Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Kindness
Kindness is wisdom. There is none in life
But needs it and may learn.
Bailey—Festus. Sc. Home.
Both man and womankind belie their nature
When they are not kind.
Bailey—Festus. Sc. Home.
Have you had a kindness shown?
Pass it on;
’Twas not given for thee alone,
Pass it on;
Let it travel down the years,
Let it wipe another’s tears,
’Till in Heaven the deed appears—
Pass it on.
Rev. Henry Burton—Pass It On.
I would help others out of a fellow-feeling.
Burton—Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
Sed tamen difficile dictu est, quantopere conciliat animos hominum comitas affabilitasque sermonis.
It is difficult to tell how much men’s minds are conciliated by a kind manner and gentle speech.
Cicero—De Officiis. II. 14.
Their cause I plead—plead it in heart and mind;
A fellow-feeling makes one wondrous kind.
David Garrick—Epilogue on Quitting the Stage. June, 1776.
And Heaven, that every virtue bears in mind,
E’en to the ashes of the just is kind.
Homer—Iliad. Bk. XXIV. L. 523. Pope’s trans.
Though he was rough, he was kindly.
Longfellow—Courtship of Miles Standish. Pt. III.
The greater the kindred is, the lesse the kindnesse must bee.
Lyly—Mother Bombie. Act III. Sc. 1.
There’s no dearth of kindness
In this world of ours;
Only in our blindness
We gather thorns for flowers.
Gerald Massey—There’s no Dearth of Kindness.
Colubram sustulit
Sinuque fovet, contra se ipse misericors.
He carried and nourished in his breast a snake, tender-hearted against his own interest.
Phædrus—Fables. Bk. IV. 18.
Sociis atque amicis auxilia portabant Romani, magisque dandis quam accipiundis beneficiis amicitias parabant.
The Romans assisted their allies and friends, and acquired friendships by giving rather than receiving kindness.
Sallust—Catilina. VI.
Ubicumque homo est, ibi beneficio locus est.
Wherever there is a human being there is an opportunity for a kindness.
Seneca—Thyestes. CCXIV.
A little more than kin, and less than kind.
Hamlet. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 65.
When your head did but ache,
I knit my handkerchief about your brows,
The best I had, a princess wrought it me,
And I did never ask it you again;
And with my hand at midnight held your head,
And, like the watchful minutes to the hour,
Still and anon cheer’d up the heavy time,
Saying, “What lack you?” and, “Where lies your grief?”
King John. Act IV. Sc. 1. L. 41.
Yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness.
Macbeth. Act I. Sc. 5. L. 14.
Bis gratum est, quod dato opus est, ultro si offeras.
If what must be given is given willingly the kindness is doubled.
Syrus—Maxims.
Pars beneficii est, quod petitur, si cito neges.
It is kindness immediately to refuse what you intend to deny.
Syrus—Maxims.
On that best portion of a good man’s life,
His little, nameless, unremembered acts
Of kindness and of love.
Wordsworth—Lines Composed Above Tintern Abbey.