quotations about mercy
Mercy is the spring of God's long-suffering; forgiveness is the activity of his mercy; and long-suffering is its quiet flow.
J. H. EVANS
attributed, Illustrative Gatherings for Preachers and Teachers
You cannot conceive, nor can I, of the appalling strangeness of the mercy of God.
GRAHAM GREENE
Brighton Rock
It is highly convenient to believe in the infinite mercy of God when you feel the need of mercy, but remember also his infinite justice.
B. R. HAYDON
Table Talk
If you are strong, be merciful.
CHILO
attributed, Day's Collacon
So we shall now consider: mercifulness, a work of love even if it can give nothing and is able to do nothing. We shall endeavor according to the capacities granted to us to make as clear as possible, as inviting as possible, to bring as close as possible to the poor person what comfort he has in being able to be merciful.
SOREN KIERKEGAARD
Works of Love
MERCY, n. An attribute beloved of detected offenders.
AMBROSE BIERCE
The Devil's Dictionary
Mercy is a disposition to feel the miseries of others; and to do what lies in our power to prevent and redress them. There is a natural mercy consisting in a softness of temper, and an aversion at seeing, hearing, or even thinking of the distresses of our fellow-creatures. There is a moral mercy, when we pity the miserable from moral considerations. But these may, no doubt, be found in unrenewed hearts, and were actually practiced by many of the Gentiles that knew not God. A man who would shudder in every joint to see a fellow creature broke upon the wheel, or broiling on the fire; a man who would be far from thinking it a glorious spectacle to look at a ditch full of the blood of slaughtered men, is not immediately a merciful man in the full and scriptural sense. It is true, this humane and gentle temper is far more amiable than savage barbarity. To be implacable and unmerciful, is a truly heathen character; and the habitations of cruelty should be found nowhere but in the dark places of the earth. But there is a christian mercy, which is often enjoined as a weighty matter of the law, and an eminent grace of the gospel; and with which none are endowed but the elect of God; the holy and the beloved. Let us describe it from its springs, its objects, and its acts.
WILLIAM MCEWEN
"On the Merciful Man", Select Essays Doctrinal & Practical on a Variety of the Most Important and Interesting Subjects in Divinity
If there is a single definition of healing it is to enter with mercy and awareness those pains, mental and physical, from which we have withdrawn in judgment and dismay.
STEPHEN LEVINE
A Year to Live: How to Live This Year as If It Were Your Last
When all thy mercies, O my God,
My rising soul surveys,
Transported with the view I'm lost,
In wonder, love and praise.
JOSEPH ADDISON
Hymn
I love the Lord, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live.
BIBLE
Psalms 116:1-2
Oh, Mercy -- now I understand: The secret behind your actions, the thread that binds all these seemingly random events.... There's no great or small! No question of size or importance! Each act of compassion -- however minor it may appear to our blind eyes -- affects all Creation; shakes it to its roots!
J. M. DEMATTEIS
Mercy
I will show mercy to whomever I will show mercy, and I will show compassion to whomever I will show compassion.
GOD
Romans 9:15
Where mercy is shown, mercy is given.
DUANE DOG CHAPMAN
Where Mercy Is Shown, Mercy Is Given
He is an image of God, who delights in mercy; and remembers it even in the midst of wrath. He is an image of Christ, whose whole life was one continued track of showing mercy. His Miracles were all of the merciful kind, but two. His death was a most eminent act of mercy. And still he is a merciful High Priest, who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Commonly the merciful man obtains mercy from man, when he stands in need of it; as they have a judgment without mercy, that showed no mercy.--But whatever treatment they should receive from their fellow creatures, they shall obtain mercy of the Lord in that day, which will come to all others cruel with wrath, and with fierce anger. Yet, after all, it is not according to his own mercy, which is but a work of righteousness that he has done; but according to the mercy of God, he shall be saved.--Having obtained mercy of the Lord, by which he was made merciful at the first; he shall obtain mercy more and more.
WILLIAM MCEWEN
"On the Merciful Man", Select Essays Doctrinal & Practical on a Variety of the Most Important and Interesting Subjects in Divinity
The Mercy of Allah is an Ocean, Our sins are a lump of clay clenched between the beak of a pigeon. The pigeon is perched on the branch of a tree at the edge of that ocean. It only has to open it's beak.
LEILA ABOULELA
Minaret
But I want to be better than the lessons they taught me. I want my love to be greater that my hate, my mercy to be stronger than my vengeance.
AMY ENGEL
The Book of Ivy
Mercy among the virtues is like the moon among the stars--not so sparkling and vivid as many, but dispensing a calm radiance that hallows the whole. It is the bow that rests upon the bosom of the cloud when the storm has passed. It is the light that hovers above the judgment-seat.
E. H. CHAPIN
Living Words
Reason to rule, mercy to forgive:
The first is law, the last prerogative.
JOHN DRYDEN
The Hind and the Panther
Mercy will get you killed, but sometimes it's all that makes us human.
LAURELL K. HAMILTON
Burnt Offerings
In this life, mercy and forgiveness is our way and evermore leadeth us to grace.
JULIAN OF NORWICH
Revelations of Divine Love