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Cruelty quotes

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“For man is the cruellest animal.” Friedrich Nietzsche, “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” - 1891

“Men were indeed more foolish and more cruel than the beasts of the jungle! How fortunate was he who lived in the peace and security of the great forest!” Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Tarzan of the Apes” - 1912

“I must be cruel, only to be kind: Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.” William Shakespeare, “Hamlet” - 1623

“the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man.” Mahatma Gandhi, “The Story of my Experiments with Truth” - 1929

“But some things are not forgivable. Deliberate cruelty is not forgivable. It is the one unforgivable thing in my opinion and it is the one thing of which I have never, never been guilty.” Tennessee Williams, “A Streetcar Named Desire” - 1947

“Intelligent men are cruel. Stupid men are monstrously cruel.” Jack London, “The Star Rover” - 1915

“When lenity and cruelty play for a kingdom, the gentler gamester is the soonest winner.” William Shakespeare, “Henry V” - 1600

“Why did they make birds so delicate and fine as those sea swallows when the ocean can be so cruel?” Ernest Hemingway, “The Old Man and the Sea” - 1952

“Pity is the virtue of the law, and none but tyrants use it cruelly.” William Shakespeare, “Timon of Athens” - 1623

“It is vain to recount further the catalogue of miseries. In earlier ages such horrors remain unknown because unrecorded. Just enough flickering light plays upon this infernal scene to give us the sense of its utter desolation and hopeless...” Winston Churchill, “A History of the English-Speaking Peoples” - 1956

“The cruelty of fooled honesty is often great after enlightenment, and it was mighty in Clare now.” Thomas Hardy, “Tess of the d'Urbervilles” - 1891

“It was woman that taught me cruelty, and on woman therefore I have exercised it; but not upon such as thou.” Walter Scott, “Ivanhoe” - 1820

“For of all slaveholders with whom I have ever met, religious slaveholders are the worst. I have ever found them the meanest and basest, the most cruel and cowardly, of all others.” Frederick Douglass, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave” - 1845

“The visitor from outer space made a serious study of Christianity, to leam, if he could, why Christians found it so easy to be cruel.” Kurt Vonnegut, “Slaughterhouse-Five” - 1969

“Now goblins are cruel, wicked, and bad-hearted. They make no beautiful things, but they make many clever ones.” J. R. R. Tolkien, “The Hobbit” - 1937

“He's not a rough diamond—a pearl-containing oyster of a rustic: he's a fierce, pitiless, wolfish man.” Emily Brontë, “Wuthering Heights” - 1847

“Moreover, when our hearts are authentically open to universal communion, this sense of fraternity excludes nothing and no one. It follows that our indifference or cruelty towards fellow creatures of this world sooner or later affects the...” Pope Francis, “Laudato si'” - 24 May 2015

“there is nothing so cruel in this world as the desolation of having nothing to hope for.” Haruki Murakami, “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle” - 1997

“Never . . . be mean in anything; never be false; never be cruel. Avoid those three vices . . . and I can always be hopeful of you.” Charles Dickens, “David Copperfield” - 1850

“I know life is hard, I think everyone knows that in their hearts, but why does it have to be cruel, as well? Why does it have to bite?” Stephen King, “11/22/63” - 2011

Related topics

animals roughness men pity hypocrisy stupidity evil hope honesty man slavery woman pain bad forgiveness intelligence meanness kindness cleverness religion

Related authors

William Shakespeare (3)
Ernest Hemingway (1)
Charles Dickens (1)
Winston Churchill (1)
Jack London (1)
Mahatma Gandhi (1)
Thomas Hardy (1)
Walter Scott (1)
Friedrich Nietzsche (1)
Edgar Rice Burroughs (1)
Frederick Douglass (1)
Kurt Vonnegut (1)
Haruki Murakami (1)
J. R. R. Tolkien (1)
Stephen King (1)
Tennessee Williams (1)
Emily Brontë (1)
Pope Francis (1)

Related sources

Hamlet (1)
Henry V (1)
The Old Man and the Sea (1)
Timon of Athens (1)
A History of the English-Speaking Peoples (1)
The Story of my Experiments with Truth (1)
Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1)
Ivanhoe (1)
Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1)
Tarzan of the Apes (1)
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1)
Slaughterhouse-Five (1)
The Hobbit (1)
Wuthering Heights (1)
Laudato si' (1)
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1)
11/22/63 (1)
David Copperfield (1)
A Streetcar Named Desire (1)
The Star Rover (1)