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“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”
Voice: Fictional character · Countess of Roussillon
The advice combines generosity with judgment: goodwill can be broad while trust remains selective.
Source note: All’s Well That Ends Well, Act 1, Scene 1; the Countess gives Bertram compact advice about conduct before he leaves.
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“For hatred does not cease by hatred at any time: hatred ceases by love, this is an old rule.”
Retaliation tends to reproduce hostility, while refusing to answer hatred with hatred creates the possibility of ending the cycle rather than extending it.
Source note: Dhammapada, early verses in Max Müller’s translation; the passage contrasts retaliation with non-hatred.
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“Love a man even in his sin, for that is the semblance of Divine Love and is the highest love on earth.”
Voice: Fictional character · Father Zossima
Father Zossima separates care for a person from approval of wrongdoing, locating mercy inside his explicitly Christian teaching that human failure should not extinguish love.
Source note: The Brothers Karamazov, Father Zossima’s discourse, Constance Garnett translation, Project Gutenberg #28054. This is fictional theological speech by Zossima; it should not be flattened into a modern psychological rule or uncomplicated Dostoevsky autobiography.
Source identified
“I believe in the equality of man, and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavouring to make our fellow-creatures happy.”
Paine’s profession of faith combines deistic belief with an ethical emphasis on equality, justice, mercy, and the practical happiness of other people.
Source note: The Age of Reason, Part I, Chapter I, “The Author’s Profession of Faith”; represented from the Conway Project Gutenberg edition.
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“To err is human; to forgive, divine.”
Error is treated as ordinary human limitation, while forgiveness requires an additional act of generosity.
Source note: An Essay on Criticism, Part II; Pope warns that shallow learning can produce premature confidence before deeper study tempers judgment.
Source identified
“He that hath mercy on the poor, happy is he.”
Happiness is linked with mercy toward people in need, shifting the focus from private possession toward useful generosity.
Source note: Proverbs 14:21 in the King James Version; concluding clause of the verse.