“We find nothing easier than being wise, patient, superior. We drip with the oil of forbearance and sympathy, we are absurdly just, we forgive everything. For that very reason we ought to discipline ourselves a little; for that very reason we ought to cultivate a little emotion, a little emotional vice, from time to time. It may be hard for us; and among ourselves we may perhaps laugh at the appearance we thus present. But what of that! We no longer have any other mode of self-overcoming available to us: this is our asceticism, our penance.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
“SCARIFICATION, n. A form of penance practised by the mediaeval pious. The rite was performed, sometimes with a knife, sometimes with a hot iron, but always, says Arsenius Asceticus, acceptably if the penitent spared himself no pain nor harmless disfigurement. Scarification, with other crude penances, has now been superseded by benefaction. The founding of a library or endowment of a university is said to yield to the penitent a sharper and more lasting pain than is conferred by the knife or iron, and is therefore a surer means of grace. There are, however, two grave objections to it as a penitential method: the good that it does and the taint of justice.”
Ambrose Bierce
“Dave really is sorry, deeply sorry for the things he's done. Dave is willing to do the penance he has to do.”
Mike Devine
“I have been doing penance for that ever since.”
Christopher Peterson
“Those two people were swayed more by sympathy and emotion for the family than anything objective. That's my feeling.”
Robert Harris
“Nobody has any sympathy for oil companies on Capitol Hill right now. You talk to someone driving to work in an F-150 pickup and paying $75 to fill up his tank, and everybody's on his side.”
Jack Kingston
“It's pathos. Pathos makes us feel sympathy, horror. It appeals to our emotions. It can make us cry, it can make us feel sorry. On the other hand, it's very difficult to assess blame.”
John Iorio
