Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Mercy
When all thy mercies, O my God,
My rising soul surveys,
Transported with the view I’m lost,
In wonder, love and praise.
Addison—Hymn.
Have mercy upon us miserable sinners.
Book of Common Prayer. Litany.
Mercy to him that shows it, is the rule.
Cowper—Task. Bk. VI. L. 595.
And shut the gates of mercy on mankind.
Gray—Elegy in a Country Churchyard. St. 17.
A sentinel angel sitting high in glory
Heard this shrill wail ring out from Purgatory:
“Have mercy, mighty angel, hear my story!”
John Hay—A Woman’s Love.
Being all fashioned of the self-same dust,
Let us be merciful as well as just.
Longfellow—Tales of a Wayside Inn. Pt. III. The Student’s Tale. Emma and Eginhard. L. 177.
The corn that makes the holy bread
By which the soul of man is fed,
The holy bread, the food unpriced,
Thy everlasting mercy, Christ.
Masefield—Everlasting Mercy. St. 88.
Mercy stood in the cloud, with eye that wept
Essential love.
Pollok—The Course of Time. Bk. III. L. 658.
To hide the fault I see:
That mercy I to others show,
That mercy show to me.
Pope—Universal Prayer.
’Tis vain to flee; till gentle Mercy show
Her better eye, the farther off we go,
The swing of Justice deals the mightier blow.
Quarles—Emblems. Bk. III. Emblem XVI.
Think not the good,
The gentle deeds of mercy thou hast done,
Shall die forgotten all; the poor, the prisoner,
The fatherless, the friendless, and the widow,
Who daily owe the bounty of thy hand,
Shall cry to Heaven, and pull a blessing on thee.
Nicholas Rowe—Jane Shore. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 173.
Mortem misericors sæpe pro vita dabit.
Mercy often inflicts death.
Seneca—Troades. 329.
Whereto serves mercy,
But to confront the visage of offence?
Hamlet. Act III. Sc. 3. L. 46.
You must not dare, for shame, to talk of mercy;
For your own reasons turn into your bosoms,
As dogs upon their masters, worrying you.
Henry V. Act II. Sc. 2. L. 81.
Open thy gate of mercy, gracious God!
My soul flies through these wounds to seek out thee.
Henry VI. Pt. III. Act I. Sc. 4. L. 177.
Mercy is not itself, that oft looks so;
Pardon is still the nurse of second woe.
Measure for Measure. Act II. Sc. 1. L. 297.
The quality of mercy is not strain’d
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes;
’Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God’s
When mercy seasons justice.
Merchant of Venice. Act IV. Sc. 1. L. 184.
We do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.
Merchant of Venice. Act IV. Sc. 1. L. 198.
Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill.
Romeo and Juliet. Act III. Sc. 1. L. 202.
Who will not mercie unto others show,
How can he mercie ever hope to have?
Spenser—Faerie Queene. Bk. VI. Canto I. St. 42.
Pulchrum est vitam donare minori.
It is noble to grant life to the vanquished.
Statius—Thebais. VI. 816.
Sweet Mercy! to the gates of Heaven
This Minstrel lead, his sins forgiven;
The rueful conflict, the heart riven
With vain endeavour,
And memory of earth’s bitter leaven
Effaced forever.
Wordsworth—Thoughts Suggested on the Banks of the Nith.