporters, it kept alive a tradition, a way of seeing the world, a human capacity for outrage at pain inflicted on another human being, no matter whether that pain is inflicted on someone of another color, in another country, at another end of the earth.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Adam Hochschild", "slug": "adam-hochschild", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/adam-hochschild" }, "book": { "title": "King Leopold's Ghost", "slug": "king-leopolds-ghost", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/adam-hochschild/king-leopolds-ghost" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Adam_Hochschild#King_Leopold's_Ghost_(1998)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:43" }, { "id": "c554a3fa-26b9-4ec5-b49c-b8d714685920", "slug": "sweetgrass-is-a-teacher", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass/sweetgrass-is-a-teacher", "text": "Sweetgrass is a teacher of healing, a symbol of kindness and compassion.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robin Wall Kimmerer", "slug": "robin-wall-kimmerer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer" }, "book": { "title": "Braiding Sweetgrass", "slug": "braiding-sweetgrass", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 336, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "kindness", "slug": "kindness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/kindness" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robin_Wall_Kimmerer#Braiding_Sweetgrass_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:32" }, { "id": "44582f7c-5052-4d33-834c-8ee0069e8912", "slug": "caring-is-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass/caring-is-not", "text": "Caring is not abstract. The circle of ecological compassion we feel is enlarged by direct experience of the living world, and shrunken by its lack.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robin Wall Kimmerer", "slug": "robin-wall-kimmerer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer" }, "book": { "title": "Braiding Sweetgrass", "slug": "braiding-sweetgrass", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 240, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "nature", "slug": "nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robin_Wall_Kimmerer#Braiding_Sweetgrass_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:32" }, { "id": "c8e70165-383b-476d-9d37-09f7912879ad", "slug": "finally-resuming-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/zitkala-sa/american-indian-stories/finally-resuming-the", "text": "Finally resuming the chair at my desk I feel in keen sympathy with my fellow-creatures, for I seem to see clearly again that all are akin. The racial lines, which once were bitterly real, now serve nothing more than marking out a living mosaic of human beings. And even here men of the same color are like the ivory keys of one instrument where each resembles all the rest, yet varies from them in pitch and quality of voice. And those creatures who are for a time mere echoes of another's note are not unlike the fable of the thin sick man whose distorted shadow, dressed like a real creature, came to the old master to make him follow as a shadow. Thus with a compassion for all echoes in human guise, I greet the solemn-faced \"native preacher\" whom I find awaiting me. I listen with respect for God's creature, though he mouth most strangely the jangling phrases of a bigoted creed.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Zitkala-Sa", "slug": "zitkala-sa", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/zitkala-sa" }, "book": { "title": "American Indian Stories", "slug": "american-indian-stories", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/zitkala-sa/american-indian-stories" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "equality", "slug": "equality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/equality" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Zitkala-%C5%A0a#%22The_Great_Spirit%22", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:18" }, { "id": "399ab213-cb16-4d30-8839-cbda5588709e", "slug": "pity-is-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-toltz/a-fraction-of-the-whole/pity-is-the", "text": "Pity is the awful lost dazed brother of empathy. Pity doesn't know what to do with itself so it just goes Awwwwwww.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Steve Toltz", "slug": "steve-toltz", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-toltz" }, "book": { "title": "A Fraction Of The Whole", "slug": "a-fraction-of-the-whole", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-toltz/a-fraction-of-the-whole" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "empathy", "slug": "empathy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/empathy" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Steve_Toltz#Two", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:11" }, { "id": "ea90cda4-a4f4-47c2-bf8b-37b167d78a78", "slug": "honor-and-honesty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-alexander-percy/lanterns-on-the-levee/honor-and-honesty", "text": "Honor and honesty, compassion and truth are good even if they kill you, for they alone give life its dignity and worth. (Ch. 24)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Alexander Percy", "slug": "william-alexander-percy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-alexander-percy" }, "book": { "title": "Lanterns On The Levee", "slug": "lanterns-on-the-levee", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-alexander-percy/lanterns-on-the-levee" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "truth", "slug": "truth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" }, { "name": "dignity", "slug": "dignity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dignity" }, { "name": "honour", "slug": "honour", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/honour" }, { "name": "integrity", "slug": "integrity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/integrity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Alexander_Percy#Lanterns_on_the_Levee_(1941)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:50" }, { "id": "d42b491b-8877-40d8-9dc7-2bb767c8d3ea", "slug": "it-is-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy/all-the-pretty-horses/it-is-not", "text": "It is not my experience that life’s difficulties make people more charitable.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Cormac McCarthy", "slug": "cormac-mccarthy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy" }, "book": { "title": "All the Pretty Horses", "slug": "all-the-pretty-horses", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy/all-the-pretty-horses" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/All_the_Pretty_Horses_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:40" }, { "id": "efd4507b-2afa-42b4-bffd-301a11af5177", "slug": "in-the-hot", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/naomi-klein/this-changes-everything/in-the-hot", "text": "In the hot and stormy future we have already made inevitable through our past emissions, an unshakable belief in the equal rights of all people and a capacity for deep compassion will be the only things standing between civilization and barbarism. p. 462", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Naomi Klein", "slug": "naomi-klein", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/naomi-klein" }, "book": { "title": "This Changes Everything", "slug": "this-changes-everything", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/naomi-klein/this-changes-everything" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "equality", "slug": "equality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/equality" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/This_Changes_Everything_(book)#Conclusion:_The_Leap_Years:_Just_Enough_Time_for_Impossible", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:18" }, { "id": "ec472217-439c-418e-ad5a-3d977312bcd4", "slug": "the-sight-of-slabs", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/helen-nearing/simple-food-for-the-good-life/the-sight-of-slabs", "text": "The sight of slabs of flesh should horrify and disgust any sensitive person if they exercised their inborn compassion. Habit has dimmed their native kindliness. Their palates have become abnormally corrupted and conditioned by a taste for dead food, its flavoring and odors. People who eat slaughtered creatures every day find it hard to imagine what to substitute for meat, not realizing that meat is the substitute for vegetables.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Helen Nearing", "slug": "helen-nearing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/helen-nearing" }, "book": { "title": "Simple Food for the Good Life", "slug": "simple-food-for-the-good-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/helen-nearing/simple-food-for-the-good-life" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" }, { "name": "habits", "slug": "habits", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/habits" }, { "name": "veganism", "slug": "veganism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/veganism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Helen_Nearing#Simple_Food_for_the_Good_Life_(1980)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:04" }, { "id": "0e0287b9-9722-4fe9-8f20-459622a2b006", "slug": "he-saw-himself", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-reeman/for-my-countrys-freedom/he-saw-himself", "text": "He saw himself reflected in other people's faces, and the horror and the pity he saw there had never ceased to wound him.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Douglas Reeman", "slug": "douglas-reeman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-reeman" }, "book": { "title": "For My Country's Freedom", "slug": "for-my-countrys-freedom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-reeman/for-my-countrys-freedom" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" }, { "name": "appearance", "slug": "appearance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/appearance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Douglas_Reeman#Cap_5_%22Indomitable%22", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:01" }, { "id": "9ff65d4a-4eb5-4c18-8808-c57464e34028", "slug": "being-a-veganist", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kathy-freston/veganist/being-a-veganist", "text": "Being a veganist is good for your health, it's good for the environment, and it's certainly good for the animals, but it also has a powerful spiritual component. When you begin eating consciously, with compassion and thoughtfulness, you attain a certain lightness and inner peace, a sense of connectedness to the larger world.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kathy Freston", "slug": "kathy-freston", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kathy-freston" }, "book": { "title": "Veganist", "slug": "veganist", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kathy-freston/veganist" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" }, { "name": "veganism", "slug": "veganism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/veganism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kathy_Freston#Veganist:_Lose_Weight,_Get_Healthy,_Change_the_World_(2011)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:56" }, { "id": "7f785612-180d-478a-865d-45dc46ae2909", "slug": "dead-your-majesty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/bleak-house/dead-your-majesty", "text": "Dead, your Majesty. Dead, my lords and gentlemen. Dead, right reverends and wrong reverends of every order. Dead, men and women, born with heavenly compassion in your hearts. And dying thus around us every day.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Dickens", "slug": "charles-dickens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens" }, "book": { "title": "Bleak House", "slug": "bleak-house", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/bleak-house" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bleak_House#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:27" }, { "id": "e7ceae9e-4fee-4040-b5ab-bcd83fbc5e67", "slug": "let-the-child", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/the-prince-and-the-pauper/let-the-child", "text": "\"Let the child go,\" said he; \"ye heartless dogs, do ye not see how young and frail he is? Let him go—I will take his lashes.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Mark Twain", "slug": "mark-twain", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain" }, "book": { "title": "The Prince and the Pauper", "slug": "the-prince-and-the-pauper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/the-prince-and-the-pauper" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "courage", "slug": "courage", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/courage" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Prince_and_the_Pauper#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:26" }, { "id": "aa6516f5-ea6d-4e59-8db8-630067d0fe6f", "slug": "in-this-world", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/guy-gavriel-kay/tigana/in-this-world", "text": "In this world, where we find ourselves, we need compassion more than anything, I think, or we are all alone.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Guy Gavriel Kay", "slug": "guy-gavriel-kay", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/guy-gavriel-kay" }, "book": { "title": "Tigana", "slug": "tigana", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/guy-gavriel-kay/tigana" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 613, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "loneliness", "slug": "loneliness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Guy_Gavriel_Kay#Tigana_(1990)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:10" }, { "id": "9acd4d13-7435-413c-a2fb-fd18dd105c18", "slug": "real-success-is-about", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nigel-cumberland/100-things-successful-people-do/real-success-is-about", "text": "Real success is about helping other people succeed. To be well educated in a society of increasing illiteracy is not real success; neither is to be well fed and healthy while millions die of malnutrition.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nigel Cumberland", "slug": "nigel-cumberland", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nigel-cumberland" }, "book": { "title": "100 Things Successful People Do", "slug": "100-things-successful-people-do", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nigel-cumberland/100-things-successful-people-do" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "success and failure", "slug": "success-and-failure", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/success-and-failure" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nigel_Cumberland#100_Things_Successful_People_Do:_Little_Exercises_for_Successful_Living_(2016)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:08" }, { "id": "64ef7bff-fa86-4866-9861-2901ee46d448", "slug": "there-have-been", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/the-power-of-now/there-have-been", "text": "There have been many people for whom limitation, failure, loss, illness, or pain in whatever form turned out to be their greatest teacher. It taught them to let go of false self-images and superficial ego-dictated goals and desires. It gave them depth, humility, and compassion. It made them more real.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Eckhart Tolle", "slug": "eckhart-tolle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle" }, "book": { "title": "The Power of Now", "slug": "the-power-of-now", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/the-power-of-now" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "humility", "slug": "humility", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humility" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Now#Chapter_9._Beyond_Happiness_and_Unhappiness_There_Is_Peace", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:03" }, { "id": "ecdc0754-a600-4dee-a6c2-b89851f13679", "slug": "and-she-said", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/olive-schreiner/the-story-of-an-african-farm/and-she-said", "text": "\"And she said, in a voice strangely unlike her own: “I see the vision of a poor, weak soul striving after good. It was not cut short, and in the end it learnt, through tears and much pain, that holiness is an infinite compassion for others; that greatness is to take the common things of life and walk truly among them; that”—She moved her white hand and laid it on her forehead—“happiness is a great love and much serving. It was not cut short; and it loved what it had learnt—it loved—and—”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Olive Schreiner", "slug": "olive-schreiner", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/olive-schreiner" }, "book": { "title": "The Story of an African Farm", "slug": "the-story-of-an-african-farm", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/olive-schreiner/the-story-of-an-african-farm" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "love", "slug": "love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love" }, { "name": "happiness", "slug": "happiness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Olive_Schreiner#The_Story_of_an_African_Farm_(1883)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:50" }, { "id": "535cc74b-3d67-4b2f-a1fe-78e3c81f2929", "slug": "this-is-a-kindness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/on-the-steel-breeze/this-is-a-kindness", "text": "This is a kindness, a thing done to another human being for no reason other than compassion. A private, dignified act of basic human decency, which history, being the bastard that it is, will probably neglect to commemorate.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alastair Reynolds", "slug": "alastair-reynolds", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds" }, "book": { "title": "On the Steel Breeze", "slug": "on-the-steel-breeze", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/on-the-steel-breeze" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 304, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "kindness", "slug": "kindness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/kindness" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alastair_Reynolds#On_the_Steel_Breeze_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:42" }, { "id": "2b970fe6-bb3f-4cd2-a9c8-8db66ca53b54", "slug": "they-feared-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-storm-of-swords/they-feared-the", "text": "They feared the man I was; the man I am they'd pity.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George RR Martin", "slug": "george-rr-martin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin" }, "book": { "title": "A Storm of Swords", "slug": "a-storm-of-swords", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-storm-of-swords" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fear", "slug": "fear", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire#A_Storm_of_Swords_(2000)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:51" }, { "id": "b75c0ef4-15b4-4755-9d50-71d32ab5a2a4", "slug": "all-she-felt", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-storm-of-swords/all-she-felt", "text": "All she felt was pity, and pity was death to desire.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George RR Martin", "slug": "george-rr-martin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin" }, "book": { "title": "A Storm of Swords", "slug": "a-storm-of-swords", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-storm-of-swords" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" }, { "name": "sexual desire", "slug": "sexual-desire", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/sexual-desire" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire#A_Storm_of_Swords_(2000)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:50" }, { "id": "cd5241ab-8ff5-4a15-a3f9-c36437bbe551", "slug": "mercy-thought-theon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-clash-of-kings/mercy-thought-theon", "text": "Mercy, thought Theon as Luwin dropped back. There's a bloody trap. Too much and they call you weak, too little and you're monstrous ... His father thought only in terms of conquest, but what good was it to take a kingdom if you could not hold it? Force and fear could only carry you so far.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George RR Martin", "slug": "george-rr-martin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin" }, "book": { "title": "A Clash of Kings", "slug": "a-clash-of-kings", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-clash-of-kings" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "power", "slug": "power", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power" }, { "name": "fear", "slug": "fear", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire#A_Clash_of_Kings_(1999)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:48" }, { "id": "669d3ba8-7a8d-4197-95b2-6da0939f4b43", "slug": "what-strange-fit", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-game-of-thrones/what-strange-fit", "text": "\"What strange fit of madness led you to tell the queen that you had learned the secret of Joffrey's birth?\"\n\n\"The madness of mercy.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George RR Martin", "slug": "george-rr-martin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin" }, "book": { "title": "A Game of Thrones", "slug": "a-game-of-thrones", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-game-of-thrones" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire#A_Game_of_Thrones_(1996)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:46" }, { "id": "c83c4ab2-36e9-4f50-86ab-ffdbe55a43ff", "slug": "for-mankind-may", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edmund-cooper/seed-of-light/for-mankind-may", "text": "For mankind may survive and live without machines, and still be civilised. But without compassion, the human race can only elaborate upon the futile cunning and the barren intelligence of the great apes.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edmund Cooper", "slug": "edmund-cooper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edmund-cooper" }, "book": { "title": "Seed of Light", "slug": "seed-of-light", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edmund-cooper/seed-of-light" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "civilization", "slug": "civilization", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/civilization" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edmund_Cooper#Seed_of_Light_(1959)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:58" }, { "id": "ad1f8a48-8705-4acd-8215-7ce2b06ea150", "slug": "a-diner-having", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/derren-brown/confessions-of-a-conjuror/a-diner-having", "text": "A diner having a row with a waiter in a swanky restaurant chills the blood in a way that a quarrel over a pizza order elsewhere would never do. Compassion is rarely the custom of the privileged.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Derren Brown", "slug": "derren-brown", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/derren-brown" }, "book": { "title": "Confessions of a Conjuror", "slug": "confessions-of-a-conjuror", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/derren-brown/confessions-of-a-conjuror" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "wealth", "slug": "wealth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/wealth" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Derren_Brown#Confessions_of_a_Conjuror_(2010)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:47" }, { "id": "f6ab0462-eeb0-484b-967d-500bd3b35be4", "slug": "the-one-and", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/karen-armstrong/the-spiral-staircase/the-one-and", "text": "The one and only test of a valid religious idea, doctrinal statement, spiritual experience, or devotional practice was that it must lead directly to practical compassion. If your understanding of the divine made you kinder, more empathetic, and impelled you to express this sympathy in concrete acts of loving-kindness, this was good theology. But if your notion of God made you unkind, belligerent, cruel, or self-righteous, or if it led you to kill in God's name, it was bad theology. Compassion was the litmus test for the prophets of Israel, for the rabbis of the Talmud, for Jesus, for Paul, and for Muhammad, not to mention Confucius, Lao-tsu, the Buddha, or the sages of the Upanishads.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Karen Armstrong", "slug": "karen-armstrong", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/karen-armstrong" }, "book": { "title": "The Spiral Staircase", "slug": "the-spiral-staircase", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/karen-armstrong/the-spiral-staircase" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Karen_Armstrong#The_Spiral_Staircase:_My_Climb_Out_of_Darkness_(2004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:32" }, { "id": "edcedfaa-e457-418d-9cba-8a6204b27974", "slug": "benevolence-is-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matthieu-ricard/a-plea-for-the-animals/benevolence-is-not", "text": "Benevolence is not a commodity that needs to be distributed sparingly like cake or chocolate. It is away of being, an attitude, an intention to do good for those who enter our sphere of attention and the wish to alleviate their suffering. Loving animals also does not mean loving humans less. In fact, by also loving animals we love people better, because our benevolence is then vaster and therefore of better quality. Someone who loves only a selection of sentient beings, even of humanity, is the possessor of only fragmentary and impoverished benevolence.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Matthieu Ricard", "slug": "matthieu-ricard", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matthieu-ricard" }, "book": { "title": "A Plea for the Animals", "slug": "a-plea-for-the-animals", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matthieu-ricard/a-plea-for-the-animals" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 98, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "kindness", "slug": "kindness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/kindness" }, { "name": "animals", "slug": "animals", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Matthieu_Ricard#A_Plea_for_the_Animals_(2014)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:32" }, { "id": "cd14d71e-f6c7-49aa-91e1-e0b8a72b6ac8", "slug": "kindness-altruistic-love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matthieu-ricard/a-plea-for-the-animals/kindness-altruistic-love", "text": "Kindness, altruistic love, and compassion are qualities that do not harmonize well with bias. Restricting the field of our compassion not only diminishes it quantitatively but also qualitatively. Applying our compassion only to certain beings, human beings in this case, makes it a lesser and a poorer thing.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Matthieu Ricard", "slug": "matthieu-ricard", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matthieu-ricard" }, "book": { "title": "A Plea for the Animals", "slug": "a-plea-for-the-animals", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matthieu-ricard/a-plea-for-the-animals" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 39, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "kindness", "slug": "kindness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/kindness" }, { "name": "animals", "slug": "animals", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Matthieu_Ricard#A_Plea_for_the_Animals_(2014)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:32" }, { "id": "81d4201c-d7bf-4ac3-80dc-45f54a9002bd", "slug": "it-is-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig/beware-of-pity/it-is-not", "text": "It is not the healthy, the confident, the proud, the joyous, the happy, that one must love - they have no need of one's love! Arrogant and indifferent, they accept love only as homage that is theirs to command, as their due. The devotion of another is to them a mere embellishment, an ornament for the hair, a bracelet on the arm, not the whole meaning and bliss of their lives. Only those with whom life has dealt hardly, the wretched, the slighted, the uncertain, the unlovely, the humiliated, could really be helped by love. He who devotes his life to them atones to them for what life has taken from them. They alone know how to love and be loved as one should love - gratefully and humbly.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stefan Zweig", "slug": "stefan-zweig", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig" }, "book": { "title": "Beware of Pity", "slug": "beware-of-pity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig/beware-of-pity" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "love", "slug": "love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stefan_Zweig#Beware_of_Pity_(1939)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:29" }, { "id": "6aea61e1-f434-49ec-b025-698a6612e632", "slug": "it-is-only", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig/beware-of-pity/it-is-only", "text": "It is only at first that pity, like morphine, is a solace to the invalid, a remedy, a drug, but unless you know the correct dosage and when to stop, it becomes a virulent poison. The first few injections do good, they soothe, they deaden the pain. But the devil of it is that the organism, the body, just like the soul, has an uncanny capacity for adaptation. Just as the nervous system cries out for more and more morphine, so do the emotions cry out for more and more pity, in the end more than one can give. Inevitably there comes a moment when one has to say 'no', and then one must not mind the other person's hating one more for this ultimate refusal than if one had never helped him at all. Yes, my dear Lieutenant, one has got to keep one's pity properly in check, or it does far more harm than any amount of indifference — we doctors know that, and so do judges and myrmidons of the law and pawn-brokers; if they were all to give way to their pity, this world of ours would stand still - a dangerous thing pity, a dangerous thing!", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stefan Zweig", "slug": "stefan-zweig", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig" }, "book": { "title": "Beware of Pity", "slug": "beware-of-pity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig/beware-of-pity" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stefan_Zweig#Beware_of_Pity_(1939)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:29" }, { "id": "125b8551-3744-4533-907d-68d5a38cfe94", "slug": "and-i-said", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig/beware-of-pity/and-i-said", "text": "And I said to myself: From now on help anyone and everyone so far as it lies within your power. Cease to be apathetic, indifferent! Exalt yourself by devoting yourself to others, enrich yourself by making everyone's destiny your own, by enduring and understanding every facet of human suffering through your pity. And my heart, astonished at its own workings, quivered with gratitude to the sick girl whom I had hurt unwittingly and who, through her suffering, had taught me the creative magic of pity.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stefan Zweig", "slug": "stefan-zweig", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig" }, "book": { "title": "Beware of Pity", "slug": "beware-of-pity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig/beware-of-pity" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" }, { "name": "altruism", "slug": "altruism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/altruism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stefan_Zweig#Beware_of_Pity_(1939)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:29" }, { "id": "713ca89d-3530-490e-a419-cd3d63f5abe5", "slug": "there-are-two", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig/beware-of-pity/there-are-two", "text": "There are two kinds of pity. One, the weak and sentimental kind, which is really no more than the heart's impatience to be rid as quickly as possible of the painful emotion aroused by the sight of another's unhappiness, that pity which is not compassion, but only an instinctive desire to fortify one's own soul against the sufferings of another; and the other, the only one at counts, the unsentimental but creative kind, which knows what it is about and is determined to hold out, in patience and forbearance, to the very limit of its strength and even beyond.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stefan Zweig", "slug": "stefan-zweig", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig" }, "book": { "title": "Beware of Pity", "slug": "beware-of-pity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig/beware-of-pity" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "empathy", "slug": "empathy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/empathy" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stefan_Zweig#Beware_of_Pity_(1939)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:28" }, { "id": "60b4c482-d3dd-45bd-b81c-fa48eb98ec50", "slug": "long-protracted-suffering-is-apt", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig/beware-of-pity/long-protracted-suffering-is-apt", "text": "Long-protracted suffering is apt to exhaust not only the invalid, but the compassion of others; violent emotions cannot be prolonged endlessly.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stefan Zweig", "slug": "stefan-zweig", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig" }, "book": { "title": "Beware of Pity", "slug": "beware-of-pity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig/beware-of-pity" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stefan_Zweig#Beware_of_Pity_(1939)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:28" }, { "id": "2c38a600-a17f-4667-bd5f-af4b4b987ebd", "slug": "inevitably-in-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig/beware-of-pity/inevitably-in-the", "text": "Inevitably, in the secret chemistry of the emotions the feeling of pity for a sick person is imperceptibly bound up with tenderness.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stefan Zweig", "slug": "stefan-zweig", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig" }, "book": { "title": "Beware of Pity", "slug": "beware-of-pity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig/beware-of-pity" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" }, { "name": "illness", "slug": "illness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/illness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stefan_Zweig#Beware_of_Pity_(1939)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:28" }, { "id": "4cb3925e-ced9-495f-a2e9-63eb6514e278", "slug": "if-her-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/stillness-speaks/if-her-past", "text": "If her past were your past, her pain your pain, her level of consciousness your level of consciousness, you would think and act exactly as she does. With this realization comes forgiveness, compassion, peace. (Ch 8)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Eckhart Tolle", "slug": "eckhart-tolle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle" }, "book": { "title": "Stillness Speaks", "slug": "stillness-speaks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/stillness-speaks" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "empathy", "slug": "empathy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/empathy" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" }, { "name": "forgiveness", "slug": "forgiveness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/forgiveness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eckhart_Tolle#Stillness_Speaks_(2003)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:00" }, { "id": "07cea0c7-2e6e-4efb-bebd-f5a01a809db6", "slug": "on-karla-has", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-le-carre/smileys-people/on-karla-has", "text": "On Karla has descended the curse of Smiley's compassion; on Smiley the curse of Karla's fanaticism. I have destroyed him with the weapons I abhorred, and they are his. We have crossed each other's frontiers, we are the no-men of this no-man's-land.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John le Carré", "slug": "john-le-carre", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-le-carre" }, "book": { "title": "Smiley's People", "slug": "smileys-people", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-le-carre/smileys-people" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fanaticism", "slug": "fanaticism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fanaticism" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" }, { "name": "enemies", "slug": "enemies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/enemies" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Smiley's_People#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:54" }, { "id": "defc1653-adca-4c16-95f3-3877422ff71c", "slug": "the-beauty-and", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orhan-pamuk/my-name-is-red/the-beauty-and", "text": "The beauty and mystery of this world only emerges through affection, attention, interest and compassion; if you want to live in that paradise where happy mares and stallions live, open your eyes wide and actually see this world by attending to its colors, details and irony.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Orhan Pamuk", "slug": "orhan-pamuk", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orhan-pamuk" }, "book": { "title": "My Name Is Red", "slug": "my-name-is-red", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orhan-pamuk/my-name-is-red" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 282, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "beauty", "slug": "beauty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/beauty" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Orhan_Pamuk#My_Name_Is_Red_(1998)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:49" }, { "id": "d5530669-1135-4eb5-8937-76cff06fe235", "slug": "how-odd-it-is-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-bronte/the-tenant-of-wildfell-hall/how-odd-it-is-that", "text": "How odd it is that we so often weep for each other’s distresses, when we shed not a tear for our own!", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Anne Brontë", "slug": "anne-bronte", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-bronte" }, "book": { "title": "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall", "slug": "the-tenant-of-wildfell-hall", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-bronte/the-tenant-of-wildfell-hall" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "empathy", "slug": "empathy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/empathy" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anne_Bront%C3%AB#The_Tenant_of_Wildfell_Hall_(1848)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:28" }, { "id": "7b8de43c-864a-4d9a-8a4d-159c2902efe5", "slug": "it-wasnt-a-matter", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/speaker-for-the-dead/it-wasnt-a-matter", "text": "It wasn’t a matter of confession, penance, and absolution, like the priests offered. It was something else entirely. Telling the story of who she was, and then realizing that she was no longer the same person. That she had made a mistake, and the mistake had changed her, now she had become someone else, someone less afraid, someone more compassionate.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Orson Scott Card", "slug": "orson-scott-card", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card" }, "book": { "title": "Speaker for the Dead", "slug": "speaker-for-the-dead", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/speaker-for-the-dead" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "change", "slug": "change", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change" }, { "name": "mistakes", "slug": "mistakes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mistakes" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Speaker_for_the_Dead#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:43" }, { "id": "213a49d4-61f8-44a4-b585-34e911978eda", "slug": "we-are-a-compassionate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/the-exception-to-the-rulers/we-are-a-compassionate", "text": "We are a compassionate people. But people cannot take action if they don't have accurate information.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Amy Goodman", "slug": "amy-goodman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman" }, "book": { "title": "The Exception To The Rulers", "slug": "the-exception-to-the-rulers", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/the-exception-to-the-rulers" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "media", "slug": "media", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Amy_Goodman#The_Exception_to_the_Rulers_written_with_David_Goodman_(2004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:15" }, { "id": "c688dd3e-9fbf-4ab1-b3d5-539bf3858a3d", "slug": "for-that-is-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-mailer/the-naked-and-the-dead/for-that-is-the", "text": "For that is the genius of the old man — Tolstoy teaches us that compassion is of value and enriches our life only when compassion is severe, which is to say when we can perceive everything that is good and bad about a character but are still able to feel that the sum of us as human beings is probably a little more good than awful … That fine edge in Tolstoy, the knowledge that compassion is valueless without severity (for otherwise it cannot defend itself against sentimentality), gave The Naked and the Dead whatever enduring virtue it may possess and catapulted the amateur who wrote it into the grim ranks of those successful literary men and women who are obliged to become professional in order to survive …", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Norman Mailer", "slug": "norman-mailer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-mailer" }, "book": { "title": "The Naked and the Dead", "slug": "the-naked-and-the-dead", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-mailer/the-naked-and-the-dead" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "literature", "slug": "literature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/literature" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Norman_Mailer#The_Naked_and_the_Dead_(1948)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:12" }, { "id": "91ca7f0f-66ea-444f-8cb7-2561724cc832", "slug": "we-shouldnt-have", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/margaret-atwood/the-year-of-the-flood/we-shouldnt-have", "text": "“We shouldn't have been so scornful; we should have had compassion. But compassion takes work, and we were young.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Margaret Atwood", "slug": "margaret-atwood", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/margaret-atwood" }, "book": { "title": "The Year of the Flood", "slug": "the-year-of-the-flood", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/margaret-atwood/the-year-of-the-flood" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "youth", "slug": "youth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Margaret_Atwood#The_Year_of_the_Flood_(2009)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:11" }, { "id": "8741877d-fc52-47d3-a446-d1f5c6987a78", "slug": "this-is-pity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead/this-is-pity", "text": "\"This is pity,\" he thought, and then he lifted his head in wonder. He thought that there must be something terribly wrong with a world in which this monstrous feeling is called a virtue.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ayn Rand", "slug": "ayn-rand", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand" }, "book": { "title": "The Fountainhead", "slug": "the-fountainhead", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 632, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Fountainhead#Part_IV_(_Howard_Roark_)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:09" }, { "id": "0c0a5c43-0ff5-4cd8-b78c-89694fd97e34", "slug": "i-am-supposing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/howard-zinn/a-peoples-history-of-the-united-states/i-am-supposing", "text": "I am supposing, or perhaps only hoping, that our future may be found in the past's fugitive moments of compassion rather than in its solid centuries of warfare.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Howard Zinn", "slug": "howard-zinn", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/howard-zinn" }, "book": { "title": "A People's History of the United States", "slug": "a-peoples-history-of-the-united-states", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/howard-zinn/a-peoples-history-of-the-united-states" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Howard_Zinn#A_People's_History_of_the_United_States_(1980%3B_2003)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:05" }, { "id": "138f7c86-cfb1-4119-b486-0b758178b85a", "slug": "there-is-no-proportion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/primo-levi/the-drowned-and-the-saved/there-is-no-proportion", "text": "There is no proportion between the pity we feel and the extent of the pain by which the pity is aroused: a single Anne Frank excites more emotion than the myriads who suffered as she did but whose image has remained in the shadows. Perhaps it is necessary that it can be so; if we had to and were able to suffer the sufferings of everyone, we could not live.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Primo Levi", "slug": "primo-levi", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/primo-levi" }, "book": { "title": "The Drowned and the Saved", "slug": "the-drowned-and-the-saved", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/primo-levi/the-drowned-and-the-saved" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Primo_Levi#The_Drowned_and_the_Saved_(1986)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:46:33" }, { "id": "ec09c0ee-3255-4424-8f4c-82d839c6e7eb", "slug": "compassion-existed-when", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-erikson/the-bonehunters/compassion-existed-when", "text": "Compassion existed when and only when one could step outside oneself, to suddenly see the bars from inside the cage.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Steven Erikson", "slug": "steven-erikson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-erikson" }, "book": { "title": "The Bonehunters", "slug": "the-bonehunters", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-erikson/the-bonehunters" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Steven_Erikson#The_Bonehunters_(2006)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:46:32" }, { "id": "1b9c1fed-6990-4161-8a63-db21361979c4", "slug": "so-much-had", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-erikson/the-bonehunters/so-much-had", "text": "So much had changed inside him. He was no believer in causes, not any more. Certainty was an illusion, a lie. Fanaticism was poison in the soul, and the first victim in its inexorable, ever-growing list was compassion. Who could speak of freedom, when one's soul was bound in chains?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Steven Erikson", "slug": "steven-erikson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-erikson" }, "book": { "title": "The Bonehunters", "slug": "the-bonehunters", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-erikson/the-bonehunters" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fanaticism", "slug": "fanaticism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fanaticism" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Steven_Erikson#The_Bonehunters_(2006)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:46:32" }, { "id": "ecfb4b70-fe51-42e8-affa-3b9186cb2fe7", "slug": "pity-is-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-joyce/a-portrait-of-the-artist-as-a-young-man/pity-is-the", "text": "Pity is the feeling which arrests the mind in the presence of whatsoever is grave and constant in human sufferings and unites it with the sufferer. Terror is the feeling which arrests the mind in the presence of whatsoever is grave and constant in human sufferings and unites it with the secret cause.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "James Joyce", "slug": "james-joyce", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-joyce" }, "book": { "title": "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man", "slug": "a-portrait-of-the-artist-as-a-young-man", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-joyce/a-portrait-of-the-artist-as-a-young-man" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "fear", "slug": "fear", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Portrait_of_the_Artist_as_a_Young_Man#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:54" }, { "id": "d7db53a8-3d78-4cca-80c1-ace0474feea5", "slug": "he-could-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen/persuasion/he-could-not", "text": "He could not forgive her, but he could not be unfeeling. Though condemning her for the past, and considering it with high and unjust resentment, though perfectly careless of her, and though becoming attached to another, still he could not see her suffer, without the desire of giving her relief. It was a remainder of former sentiment; it was an impulse of pure, though unacknowledged friendship; it was a proof of his own warm and amiable heart, which she could not contemplate without emotions so compounded of pleasure and pain, that she knew not which prevailed.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jane Austen", "slug": "jane-austen", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen" }, "book": { "title": "Persuasion", "slug": "persuasion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen/persuasion" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" }, { "name": "forgiveness", "slug": "forgiveness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/forgiveness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Persuasion_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:48" }, { "id": "545157c0-0b81-4f3a-80df-2f87767ca80e", "slug": "let-your-compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein/let-your-compassion", "text": "Let your compassion be moved, and do not disdain me. Listen to my tale; when you have heard that, abandon or commiserate me, as you shall judge that I deserve. But hear me. The guilty are allowed, by human laws, bloody as they are, to speak in their own defense before they are condemned. Listen to me, Frankenstein. You accuse me of murder, and yet you would, with a satisfied conscience, destroy your own creature. Oh, praise the eternal justice of man! Yet I ask you not to spare me; listen to me, and then, if you can, and if you will, destroy the work of your hands.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Mary Shelley", "slug": "mary-shelley", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley" }, "book": { "title": "Frankenstein", "slug": "frankenstein", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-shelley/frankenstein" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "justice", "slug": "justice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:46" }, { "id": "acda1304-0b0f-4a4c-b401-49088026f6c6", "slug": "i-feel-sad", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/don-delillo/white-noise/i-feel-sad", "text": "I feel sad for people and the queer part we play in our own disasters – Jack", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Don DeLillo", "slug": "don-delillo", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/don-delillo" }, "book": { "title": "White Noise", "slug": "white-noise", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/don-delillo/white-noise" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/White_Noise_(novel)#Jack", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:38" }, { "id": "d9ff1034-2505-48fc-84d6-be0b6f3b89a5", "slug": "any-time-you", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-de-mello/one-minute-wisdom/any-time-you", "text": "Any time you are with anyone or think of anyone you must say to yourself: I am dying and this person too is dying, attempting the while to experience the truth of the words you are saying. If every one of you agrees to practise this, bitterness will die out, harmony will arise.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Anthony De Mello", "slug": "anthony-de-mello", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-de-mello" }, "book": { "title": "One Minute Wisdom", "slug": "one-minute-wisdom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-de-mello/one-minute-wisdom" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anthony_de_Mello#One_Minute_Wisdom_(1989)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:47" }, { "id": "d003c55a-78c6-44c0-85f9-4452509d8bb6", "slug": "nelson-to-annabelle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/rabbit-remembered/nelson-to-annabelle", "text": "[Nelson, to Annabelle] \"The misery of the world,\" he says, reaching into himself to overcome her resistance. \"That's what I kept thinking during my group this morning – the pity of everything, all of us, these confused souls trying so pathetically hard to break out of the fog – to see through our compulsions, our needs as they chew us up...\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Hoyer Updike", "slug": "john-hoyer-updike", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike" }, "book": { "title": "Rabbit Remembered", "slug": "rabbit-remembered", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/rabbit-remembered" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Updike#Rabbit_Remembered_(2000)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:31" }, { "id": "a3b321c9-cbc4-4ae3-86c2-85ab3c7ea0e2", "slug": "something-about-being", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/rabbit-at-rest/something-about-being", "text": "Something about being helpless in bed, people hit you up for sympathy. They've got you where they want you.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Hoyer Updike", "slug": "john-hoyer-updike", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike" }, "book": { "title": "Rabbit at Rest", "slug": "rabbit-at-rest", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/rabbit-at-rest" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" }, { "name": "illness", "slug": "illness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/illness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Updike#Rabbit_at_Rest_(1990)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:30" }, { "id": "2ebb69ae-2ca6-44d8-a546-f60865d6d818", "slug": "he-who-walks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-mackay/extraordinary-popular-delusions-and-the-madness-of-crowds/he-who-walks", "text": "He who walks through a great city to find subjects for weeping, may, God knows, find plenty at every corner to wring his heart; but let such a man walk on his course, and enjoy his grief alone — we are not of those who would accompany him. The miseries of us poor earthdwellers gain no alleviation from the sympathy of those who merely hunt them out to be pathetic over them. The weeping philosopher too often impairs his eyesight by his woe, and becomes unable from his tears to see the remedies for the evils which he deplores. Thus it will often be found that the man of no tears is the truest philanthropist, as he is the best physician who wears a cheerful face, even in the worst of cases.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Mackay", "slug": "charles-mackay", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-mackay" }, "book": { "title": "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds", "slug": "extraordinary-popular-delusions-and-the-madness-of-crowds", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-mackay/extraordinary-popular-delusions-and-the-madness-of-crowds" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Mackay_(author)#Extraordinary_Popular_Delusions_and_the_Madness_of_Crowds_(1841)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:06" }, { "id": "ad8574c0-b53d-41d0-b3b6-f20e664e1ae0", "slug": "pity-for-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-romantic-manifesto/pity-for-the", "text": "Pity for the guilty is treason to the innocent.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ayn Rand", "slug": "ayn-rand", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand" }, "book": { "title": "The Romantic Manifesto", "slug": "the-romantic-manifesto", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-romantic-manifesto" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "justice", "slug": "justice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand#The_Romantic_Manifesto_(1969)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:53" }, { "id": "fe914995-1149-4bbb-981f-f999e468182c", "slug": "my-own-long", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emma-goldman/living-my-life/my-own-long", "text": "My own long struggle to find my bearings, the disillusionments and disappointments I had experienced, had made me less dogmatic in my demands on people than I had been. They had helped me to understand the hard and lonely life of the rebel who had fought for an unpopular cause. Whatever bitterness I had felt against my old teacher had given way to deep sympathy long before his death. (about Johann Most)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Emma Goldman", "slug": "emma-goldman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emma-goldman" }, "book": { "title": "Living My Life", "slug": "living-my-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emma-goldman/living-my-life" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "loneliness", "slug": "loneliness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" }, { "name": "rebellion", "slug": "rebellion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/rebellion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emma_Goldman#Living_My_Life_(1931)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:23" }, { "id": "6a1994a8-bd12-40cb-b808-5eb0936b55ee", "slug": "my-mother-had", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-p-feynman/what-do-you-care-what-other-people-think/my-mother-had", "text": "My mother ... had a wonderful sense of humor, and I learned from her that the highest forms of understanding we can achieve are laughter and human compassion.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Richard P. Feynman", "slug": "richard-p-feynman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-p-feynman" }, "book": { "title": "What Do You Care What Other People Think?", "slug": "what-do-you-care-what-other-people-think", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-p-feynman/what-do-you-care-what-other-people-think" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 19, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" }, { "name": "laughter", "slug": "laughter", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/laughter" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman#What_Do_You_Care_What_Other_People_Think%3F_(1988)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:00" }, { "id": "8d6ceeea-d879-462b-abf5-f35d896eaef3", "slug": "it-is-better", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/dune/it-is-better", "text": "It is better to be envied than pitied.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Frank Herbert", "slug": "frank-herbert", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert" }, "book": { "title": "Dune", "slug": "dune", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/dune" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" }, { "name": "jealousy", "slug": "jealousy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/jealousy" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dune#Dune:_The_Machine_Crusade_(2003)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:50" }, { "id": "546f8a3f-c74a-4c7b-aab0-001ca71a0f6c", "slug": "in-democratic-ages", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/in-democratic-ages", "text": "In democratic ages men rarely sacrifice themselves for another, but they show a general compassion for all the human race. One never sees them inflict pointless suffering, and they are glad to relieve the sorrows of others when they can do so without much trouble to themselves. They are not disinterested, but they are gentle.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alexis de Tocqueville", "slug": "alexis-de-tocqueville", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville" }, "book": { "title": "Democracy in America", "slug": "democracy-in-america", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "democracy", "slug": "democracy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/democracy" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" }, { "name": "sacrifice", "slug": "sacrifice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/sacrifice" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alexis_de_Tocqueville#Democracy_in_America,_Volume_II_(1840)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:38" }, { "id": "f14b63c9-38e1-42b3-a852-bed8ca3607f2", "slug": "what-a-pity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-r-r-tolkien/the-fellowship-of-the-ring/what-a-pity", "text": "'What a pity that Bilbo did not stab that vile creature, when he had a chance!'\n\n'Pity? It was Pity that stayed his hand. Pity, and Mercy: not to strike without need. And he has been well rewarded, Frodo. Be sure that he took so little hurt from the evil, and escaped in the end, because he began his ownership of the Ring so. With Pity.'", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "J. R. R. Tolkien", "slug": "j-r-r-tolkien", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-r-r-tolkien" }, "book": { "title": "The Fellowship of the Ring", "slug": "the-fellowship-of-the-ring", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-r-r-tolkien/the-fellowship-of-the-ring" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" }, { "name": "mercy", "slug": "mercy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mercy" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Fellowship_of_the_Ring#The_Shadow_of_the_Past", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:20" }, { "id": "e5d5d405-bdec-4483-8670-bae25283ac91", "slug": "what-did-trishs", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-sedaris/barrel-fever/what-did-trishs", "text": "What did Trish's mother say when her daughter, heartbroken over her breakup with Randy, came to her in search of love and understanding?\n\n'If you're looking for sympathy you can find it between shit and syphilis in the dictionary.'", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "David Sedaris", "slug": "david-sedaris", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-sedaris" }, "book": { "title": "Barrel Fever", "slug": "barrel-fever", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-sedaris/barrel-fever" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 23, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" }, { "name": "mother", "slug": "mother", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mother" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Sedaris#Barrel_Fever_(1994)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:57" }, { "id": "e2d44df9-19e1-4c9f-85d5-861552676bea", "slug": "ive-never-any", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/the-mill-on-the-floss/ive-never-any", "text": "I've never any pity for conceited people, because I think they carry their comfort about with them.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George Eliot", "slug": "george-eliot", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot" }, "book": { "title": "The Mill on the Floss", "slug": "the-mill-on-the-floss", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/the-mill-on-the-floss" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" }, { "name": "vanity", "slug": "vanity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/vanity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Eliot#The_Mill_on_the_Floss_(1860)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:50" }, { "id": "13d9310f-bebe-4212-bca1-46e8b479967d", "slug": "more-helpful-than", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/the-mill-on-the-floss/more-helpful-than", "text": "More helpful than all wisdom is one draught of simple human pity that will not forsake us.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George Eliot", "slug": "george-eliot", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot" }, "book": { "title": "The Mill on the Floss", "slug": "the-mill-on-the-floss", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/the-mill-on-the-floss" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Eliot#The_Mill_on_the_Floss_(1860)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:50" }, { "id": "55c33420-20a5-4a9a-a590-d9d7e23f4a55", "slug": "doubtless-a-great", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/adam-bede/doubtless-a-great", "text": "Doubtless a great anguish may do the work of years, and we may come out from that baptism of fire with a soul full of new awe and new pity.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George Eliot", "slug": "george-eliot", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot" }, "book": { "title": "Adam Bede", "slug": "adam-bede", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/adam-bede" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" }, { "name": "personal growth", "slug": "personal-growth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/personal-growth" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Eliot#Adam_Bede_(1859)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:49" }, { "id": "a28050b7-9d74-41b0-8502-f3b2405b31de", "slug": "i-think-of-so-many", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born/i-think-of-so-many", "text": "I think of so many people who are no more, and I pity them. Yet they are not so much to be pitied, for they have solved every problem, beginning with the problem of death.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Emil Cioran", "slug": "emil-cioran", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran" }, "book": { "title": "The Trouble With Being Born", "slug": "the-trouble-with-being-born", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emil_Cioran#The_Trouble_With_Being_Born_(1973)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:41" }, { "id": "f7111bc3-ec8d-40b8-a155-ecc4d39da0ae", "slug": "he-will-never", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/he-will-never", "text": "He will never set two dogs to fight, he will never set a dog to chase a cat. This peaceful spirit is one of the results of his education, which has never stimulated self-love or a high opinion of himself, and so has not encouraged him to seek his pleasure in domination and in the sufferings of others. The sight of suffering makes him suffer too; this is a natural feeling. It is one of the after effects of vanity that hardens a young man and makes him take a delight in seeing the torments of a living and feeling creature; it makes him consider himself beyond the reach of similar sufferings through his superior wisdom or virtue. He who is beyond the reach of vanity cannot fall into the vice which results from vanity. So Emile loves peace. He is delighted at the sight of happiness, and if he can help to bring it about, this is an additional reason for sharing it. I do not assume that when he sees the unhappy he will merely feel for them that barren and cruel pity which is content to pity the ills it can heal. His kindness is active and teaches him much he would have learnt far more slowly, or he would never have learnt at all, if his heart had been harder. If he finds his comrades at strife, he tries to reconcile them; if he sees the afflicted, he inquires as to the cause of their sufferings; if he meets two men who hate each other, he wants to know the reason of their enmity; if he finds one who is down-trodden groaning under the oppression of the rich and powerful, he tries to discover by what means he can counteract this oppression, and in the interest he takes with regard to all these unhappy persons, the means of removing their sufferings are never out of his sight. What use shall we make of this disposition so that it may re-act in a way suited to his age? Let us direct his efforts and his knowledge, and use his zeal to increase them.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jean Jacques Rousseau", "slug": "jean-jacques-rousseau", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau" }, "book": { "title": "Emile; or On Education", "slug": "emile-or-on-education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" }, { "name": "peace", "slug": "peace", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/peace" }, { "name": "vanity", "slug": "vanity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/vanity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emile,_or_On_Education#Book_IV", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:35" }, { "id": "fbd27d5a-325f-48fe-81ee-c42f0bc94179", "slug": "third-maxim-the-pity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/third-maxim-the-pity", "text": "THIRD MAXIM.—The pity we feel for others is proportionate, not to the amount of the evil, but to the feelings we attribute to the sufferers.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jean Jacques Rousseau", "slug": "jean-jacques-rousseau", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau" }, "book": { "title": "Emile; or On Education", "slug": "emile-or-on-education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emile,_or_On_Education#Book_IV", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:34" }, { "id": "ef3b58f8-875c-4ffd-8aca-feb12edb93ff", "slug": "hence-it-follows", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/hence-it-follows", "text": "Hence it follows that we are drawn towards our fellow-creatures less by our feeling for their joys than for their sorrows; for in them we discern more plainly a nature like our own, and a pledge of their affection for us. If our common needs create a bond of interest our common sufferings create a bond of affection. The sight of a happy man arouses in others envy rather than love, we are ready to accuse him of usurping a right which is not his, of seeking happiness for himself alone, and our selfishness suffers an additional pang in the thought that this man has no need of us. But who does not pity the wretch when he beholds his sufferings? who would not deliver him from his woes if a wish could do it? Imagination puts us more readily in the place of the miserable man than of the happy man; we feel that the one condition touches us more nearly than the other. Pity is sweet, because, when we put ourselves in the place of one who suffers, we are aware, nevertheless, of the pleasure of not suffering like him. Envy is bitter, because the sight of a happy man, far from putting the envious in his place, inspires him with regret that he is not there. The one seems to exempt us from the pains he suffers, the other seems to deprive us of the good things he enjoys.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jean Jacques Rousseau", "slug": "jean-jacques-rousseau", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau" }, "book": { "title": "Emile; or On Education", "slug": "emile-or-on-education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emile,_or_On_Education#Book_IV", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:34" }, { "id": "b40226b7-1f8c-4e1e-9bf5-fc5f7773a61d", "slug": "habit-accustoms-us-to-everything", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/habit-accustoms-us-to-everything", "text": "Habit accustoms us to everything. What we see too much, we no longer imagine; and it is only imagination which makes us feel the ills of others. It is thus by dint of seeing death and suffering that priests and doctors become pitiless.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jean Jacques Rousseau", "slug": "jean-jacques-rousseau", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau" }, "book": { "title": "Emile; or On Education", "slug": "emile-or-on-education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" }, { "name": "habits", "slug": "habits", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/habits" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emile,_or_On_Education#Book_IV", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:34" }, { "id": "99d675eb-a0cc-41e5-9384-217b30adb187", "slug": "a-young-man-on", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/a-young-man-on", "text": "A young man, on the other hand, brought up in happy innocence, is drawn by the first stirrings of nature to the tender and affectionate passions; his warm heart is touched by the sufferings of his fellow-creatures; he trembles with delight when he meets his comrade, his arms can embrace tenderly, his eyes can shed tears of pity; he learns to be sorry for offending others through his shame at causing annoyance. If the eager warmth of his blood makes him quick, hasty, and passionate, a moment later you see all his natural kindness of heart in the eagerness of his repentance; he weeps, he groans over the wound he has given; he would atone for the blood he has shed with his own; his anger dies away, his pride abases itself before the consciousness of his wrong-doing. Is he the injured party, in the height of his fury an excuse, a word, disarms him; he forgives the wrongs of others as whole-heartedly as he repairs his own. Adolescence is not the age of hatred or vengeance; it is the age of pity, mercy, and generosity. Yes, I maintain, and I am not afraid of the testimony of experience, a youth of good birth, one who has preserved his innocence up to the age of twenty, is at that age the best, the most generous, the most loving, and the most lovable of men. You never heard such a thing; I can well believe that philosophers such as you, brought up among the corruption of the public schools, are unaware of it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jean Jacques Rousseau", "slug": "jean-jacques-rousseau", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau" }, "book": { "title": "Emile; or On Education", "slug": "emile-or-on-education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "youth", "slug": "youth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" }, { "name": "forgiveness", "slug": "forgiveness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/forgiveness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emile,_or_On_Education#Book_IV", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:34" }, { "id": "4cbf54fa-9f0d-42f8-b866-5c62231e5d1a", "slug": "first-maxim-it-is-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/first-maxim-it-is-not", "text": "FIRST MAXIM.—It is not in human nature to put ourselves in the place of those who are happier than ourselves, but only in the place of those who can claim our pity.\n\nThe happiness belonging to certain states of life appeals to us; take, for instance, the life of a shepherd in the country. The charm of seeing these good people so happy is not poisoned by envy; we are genuinely interested in them. Why is this? Because we feel we can descend into this state of peace and innocence and enjoy the same happiness.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jean Jacques Rousseau", "slug": "jean-jacques-rousseau", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau" }, "book": { "title": "Emile; or On Education", "slug": "emile-or-on-education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "happiness", "slug": "happiness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" }, { "name": "jealousy", "slug": "jealousy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/jealousy" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emile,_or_On_Education#Book_IV", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:34" }, { "id": "4a82b39f-323c-428a-baf3-6bb23f9cc18d", "slug": "so-do-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/so-do-not", "text": "So do not train your pupil to look down from the height of his glory upon the sufferings of the unfortunate, the labours of the wretched, and do not hope to teach him to pity them while he considers them as far removed from himself. Make him thoroughly aware of the fact that the fate of these unhappy persons may one day be his own, that his feet are standing on the edge of the abyss, into which he may be plunged at any moment by a thousand unexpected irresistible misfortunes. Teach him to put no trust in birth, health, or riches; show him all the changes of fortune; find him examples—there are only too many of them—in which men of higher rank than himself have sunk below the condition of these wretched ones.\n\nAbove all do not teach him this, like his catechism, in cold blood; let him see and feel the calamities which overtake men; surprise and startle his imagination with the perils which lurk continually about a man's path; let him see the pitfalls all about him, and when he hears you speak of them, let him cling more closely to you for fear lest he should fall. \"You will make him timid and cowardly,\" do you say? We shall see; let us make him kindly to begin with, that is what matters most.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jean Jacques Rousseau", "slug": "jean-jacques-rousseau", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau" }, "book": { "title": "Emile; or On Education", "slug": "emile-or-on-education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fate", "slug": "fate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fate" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" }, { "name": "upbringing", "slug": "upbringing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/upbringing" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emile,_or_On_Education#Book_IV", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:34" }, { "id": "245a206e-e912-47d3-adc4-c21bfa771deb", "slug": "second-maxim-we-never", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/second-maxim-we-never", "text": "SECOND MAXIM.—We never pity another's woes unless we know we may suffer in like manner ourselves.\n\nWhy have kings no pity on their people? Because they never expect to be ordinary men. Why are the rich so hard on the poor? Because they have no fear of becoming poor. Why do the nobles look down upon the people? Because a nobleman will never be one of the lower classes.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jean Jacques Rousseau", "slug": "jean-jacques-rousseau", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau" }, "book": { "title": "Emile; or On Education", "slug": "emile-or-on-education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "wealth", "slug": "wealth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/wealth" }, { "name": "poverty", "slug": "poverty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/poverty" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emile,_or_On_Education#Book_IV", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:34" }, { "id": "888c0a37-8849-4167-94f7-348bbc0e030c", "slug": "and-thus-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/and-thus-the", "text": "And thus the soul pities God and feels itself pitied by him; loves Him and feels loved by Him, sheltering its misery in the bosom of the eternal and infinite misery, which, in eternalizing itself and infinitizing itself, is the supreme happiness itself.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Miguel de Unamuno", "slug": "miguel-de-unamuno", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno" }, "book": { "title": "Tragic Sense of Life", "slug": "tragic-sense-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "god", "slug": "god", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god" }, { "name": "soul", "slug": "soul", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/soul" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Miguel_de_Unamuno#VII_:_Love,_Suffering,_Pity", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:22" }, { "id": "79cd94fe-45e9-4fe5-9f48-830fee7ee362", "slug": "consciousness-conscientia-is-participated", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/consciousness-conscientia-is-participated", "text": "Consciousness (conscientia) is participated knowledge, is co-feeling, and co-feeling is com-passion. Love personalizes all that it loves. Only by personalizing it can we fall in love with an idea. And when love is so great and so vital, so strong and so overflowing, that it loves everything, then it personalizes everything and discovers that the total All, that the Universe, is also a person possessing a Consciousness, a Consciousness which in its turn suffers, pities, and loves, and therefore is consciousness. And this Consciousness of the Universe, which a love, personalizing all that it loves, discovers, is what we call God.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Miguel de Unamuno", "slug": "miguel-de-unamuno", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno" }, "book": { "title": "Tragic Sense of Life", "slug": "tragic-sense-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "love", "slug": "love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love" }, { "name": "god", "slug": "god", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Miguel_de_Unamuno#VII_:_Love,_Suffering,_Pity", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:22" }, { "id": "13cc02a6-08fe-4ae8-83bf-8a5a1f2e4c6c", "slug": "i-have-told", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/i-have-told", "text": "I have told you that... we know nothing save what we have first, in one way or another, desired; and it may even be added that we can know nothing well save what we love, save what we pity.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Miguel de Unamuno", "slug": "miguel-de-unamuno", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno" }, "book": { "title": "Tragic Sense of Life", "slug": "tragic-sense-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "love", "slug": "love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love" }, { "name": "knowledge", "slug": "knowledge", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/knowledge" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Miguel_de_Unamuno#VII_:_Love,_Suffering,_Pity", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:22" }, { "id": "11e1e97a-7b01-4a74-9da7-6d134456f405", "slug": "the-bitterest-sorrow", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/the-bitterest-sorrow", "text": "\"The bitterest sorrow that man can know is to aspire to do much and to achieve nothing\"… so Herodotus relates that a Persian said to a Theban at a banquet (book ix., chap. xvi.). And it is true. With knowledge and desire we can embrace everything , or almost everything; with the will nothing, or almost nothing. And contemplation is not happiness — no! not if this contemplation implies impotence. And out of this collision between our knowledge and our power pity arises.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Miguel de Unamuno", "slug": "miguel-de-unamuno", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno" }, "book": { "title": "Tragic Sense of Life", "slug": "tragic-sense-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Miguel_de_Unamuno#VII_:_Love,_Suffering,_Pity", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:22" }, { "id": "143e13b4-4add-4af7-afb8-870ac8ac4216", "slug": "a-curious-emotion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four/a-curious-emotion", "text": "A curious emotion stirred in Winston's heart. In front of him was an enemy who was trying to kill him: in front of him, also, was a human creature, in pain and perhaps with a broken bone. Already he had instinctively started forward to help her. In the moment when he had seen her fall on the bandaged arm, it had been as though he felt the pain in his own body.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George Orwell", "slug": "george-orwell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell" }, "book": { "title": "Nineteen Eighty-Four", "slug": "nineteen-eighty-four", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four#Chapter_1", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:13" }, { "id": "563b3292-fb14-4ba8-86c0-ea87e74f3ce4", "slug": "by-one-of-those", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/homage-to-catalonia/by-one-of-those", "text": "By one of those strokes of luck that happen about once in a year I had managed to drop the bomb almost exactly where the rifle had flashed. There was the roar of the explosion and then, instantly, a diabolical outcry of screams and groans. We had got one of them, anyway; I don't know whether he was killed, but certainly he was badly hurt. Poor wretch, poor wretch! I felt a vague sorrow as I heard him screaming.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George Orwell", "slug": "george-orwell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell" }, "book": { "title": "Homage to Catalonia", "slug": "homage-to-catalonia", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/homage-to-catalonia" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Orwell#Homage_to_Catalonia_(1938)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:11" }, { "id": "f386e058-a596-4ca3-a0da-b5e666d99c65", "slug": "it-is-those", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/howards-end/it-is-those", "text": "It is those who cannot connect who hasten to cast the first stone.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "E.M. Forster", "slug": "em-forster", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster" }, "book": { "title": "Howards End", "slug": "howards-end", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/howards-end" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "relationships", "slug": "relationships", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/relationships" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/E._M._Forster#Howards_End_(1910)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:00" }, { "id": "40590c7c-f925-419d-a533-dda1c6c9641d", "slug": "nobody-can-tell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen/pride-and-prejudice/nobody-can-tell", "text": "\"Nobody can tell what I suffer! — But it is always so. Those who do not complain are never pitied.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jane Austen", "slug": "jane-austen", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen" }, "book": { "title": "Pride and Prejudice", "slug": "pride-and-prejudice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-austen/pride-and-prejudice" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pride_and_Prejudice#Chapters_11-20", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:52" }, { "id": "9b6b698c-7a91-438e-a885-c3adce6821a6", "slug": "no-flocks-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/oliver-goldsmith/the-vicar-of-wakefield/no-flocks-that", "text": "No flocks that range the valley free\n\nTo slaughter I condemn;\n\nTaught by that Power that pities me,\n\nI learn to pity them:\n\nBut from the mountain’s grassy side\n\nA guiltless feast I bring;\n\nA scrip with herbs and fruits supplied,\n\nAnd water from the spring.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Oliver Goldsmith", "slug": "oliver-goldsmith", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/oliver-goldsmith" }, "book": { "title": "The Vicar of Wakefield", "slug": "the-vicar-of-wakefield", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/oliver-goldsmith/the-vicar-of-wakefield" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "animals", "slug": "animals", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Oliver_Goldsmith#The_Vicar_of_Wakefield_(1766)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:49" }, { "id": "74b5e9aa-15ea-4c1a-9327-34e83e21e0d3", "slug": "i-shall-temper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-milton/paradise-lost/i-shall-temper", "text": "I shall temper so\n\nJustice with mercy.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Milton", "slug": "john-milton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-milton" }, "book": { "title": "Paradise Lost", "slug": "paradise-lost", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-milton/paradise-lost" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "justice", "slug": "justice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paradise_Lost#Book_X", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:48" }, { "id": "be168113-665f-440b-bf7d-cd56cd601ce5", "slug": "our-sympathy-is-cold", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-gibbon/the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire/our-sympathy-is-cold", "text": "Our sympathy is cold to the relation of distant misery.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edward Gibbon", "slug": "edward-gibbon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-gibbon" }, "book": { "title": "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire", "slug": "the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-gibbon/the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_Gibbon#The_History_of_the_Decline_And_Fall_Of_The_Roman_Empire_(1776%E2%80%931788)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:42" }, { "id": "a28d995c-7df3-4b6c-b1f2-3b80a78fc542", "slug": "in-a-distant", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-gibbon/the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire/in-a-distant", "text": "In a distant age and climate the tragic scene of the death of Hussyn will awaken the sympathy of the coldest reader.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edward Gibbon", "slug": "edward-gibbon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-gibbon" }, "book": { "title": "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire", "slug": "the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-gibbon/the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_Gibbon#The_History_of_the_Decline_And_Fall_Of_The_Roman_Empire_(1776%E2%80%931788)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:42" }, { "id": "d379db51-bd5d-4e03-965c-f21c80358d0f", "slug": "then-we-understand", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-rebel/then-we-understand", "text": "\"Then we understand that rebellion cannot exist without a strange form of love. Those who find no rest in God or in history are condemned to live for those who, like themselves, cannot live; in fact, for the humiliated.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Albert Camus", "slug": "albert-camus", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus" }, "book": { "title": "The Rebel", "slug": "the-rebel", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-rebel" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "love", "slug": "love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Camus#The_Rebel_(1951)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:37:57" }, { "id": "380c7b20-30b1-4cf6-ab3b-fcf5d6a0ca54", "slug": "i-would-ask", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities/i-would-ask", "text": "\"I would ask you, dearest, to be very generous with him always, and very lenient on his faults when he is not by. I would ask you to believe that he has a heart he very, very seldom reveals, and that there are deep wounds in it. My dear, I have seen it bleeding.\"\n\n\"It is a painful reflection to me,\" said Charles Darnay, quite astounded, \"that I should have done him any wrong. I never thought this of him.\"\n\n\"My husband, it is so. I fear he is not to be reclaimed; there is scarcely a hope that anything in his character or fortunes is reparable now. But, I am sure that he is capable of good things, gentle things, even magnanimous things.\"\n\nShe looked so beautiful in the purity of her faith in this lost man, that her husband could have looked at her as she was for hours.\n\n\"And, O my dearest Love!\" she urged, clinging nearer to him, laying her head upon his breast, and raising her eyes to his, \"remember how strong we are in our happiness, and how weak he is in his misery!\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Dickens", "slug": "charles-dickens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens" }, "book": { "title": "A Tale of Two Cities", "slug": "a-tale-of-two-cities", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "kindness", "slug": "kindness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/kindness" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Tale_of_Two_Cities#Chapter_XX_-_A_Plea", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:32:32" }, { "id": "f503a691-4e91-4ecc-8a61-88467b375868", "slug": "there-is-little", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-luther-king-jr/strength-to-love/there-is-little", "text": "There is little hope for us until we become toughminded enough to break loose from the shackles of prejudice, half-truths, and downright ignorance. The shape of the world today does not permit us the luxury of softmindedness. A nation or a civilization that continues to produce softminded men purchases its own spiritual death on an installment plan.\n\nBut we must not stop with the cultivation of a tough mind. The gospel also demands a tender heart. ... What is more tragic than to see a person who has risen to the disciplined heights of toughmindedness but has at the same time sunk to the passionless depths of hardheartedness?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Martin Luther King, Jr.", "slug": "martin-luther-king-jr", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-luther-king-jr" }, "book": { "title": "Strength to Love", "slug": "strength-to-love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-luther-king-jr/strength-to-love" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "thinking", "slug": "thinking", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking" }, { "name": "compassion", "slug": "compassion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.#Strength_to_Love_(1963)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:32:29" } ] }