Nature never appeals to intelligence until habit and instinct are useless. There is no intelligence where there is no need of change.
H. G. WellsRead
It is when suffering finds a voice and sets our nerves quivering that this pity comes troubling us.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Pity arises from our empathy towards the suffering of others, especially when they express their pain.
This quote by H. G. Wells suggests that true feelings of pity are evoked when we witness suffering that is articulated. When someone voices their pain, it resonates deeply within us, stirring our empathy and compelling us to acknowledge their distress. This emotional response can be unsettling, as it confronts our own comfort in the face of discomfort and suffering.
Themes
SufferingPityEmpathyVoicePain
In practice
Example use cases
During a charity event focused on mental health awareness, this quote could be used to highlight the importance of expressing our struggles.
More from H. G. Wells
All quotes →He spares no resource in telling of his dead inventions... Bare verbs he rarely tolerates. He splits infinitives and fills them up with adverbial stuffing. He presses the passing colloquialism into his service. His vast paragraphis sweat and struggle; the
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It [a new world order] needs only that the governments of Britain, the United States, France, Germany, and Russia should get together in order to set up an effective control of currency, credit, production, and distribution – that is to say, an effective ‘dictatorship of prosperity,’ for the whole world. The other sixty odd States would have to join in or accommodate themselves to the over-ruling decisions of these major Powers.
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Things that would have made fame of a less clever man seemed tricks in his hands. It is a mistake to do things too easily.
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But I was too restless to watch long; I'm too Occidental for a long vigil. I could work at a problem for years, but to wait inactive for twenty-four hours - that's another matter.
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The greatest task of democracy, its ritual and feast - is choice.
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