Oroonoka, Act ii, scene 1; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Compare: "Of all the paths [that] lead to a woman's love / Pity's the straightest", John Fletcher, The Knight of Malta, Act i, scene 1.
Source: Aphorisms and Reflections (1901), p. 212
“For pity melts the mind to love.”
Source: Alexander’s Feast http://www.bartleby.com/40/265.html (1697), l. 96.
“For love suffereth never to be without pity.”
The Sixteenth Revelation, Chapter 80
Context: Where I say that He abideth sorrowfully and moaning, it meaneth all the true feeling that we have in our self, in contrition and compassion, and all sorrowing and moaning that we are not oned with our Lord. And all such that is speedful, it is Christ in us. And though some of us feel it seldom, it passeth never from Christ till what time He hath brought us out of all our woe. For love suffereth never to be without pity.
“Of all the paths lead to a woman's love
Pity's the straightest.”
The Knight of Malta (1647), Act I, sc. i.
“It was such a lovely day I thought it was a pity to get up.”
Our Betters (1923)
Plays
“A pity beyond all telling
Is hid in the heart of love”
The Pity Of Love http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1670/; in recent years a statement which might have originated as a misquotation of the first lines of this has been attributed to Oscar Wilde: "To give and not expect return, that is what lies at the heart of love." — no occurrence prior to 1999 has yet been located.
The Rose (1893)
Context: A pity beyond all telling
Is hid in the heart of love:
The folk who are buying and selling,
The clouds on their journey above,
The cold wet winds ever blowing,
And the shadowy hazel grove
Where mouse-grey waters are flowing,
Threaten the head that I love.
Source: Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night III, Line 104.
The Tragic Sense of Life (1913), VII : Love, Suffering, Pity
