Skip to content

My friend, I spy some pity in thy looks;
O, if thine eye be not a flatterer,
Come thou on my side, and entreat for me,
As you would beg, were you in my distress:
A begging prince what beggar pities not?

— William Shakespeare Richard III (1591)

Another quote →

Topics

Sympathy

More quotes by William Shakespeare

Time's glory is to calm contending kings,
To unmask falsehood, and bring truth to light.

I am a man,
More sinn'd against than sinning.

King Lear (1605)

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts.

As You Like It (1599)

To be or not to be, that is the question.

Hamlet (1600)

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

Henry IV, Part 2 (1597)

All William Shakespeare quotes →

You may also like

A pity beyond all telling
Is hid in the heart of love.

William Butler Yeats The Pity Of Love in The Rose (1893)

O, brother man! fold to thy heart thy brother;
where pity dwells, the peace of God is there.

John Greenleaf Whittier

The craving for sympathy is the common boundary-line between joy and sorrow.

Julius Hare Guesses at Truth (1827)

Be pitiful, for every man is fighting a hard battle.

Ian Maclaren

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: William Shakespeare (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.