"Commiserate" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... could have strangled the queen; she could have plunged a dagger into her heart, because she dared to commiserate her. ...
— Henry VIII And His Court • Louise Muhlbach
... touch a heart of stone: but there is something still more cogent, continues the same holy father, which is, that the same Jesus Christ, whom we refuse to nourish in the persons of the poor, feeds our souls with his precious body and blood. If such considerations move not our hearts to commiserate and assist the indigent, what share of mercy and relief can we hope for in the hour of need? Oh, incomprehensible blindness! we perhaps prepare for ourselves an eternal abyss, by those very means which, properly applied, ...
— The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints - January, February, March • Alban Butler
... he is better than his Government and must at times be ashamed of it. Of course the Government never does this—never—but persons in unofficial life; and I have sometimes hit some hard blows under this condescending provocation. This is the one experience that I have found irritating. They commiserate me on having a Government that will not provide an Ambassador's residence—from the King to my servants. They talk about American lynchings. Even the Spectator, in an early editorial about you, said that we should ...
— The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page, Volume I • Burton J. Hendrick
... could go elsewhere, or do otherwise, although in case of any arrangements having been made that stand in the way, there is the obvious Hotel Suisse. I suppose at need there could be found a messenger to poor Guiseppina, whose misfortunes I commiserate. You know exactly how much and how little we want. But if I am to get any good out of my visit I must lead the quietest ...
— The Brownings - Their Life and Art • Lilian Whiting
... and order must direct the way. 30 First to our God we must with rev'rence bow; The second honour to our prince we owe; Next to wives, parents, children, fit respect, And to our friends and kindred, we direct; Then we must those who groan beneath the weight Of age, disease, or want, commiserate. 'Mongst those whom honest lives can recommend, Our Justice more compassion should extend; To such, who thee in some distress did aid, Thy debt of thanks with int'rest should be paid: 40 As Hesiod sings, spread waters ...
— Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham • Edmund Waller; John Denham
... in the attempt. The unfortunate generally meet with more blame than pity; for as the latter is a painful emotion, people endeavour to exonerate themselves from its indulgence, by trying to discover some error which may have led to the misfortune they are too selfish to commiserate. Alas! there are but few friends who, like ivy, cling to ruin, and —— is ...
— The Idler in France • Marguerite Gardiner
... or self-commendations. When, therefore, you pride yourselves on your superiority and civilisation the whole is a delusion; and when we hear you set forth these absurd pretensions, we are compelled to commiserate our common race, and to exclaim, Alas, poor human nature!" This is the 241 verbatim reply that a very intelligent but irritated Muselman made to my animadversions on the absurdity of burying treasure. This gentleman's father had been ambassador from the Emperor of ...
— An Account of Timbuctoo and Housa Territories in the Interior of Africa • Abd Salam Shabeeny
... to the savage state; and vice versa. Men in all states seem to have much the same proportion of happiness. We judge others with eyes accustomed to dwell on our own circumstances. I have seen the slave, whom we commiserate, enjoy his holiday with a rapture unknown to the grave freeman. I have seen that slave made free, and enriched by the benevolence of his master; and he has been gay no more. The masses of men in all countries are much the same. If there are greater comforts in the hardy ...
— Alice, or The Mysteries, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... bourgeois pomposity that he can act to the life. Which things, my dear boy, ought to prove to you how much we care for our friends in adversity. Florine, whom I have had the weakness to forgive, begs you to send us an article on Nathan's hat. Fare thee well, my son. I can only commiserate you on finding yourself back in the same box from which you emerged when you discovered ...
— Lost Illusions • Honore De Balzac
... way to some very sincere and touching regrets that a piece of marvellous good fortune should have been so near her, and she actually obliged to decline it. In this natural emotion every properly regulated mind will certainly share. What good mother is there that would not commiserate a penniless spinster, who might have been my lady, and have shared four thousand a year? What well-bred young person is there in all Vanity Fair, who will not feel for a hard-working, ingenious, meritorious girl, who gets such an honourable, advantageous, provoking offer, just at the ...
— Vanity Fair • William Makepeace Thackeray
... herself as soon as the respect she owed the Count and Countess De Villefort would permit. The dejection of his friend soon alarmed the anxiety of the Count, to whom Du Pont, at length, confided the secret of his hopeless affection, which, however, the former could only commiserate, though he secretly determined to befriend his suit, if an opportunity of doing so should ever occur. Considering the dangerous situation of Du Pont, he but feebly opposed his intention of leaving Chateau-le-Blanc, on the following day, but drew from him a promise ...
— The Mysteries of Udolpho • Ann Radcliffe
... that she used these pretexts to conceal the true cause of her grief. 'Madam,' said I, 'so far from blaming, I assure you I heartily commiserate your sorrow. I should feel surprise if you were insensible to such heavy calamities: weep on; your tears are so many proofs of your tenderness; but I hope that time and ...
— The Arabian Nights - Their Best-known Tales • Unknown
... those which are driven before the gale. The Worst of it—another poem of the failures of love—reverses the conventional attitude of the wronged husband; he ought, according to all recognised authorities of drama and novel, rage against his faithless wife, and commiserate his virtuous self; here he endeavours, though vainly, to transfer every stain and shame to himself from her; his anguish is all on her behalf, or if on his own chiefly because he cannot restore her purity or save her from her wrong done against herself. It is a poem of moral stress and strain, ...
— Robert Browning • Edward Dowden
... affecting indolence or effeminacy or any other behavior that is not genuine. Many persons, fearing that on account of some such possession they may incur jealousy or danger, do much that is unworthy of themselves, expecting by such behavior to live in greater security. As a consequence they commiserate themselves, believing themselves wronged in this very particular, that they are not allowed to appear to live aright. Their ruler also suffers a loss because he is deprived of the services of good men, and suffers ill repute for the censure ...
— Dio's Rome, Vol. 4 • Cassius Dio
... more real than what he has held to be realities to learn from the sudden snapping off of life and activity. I find myself filled with an immense pity for him; and yet if my faith were a little stronger and purer, I should congratulate rather than commiserate him. And yet the thought of him in his bewilderment helps me too, for I see my own life as in a mirror. I have received a message of truth, the message that the accomplishment of our plans and cherished designs is not the best thing that can befall us. How easy to see that in ...
— The Altar Fire • Arthur Christopher Benson
... 740; charity, ruth, long- suffering. melting mood; argumentum ad misericordiam [Lat.], quarter, grace, locus paenitentiae [Lat.]. sympathizer; advocate, friend, partisan, patron, wellwisher. V. pity; have pity, show pity, take pity &c n.; commiserate, compassionate; condole &c 915; sympathize; feel for, be sorry for, yearn for; weep, melt, thaw, enter into the feelings of. forbear, relent, relax, give quarter, wipe the tears, parcere subjectis [Lat.], give a coup de grace, put out of one's misery. raise ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget
... Chinese on horseback, very well dressed, and who had the air and appearance of a gentleman, came down to the shore, and, as far as could be understood by his signs, seemed to censure the conduct of his countrymen, and to commiserate the officer, being wonderfully officious to assist in getting him on board the boat: But notwithstanding this behaviour, it was shrewdly suspected that he was an accomplice in the theft, and time fully evinced ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 11 • Robert Kerr
... land,—without great emotion. During a peregrination of more than five hundred miles, exposed to the burning rays of a tropical sun, these poor slaves, amidst their own infinitely greater sufferings, would commiserate mine, and frequently, of their own accord, bring water to quench my thirst, and at night collect branches and leaves to prepare me a bed in the wilderness. We parted with mutual regret and blessings. My good wishes and prayers were all I could bestow upon them, ...
— An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans • Lydia Maria Child
... lingering and more terrible fate at the last. All night long those melancholy sounds continued, and though they might have been heard by my companions, they did not appear to disturb their repose. I scarcely knew whether to envy or commiserate their apathy. ...
— Manco, the Peruvian Chief - An Englishman's Adventures in the Country of the Incas • W.H.G. Kingston
... vessel in company, which, upon signal, saved their lives, and took the boat up: or that the boat might be driven into the main ocean, where these poor creatures might be in the most miserable condition. But as all these conjectures were very uncertain, I could do no more than commiserate there distress, and thank God for delivering me, in particular, when so many perished ...
— The Life and Most Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of - York, Mariner (1801) • Daniel Defoe
... spread about the city, a great press of curious onlookers came crowding before the Palace. Some said, "Lo! a good deed well done!" Others, and these the more part, at sight of so lamentable a spectacle, were filled with ruth. Yet durst they not openly commiserate the Prince's victims, for fear of evil handling by his armed dependents, which were set to guard the bodies. Young men gazed at the Princess's corse, for to discover the traces of that beauty which had been her undoing, while the little children would be expounding one to the other the meaning ...
— The Well of Saint Clare • Anatole France
... flattery or wheedling or playing on the man's weaknesses; whereas in America the husband's duty and desire is to gratify the wife, and render to her those services which the English tyrant exacts from his consort. One may often hear an American matron commiserate a friend who has married in Europe, while the daughters declare in chorus that they will never follow the example. Laughable as all this may seem to English women, it is perfectly true that the theory as well as the practice of conjugal life is not the ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol 6 • Various
... the steps supporting the tall steel gate, through which, in former days, I had seen many a poor devil pass; it was now others' turn to commiserate, or to jeer, the poor devil that was myself. There was no delay—we seemed to be awaited; and in the next minute I had felt what it is to be locked into a prison. I was behind bars, and could not get out at my own will—nor at any one else's, for that matter; only at the impersonal ...
— The Subterranean Brotherhood • Julian Hawthorne |
