40. Pity
"Pity is not natural to man. Children are always cruel. Savages
are always cruel. Pity is acquired and improved by the
cultivation of reason. We may have uneasy sensations for seeing
a creature in distress, without pity; for we have not pity
unless we wish to relieve them. When I am on my way to dine with
a friend, and finding it late, have bid the coachman make haste,
if I happen to attend when he whips his horses, I may feel
unpleasantly that the animals are put to pain, but I do not wish
him to desist. No, Sir, I wish him to drive on."
Boswell: Life
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630. Old Age; Pain; Pity;
Sympathy
"If the purpose of lamentation be to excite pity, it is surely
superfluous for age and weakness to tell their plaintive stories;
for pity presupposes sympathy, and a little attention will show
them, that those who do not feel pain seldom think that it is
felt."
Johnson: Rambler #48 (September 1, 1750)
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