Mastodawn

What do we owe our parents? No man can owe love; none can owe obedience. We owe, I think, chiefly pity; for we are the pledge of their dear and joyful union, we have been the solicitude of their days and the anxiety of their nights, we have made them, though by no will of ours, to carry the burthen of our sins, sorrows, and physical infirmities; and too many of us grow up at length to disappoint the purpose of their lives and requite their care and piety with cruel pangs.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1880-01/02?), “Reflections and Remarks on Human Life,” § 2.2 “Parent and Child”

More about this quote: wist.info/stevenson-robert-lou…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #robertlouisstevenson #children #disappointment #filialduty #generations #love #parenting #parents #pity

Stevenson, Robert Louis - Essay (1880-01/02?), "Reflections and Remarks on Human Life," § 2.2 "Parent and Child" | WIST Quotations

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WIST Quotations Apr 23

A quotation from Josh Billings

I believe pitty iz more ov an impulse than a principle, for we seldum respekt thoze that we pitty.

[I believe pity is more of an impulse than a principle, for we seldom respect those that we pity.]

Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax, 1874-11 (1874 ed.)

More about this quote: wist.info/billings-josh/83630/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #joshbillings #disrespect #pity #respect

Billings, Josh - Josh Billings' Farmer's Allminax, 1874-11 (1874 ed.) | WIST Quotations

I believe pitty iz more ov an impulse than a principle, for we seldum respekt thoze that we pitty. [I believe pity is more of an impulse than a principle, for we seldom respect those that we pity.]

WIST Quotations

WIST Quotations Apr 2

A quotation from Josh Billings

Q. — What is pity?
A. — Cheap charity.

Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax, 1871-12 (1871 ed.)

More about this quote: wist.info/billings-josh/83154/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #joshbillings #charity #compassion #effort #pity #sacrifice #sympathy

Billings, Josh - Josh Billings' Farmer's Allminax, 1871-12 (1871 ed.) | WIST Quotations

Q. -- What is pity? A. -- Cheap charity. Repeated in 1874-11.

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Quick Quotes Mar 12

“Even the cry from the depths is an affirmation: Why cry if there is no hint or hope of hearing?”
― Martin Marty

#Bot #Quote #Self #Pity

damian entwistle Jan 30

Prague Poem
- by Aleš Mustar

https://www.tumblr.com/ukdamo/807176798078124032/prague-poem?source=share

#AlesMustar #poetry #prague #praha #refugee #pity #pitiless

Post by @ukdamo

💬 0 🔁 0 ❤️ 0 · Prague Poem · Aleš Mustar, translated by Manja Maksimovič On the Charles Bridge instead of a passion play hordes of tourists with short-term memory loss unknowingly enact the rol…

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93.7 The Fan 🤖Dec 16

We haven’t played our best volleyball yet
#Pity’s Olivia Babcock as they head to the Final 4

Simone Dec 2

RE: https://flipboard.com/@lastampa/la-stampa-tecnologia-p9foenhqz/-/a-7N3pOTWCSh27uIWwrmDUmA%3Aa%3A174132866-%2F0

In Italy, the day after #mariodraghi reccomends to invest in AI, closes a small research center (30 researchers) focused on AI and several projects, some against #fakenews and #misinformation.

0,8 M loss. While #OpenAI sits on #billions of profit-less investments.

This is really a #pity and yet another bad omen on #EU future. After “loosing the train” of #internet #socialnetworks #e-economy #smartphones EU cannot afford to loose also the opportunity of #AI

WIST Quotations Has Moved!Nov 25, 2025

A quotation from the Bible

Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them, those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured.

[μιμνῄσκεσθε τῶν δεσμίων ὡς συνδεδεμένοι, τῶν κακουχουμένων ὡς καὶ αὐτοὶ ὄντες ἐν σώματι.]

The Bible (The New Testament) (AD 1st - 2nd C) Christian sacred scripture
Hebrews 13: 3 [NRSV (2021 ed.)]

More info about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/bible-nt/80457/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #bible #newtestament #hebrews #compassion #jail #mistreatment #penalsystem #pity #prison #prisoner #suffering #torture #loveyourneighbor

Hebrews 13: 3 [NRSV (2021 ed.)] - Bible, vol. 2, New Testament | WIST Quotations

Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them, those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured. [μιμνῄσκεσθε τῶν δεσμίων ὡς συνδεδεμένοι, τῶν κακουχουμένων ὡς καὶ αὐτοὶ ὄντες ἐν σώματι.] (Source (Greek)). Alternate translations: Remember them that are in bonds, as…

WIST Quotations

WIST Quotations Has Moved!Oct 21, 2025

A quotation from Hannah Arendt

What stuck in the minds of these men who had become murderers was simply the notion of being involved in something historic, grandiose, unique (“a great task that occurs once in two thousand years”), which must therefore be difficult to bear. This was important, because the murderers were not sadists or killers by nature; on the contrary, a systematic effort was made to weed out all those who derived physical pleasure from what they did. The troops of the Einsatzgruppen had been drafted from the Armed S.S., a military unit with hardly more crimes in its record than any ordinary unit of the German Army, and their commanders had been chosen by Heydrich from the S.S. élite with academic degrees. Hence the problem was how to overcome not so much their conscience as the animal pity by which all normal men are affected in the presence of physical suffering. The trick used by Himmler — who apparently was rather strongly afflicted by these instinctive reactions himself — was very simple and probably very effective; it consisted in turning these instincts around, as it were, in directing them toward the self. So that instead of saying: What horrible things I did to people!, the murderers would be able to say: What horrible things I had to watch in the pursuance of my duties, how heavily the task weighed upon my shoulders!

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, ch. 6 (1963)

More info about this quote: wist.info/arendt-hannah/13940/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #hannaharendt #banalityofevil #burden #difficulty #duty #genocide #Holocaust #killer #murder #murderer #persuasion #pity #selfcenteredness #selfdeception #selfpity #task #selfjustification