“ It is when suffering finds a voice and sets our nerves quivering that this pity comes troubling us. ”
H. G. Wells, The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896). copy citation
| Author | H. G. Wells |
|---|---|
| Source | The Island of Doctor Moreau |
| Topic | pity suffering |
| Date | 1896 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/159/159-h/159-h.htm |
Context
“The crying sounded even louder out of doors. It was as if all the pain in the world had found a voice. Yet had I known such pain was in the next room, and had it been dumb, I believe—I have thought since—I could have stood it well enough. It is when suffering finds a voice and sets our nerves quivering that this pity comes troubling us. But in spite of the brilliant sunlight and the green fans of the trees waving in the soothing sea-breeze, the world was a confusion, blurred with drifting black and red phantasms, until I was out of earshot of the house in the chequered wall.”
source
Meaning and analysis
