quotations about mercy
Mercy will get you killed, but sometimes it's all that makes us human.
LAURELL K. HAMILTON
Burnt Offerings
Were there but a single mercy apportioned to each moment of our lives, the sum would rise very high; but our arithmetic is confounded when every minute has more than we can distinctly number.
NICHOLAS ROWE
attributed, Day's Collacon
We hand folks over to God's mercy, and show none ourselves.
GEORGE ELIOT
Adam Bede
Humankind's limited scope of mercy was reserved for their own.
STEPHENIE MEYER
The Host
The merciful man is one that loves to show mercy, not only on account of a soft natural temper, self-interest, philosophical considerations; but from an unfeigned regard to the authority of God in his holy law, an earnest desire after conformity to his image; and especially from a serious sense of his pardoning mercy in Christ Jesus. How can he but forgive a few pence, who is himself forgiven in ten thousand talents? Has God, all-gracious and merciful, opened his bowels of compassion to me, a wretched guilty creature: and shall I shut up my bowels of compassion from my distressed brother? Shall I put on bowels of adamant and brass, who am a pensioner of the tender mercies of God? It is mercy that feeds me; it is mercy that clothes me; it is mercy that delivers my soul from the lowest hell, where I had been miserable beyond all expression. I have freely received mercy, and shall I not freely give? He is merciful to others, for God is merciful to him.
WILLIAM MCEWEN
"On the Merciful Man", Select Essays Doctrinal & Practical on a Variety of the Most Important and Interesting Subjects in Divinity
God expects Us to have Mercy. God demands it. And yet how much Mercy does He show Us?
AUGUSTUS HILL
Oz
Rats and conquerors must expect no mercy in misfortune.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon: Or, Many Things in a Few Words
The soul closes against hate when dove-eyed mercy pleads.
CHARLES SPRAGUE
attributed, Day's Collacon
God puts consolation only where He has first put pain, and causes His mercies to abound nowhere, save in the furrow traced by penitence and laborious effort.
MME. SWETCHINE
The Writings of Madame Swetchine
And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?
BIBLE
Micah 6:8
It strikes me there is something greater than judgement. I think it is called mercy.
SEBASTIAN BARRY
The Secret Scripture
Thus, by the unutterable mercy of God, even the very punishment of wickedness has become the armor of virtue, and the penalty of the sinner becomes the reward of the righteous.
ST. AUGUSTINE
The City of God
Mercy often inflicts death.
SENECA
Troades
The depths of misery are never below the depths of mercy.
BISHOP VON KETTELER
Truth: Devoted to Giving True Explanations of the Catholic Church, Volume 16
Mercy did not exist in the primordial life. It was misunderstood for fear, and such misunderstandings made for death.
JACK LONDON
The Call of the Wild
Any time any of us reaches out, any time we pour even a drop of love, compassion, simple human decency (no matter how small; how seemingly insignificant) into the sea of earthly existence -- we are, each and every one of us -- the being called Mercy.
J. M. DEMATTEIS
Mercy
Mercy is a working that cometh of the goodness of God, and it shall last in working all along, as sin is suffered to pursue rightful souls. And when sin hath no longer leave to pursue, then shall the working of mercy cease, and then shall all be brought to rightfulness and therein stand without end.
JULIAN OF NORWICH
Revelations of Divine Love
A good man is merciful to his beast, and much more to his brother. Merciful to his beast, did we say? yea, to the beast of his mortal enemy.
WILLIAM MCEWEN
"On the Merciful Man", Select Essays Doctrinal & Practical on a Variety of the Most Important and Interesting Subjects in Divinity
I used to think mercy meant showing kindness to someone who didn't deserve it, as if only the recipient defined the act. The girl in between has learned that mercy is defined by its giver. Our flaws are obvious, yet we are loved and able t love, if we choose, because there is that bit of the divine still smoldering in us.
SUSAN MEISSNER
The Shape of Mercy
For I beheld the property of mercy, and I beheld the property of grace: which have two manners of working in one love.
JULIAN OF NORWICH
Revelations of Divine Love