A Quote by Mason Cooley

Cruelty is softened by fear, not pity.

Mason Cooley

Quote Topics

Cruelty Fear Pity

Quote Author

Mason Cooley
American - Writer
1927 - 2002

Religion is based ... mainly upon fear ... fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand. My own view on religion is that of Lucretius. I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race.

Bertrand Russell

Cruelty isn't softened by tears; it feeds on them.

Publilius Syrus

When the severity of the law is to be softened, let pity, not bribes, be the motive.

Miguel de Cervantes

Pain is a gift. Humanity, without pain, would know neither fear nor pity. Without fear, there could be no humility, and every man would be a monster. The recognition of pain and fear in others give rise in us to pity, and in our pity is our humanity, our redemption.

Dean Koontz

Compassion and pity are very different. Whereas compassion reflects the yearning of the heart to merge and take on some of the suffering, pity is a controlled set of thoughts designed to assure separateness. Compassion is the spontaneous response of love; pity, the involuntary reflex of fear.

Ram Dass

Pity is for this life, pity is the worm inside the meat, pity is the meat, pity is the shaking pencil, pity is the shaking voice-- not enough money, not enough love--pity for all of us--it is our grace, walking down the ramp or on the moving sidewalk, sitting in a chair, reading the paper, pity, turning a leaf to the light, arranging a thorn.

Jane Austen

too great pity is the greatest cruelty.

St. Catherine of Siena

Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion go hand in hand.

Bertrand Russell

Ah, children, pity level-crossing keepers, pity lock-keepers - pity lighthouse-keepers - pity all the keepers of this world (pity even school teachers), caught between their conscience and the bleak horizon.

Graham Swift

The human mind is never better disposed to gratitude and attachment than when softened by fear.

Charles James

Fear is isolating for those that fear. And I have come to believe that fear is a cruelty to those who are feared.

Eula Biss

The recognition of pain and fear in others give rise in us to pity, and in our pity is our humanity, our redemption.

Dean Koontz

Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand-in-hand. It is because fear is at the basis of those two things. In this world we can now begin a little to understand things, and a little to master them by the help of science, which has forced its way step by step against the Christian religion, against the churches, and against the opposition of all the old precepts.

Bertrand Russell

There is in man a specific lust for cruelty which infects even his passion of pity and makes it savage.

George Bernard Shaw

What a pity that Bilbo did not stab that vile creature, when he had a chance!' Pity? It was Pity that stayed his hand. Pity, and Mercy: not to strike without need. And he has been well rewarded, Frodo. Be sure that he took so little hurt from the evil, and escaped in the end, because he began his ownership of the Ring so. With Pity.