Over and over in my mind preside
the dark and somber moods Love puts me through.
Self-pity broods, so I have often cried,
“Alas, do other people feel this too?”[Spesse fiate vegnonmi a la mente
le oscure qualità ch’Amor mi dona,
e venmene pietà, sì che sovente
io dico: «Lasso!, avviene elli a persona?»]Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) Italian poet
La Vita Nuova [Vita Nova; New Life], ch. 16 / Sonnet 7, ll. 1-4 (c. 1294, pub. 1576) [tr. Frisardi (2012), ch. 9]
(Source)
Dante in the painful, self-pitying throes of unrequited love for Beatrice. "Nobody has known such tormented love as mine ..."
(Source (Italian)). Alternate translations:Many the times that to my memory comes
The cheerless state imposed on me by Love;
And o’er me comes such sadness then, that oft
I say, alas, was ever fate like mine!
[tr. Lyell (1845)]At whiles (yea oftentimes) I muse over
The quality of anguish that is mine
Through Love: then pity makes my voice to pine,
Saying, “Is any else thus, anywhere?”
[tr. Rossetti (c. 1847; 1899 ed.)]Full many a time I ponder on the drear
And heavy hours which Love doth make my doom;
And then I cry, "Alas!" in piteous cheer,
"Was ever fate like mine, so wrapt in gloom?"
[tr. Martin (1862)]The dark condition Love doth on me lay
Many a time occurs unto my thought,
And then comes pity, so that oft I say,
Ah me! to such a pass was man e’er brought?
[tr. Norton (1867), ch. 16]Many a time the thought returns to me:
What sad conditions Love on me bestows!
And moved by Pity I say frequently:
"Can there be anyone who my state knows?"
[tr. Reynolds (1969)]So many tmes there comes into my mind
The dark condition Love bestows on me,
That pity comes and often makes me say:
"Could every anyone have felt the same?"
[tr. Musa (1971)]Time and again the thought comes to my mind
of the dark condition Love imparts to me;
then the pity of it strikes me, and I ask:
"Could ever anyone have felt the same?"
[tr. Hollander (1997) , sec. 7]Often it is brought home to my mind
the dark quality that Love gives me,
and pity moves me, so that frequently
I say: "Alas! is anyone so afflicted?"
[tr. Kline (2002)]Frequently there come to my mind
the puzzling characteristics Love gives me,
and I feel pity for them, so that often
I say: "Alas! Does this happen to anyone else?"
[tr. Appelbaum (2006)]
Quotations about:
self-pity
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
To mourn is to pity oneself. The dead feel nothing. The mourner does not pity the dead. He pities himself for having lost the living.
Walter M. Miller Jr. (1923-1996) American science fiction writer
“The Soul-Empty Ones,” Astounding Science Fiction (1951-08)
(Source)
Satan’s greatest sin, his greatest mistake, wasn’t pride or rebelling against God. His greatest mistake was believing that God would not forgive him if he asked for forgiveness. His sin wasn’t just pride — it was self-pity. I think in some ways every single person, human, vampire, whatever, has a choice to make: to be full of rage about what happens to you or to reconcile with it, to strive for the most honorable existence you can despite the odds. Do you believe in a God who understands and forgives or one who doesn’t? What it comes down to is, this is between you and God, and you’ll have to work that out for yourself.
The selfish man believes that by closing his heart against his fellows, and centering in self every thought and feeling, he escapes much suffering. But his egotistical calculations are invariably defeated; for his contracted sympathies being all directed to one focus, he so aggravates the ills he endures, that he expends on self along more painful pity than the most enthusiastic philanthropist devotes to mankind.
Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington (1789-1849) Irish novelist [Lady Blessington, b. Margaret Power]
Desultory Thoughts and Reflections (1839)
(Source)
What makes people hard-hearted is this, that each man has, or thinks he has, as much as he can bear in his own troubles.
[Was die Menschen hartherzig macht, is Dieses, daß jeder an seinen eigenen Plagen genug zu tragen hat, oder doch es meint.]
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) German philosopher
Parerga and Paralipomena, Vol. 2, ch. 26 “Psychological Observations [Psychologische Bemerkungen],” § 325 (1851) [tr. Saunders (1890)]
(Source)
(Source (German)). Alternate translation:What makes a man hard-hearted is this, that each man has, or fancies he has, sufficient in his own troubles to bear.
[tr. Dircks]
Self-pity? I see no moral objections to it, the smell drives people away, but that’s a practical objection, and occasionally an advantage.
E. M. Forster (1879-1970) English novelist, essayist, critic, librettist [Edward Morgan Forster]
Commonplace Book (1985) [ed. Gardner]
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