Sympathy People Humans Showing Disapproval Quote Means Show

Many people have written and spoken about sympathy, and many of their phrases have become well known "quotes" (phrases that one person said or wrote, and now many people repeat).

Paul Eipper, a German painter and writer, wrote that "Sympathy is a virtue unknown in nature." A "virtue" is a very good quality and something that one admires in a person. This quote means that only humans show sympathy toward each other, but animals do not. Many people think that this is one of the main differences between humans and other creatures.

Another quote, "Next to love, sympathy is the divinest passion of the human heart," is "attributed to" (credited, or shown to have been created by another person) Edmund Burke, an Irish author. Something that is "divine" is holy or God-like, so he means that sympathy is one of the highest "emotions" (feelings) that humans can have.

Oscar Wilde, an Irish poet, once said, "If there was less sympathy in the world, there would be less trouble in the world." He took a more negative view of sympathy, believing that sometimes sympathy causes too much trouble. Without sympathy, people would "mind their own business" (pay attention to only those things that affect them) and not "interfere" (do things to try to change a situation) with other people's lives or countries' affairs.

Wilde also said, "I can sympathize with everything, except suffering." This quote seems to show that he believes that sympathy isn't enough when one sees other people "suffering" (having emotional or physical pain). Unlike Eipper and Burke, who believe that sympathy is the best thing humans can offer, Wilde seems to believe that it is more important to fight against "injustice" (unfairness) than to simply feel bad about another person's situation.