Compassion quotes

How the Other Half Lives, Preface, Project Gutenberg #45502. Riis explains that his belief that honest firsthand experience should be worth something to the community led him to write the book. The sentence belongs to his Progressive-era reform and investigative-journalism project about New York tenement conditions, not a universal rule about public service.

Les Misérables, Project Gutenberg #135, in the represented Isabel F. Hapgood public-domain English translation. The sentence occurs in the narrator’s reflection on love and blindness; its English phrasing is translation-specific and belongs to the novel’s moral-religious rhetoric.

The Analects of Confucius, James Legge’s public-domain English translation; Book XV states the principle in a compact sentence about access to teaching.

Jo's Boys, Chapter 1, Project Gutenberg #3499. Narrator commentary about former Plumfield pupils returning as adults; it is not Alcott autobiography.

The Analects of Confucius, James Legge’s public-domain English translation; Book XV gives the maxim as a concise rule for conduct toward others.

Twenty Years at Hull-House, Project Gutenberg #1325. Addams is describing the democratic and social motives that drew young reformers toward settlement work; the sentence belongs to a historical argument for common civic life rather than a neutral empirical law.

The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Part II, Section II, Chapter III; the sentence contrasts justice as society’s foundation with beneficence as its ornament.

Speech to the National Woman’s Rights Convention, New York, May 1866, represented by the National Constitution Center historical document. Harper links racial injustice, women’s inequality, civil liberty and shared social responsibility in a Reconstruction-era argument for universal rights.

“Griefs,” Poems: Third Series (1896), Project Gutenberg #12242. The poem explores comparison and recognition of suffering rather than offering a clinical scale for grief.

Essays, “Of Friendship,” Project Gutenberg #56463. Bacon follows his contrast between crowds and real company by describing the absence of true friends as a deeper form of solitude.

Philippians 2:4 in the King James Version.

Up from Slavery, Chapter XI, “Making Their Beds Before They Could Lie On Them,” Project Gutenberg #2376. Washington says he learned from General Armstrong to reject racial hatred and applies that lesson specifically to hostility and wrongs inflicted on Black Americans; the historical context remains explicit rather than becoming generic advice to ignore mistreatment.

Dombey and Son, Chapter 16, Project Gutenberg #821. The words are associated with the dying child Paul and his sister Florence; they are fictional dialogue, not Dickens autobiography.

Isaiah 1:17 in the King James Version.

What All The World’s A-Seeking, Part I, “The Principle,” printed page 29 in the represented 1896 page-text witness, cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #14312. Trine argues that a person who forgets self in service, helpfulness and kindliness finds the self “growing and expanding.” This remains historical conduct-of-life / New Thought moral argument rather than a guaranteed psychological outcome from service.

Dombey and Son, Chapter 35, Project Gutenberg #821. Edith speaks to Florence; the line belongs to their fictional relationship inside the Dombey household.

The Way of Peace; Allen contrasts temporary comfort with a spiritual peace that he says remains stable through trial.

The Art of Money Getting, “Be Polite and Kind to Your Customers”; Barnum treats civility as a practical part of durable commercial reputation.

The Age of Reason, Part I, Chapter I, “The Author’s Profession of Faith”; Moncure Daniel Conway collected/edited text represented by Project Gutenberg #3743 and cross-checked against Wikisource. The retained catalog wording says “I believe in the equality of man,” while the Conway/Gutenberg and Wikisource witness reads “I believe the equality of man.” This collection keeps its frozen legacy wording and discloses the edition-level variant rather than silently rewriting it. The passage is Paine’s deist profession of faith joining equality, justice, mercy and the happiness of fellow-creatures.

The Gospel of Wealth, first sentence of the 1889 essay “Wealth.” Carnegie’s position is a historical normative argument about concentrated wealth, not a neutral description of modern economics.

The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Part III, in Smith’s discussion of the rewards commonly associated with industry, truth, justice, and humanity.

Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863.

Thrift, Preface; original Preface dated London, November 1875, verified in Project Gutenberg #14418’s represented John Murray Fiftieth Thousand witness (London, 1892). “The essence of generosity is self-sacrifice” immediately follows Smiles’s claim that justice and generosity require self-denial. This collection preserves the Victorian ethical argument rather than treating the maxim as a complete modern definition of generosity.

Proverbs 19:17 in the King James Version, linking compassion for the poor with moral accountability.

The Innocents Abroad (1869), Conclusion (Wikisource Chapter LXII). Immediately after the prejudice sentence Twain argues that broad, wholesome and charitable views cannot be acquired by remaining in one small corner of the earth. Verified against the scan-backed 1869 first edition and retained as historical travel argument rather than an empirical guarantee.

The World I Live In (1908), Chapter I, “The Seeing Hand,” printed page 3, Project Gutenberg #27683. Keller says that paradise is attained by touch and that “in touch is all love and intelligence” while introducing touch as her primary mode of contact with people and the world; this is first-person reflective testimony, not a clinical model for all deaf-blind experience.

Matthew 18:22 in the King James Version; Jesus answers Peter’s question about how often a brother should be forgiven.

Character Building, “Have You Done Your Best?”, Project Gutenberg #60484. The excerpt is part of Washington’s invitation to review the school year honestly.

Rights of Man, Part II; the surrounding passage attributes much ordinary social coordination to society itself.

Hebrews 8:12, King James Version; the verse quotes the new-covenant promise and closes it with mercy and non-remembrance of sins.

De Amicitia (Laelius de Amicitia), chapter 6 / classical section 20, Andrew P. Peabody translation, Project Gutenberg #7491. Laelius defines friendship as entire fellow feeling in human and divine things joined with mutual goodwill and affection. Cicero remains the work author while Gaius Laelius is the local dialogue speaker; this is ancient ethical-philosophical argument rather than a modern empirical definition of friendship.

Jo's Boys, Chapter 4, Project Gutenberg #3499. Mrs Jo is discussing parental guidance; the excerpt stops before the longer sentence develops self-knowledge and self-control.

Rights of Man, Part I; represented through Moncure Daniel Conway’s public-domain Project Gutenberg collection.

On Benefits (De Beneficiis), Book IV, section 18, Aubrey Stewart English translation (1887). This is Seneca’s rhetorical question in an argument that ingratitude weakens human association; it is historical Stoic moral philosophy, not an empirical public-safety claim.

Pudd’nhead Wilson, Calendar epigraph before the oyster-habits joke.

Acts 20:35 in the King James Version; Paul recalls the saying while urging support for the weak.

Rights of Man, Part I, Conclusion; represented from Moncure Daniel Conway’s public-domain Project Gutenberg #3742 collection. The passage attributes national hostility to old systems of government rather than to an inevitable enmity between people.

Luke 10:37 in the King James Version.

Genesis 50:17, King James Version; Joseph’s brothers send a message asking pardon for their earlier wrongdoing against him.

Newer Ideals of Peace, Chapter VIII, ‘Passing of the War Virtues,’ around printed page 216 in the represented 1907 text, Project Gutenberg #69879. Addams argues that patriotism must change with the conditions of a large cosmopolitan nation and criticizes a patriotism founded primarily on military prowess and defence. The sentence remains Progressive-era political and peace argument rather than a neutral modern definition of patriotism.