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

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

Never elated while one man's oppress'd;
Never dejected while another's blessed.

Never elated while one man's oppress'd;
Never dejected while another's blessed.

When you are in trouble, people who call to sympathize are really looking for the particulars.

When you are in trouble, people who call to sympathize are really looking for the particulars.

Strengthen me by sympathizing with my strength not my weakness.

Strengthen me by sympathizing with my strength not my weakness.

Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief.

Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief.

In the desert a fountain is springing,
In the wide waste there still is a tree,
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In the desert a fountain is springing,
In the wide waste there still is a tree,
And a bird in the solitude singing,
Which speaks to my spirit of thee.

Yet, taught by time, my heart has learned to glow
For other's good, and melt at other's woe.

Yet, taught by time, my heart has learned to glow
For other's good, and melt at other's woe.

I can sympathize with everything, except suffering.

I can sympathize with everything, except suffering.

Or, if there were a sympathy in choice,
War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it,
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Or, if there were a sympathy in choice,
War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it,
Making it momentany as a sound,
Swift as a shadow, short as any dream,
Brief as the lightning in the collied night,
That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth,
And ere a man hath power to say 'Behold!'
The jaws of darkness do devour it up:
So quick bright things come to confusion.