Who will not mercie unto others show,
How can he mercy ever hope to have?
Farewell! a long farewell, to all my greatness!
This is the state of man: to-day he puts forth
The tender leaves of hopes; to-morrow blossoms,
And bears his blushing honours thick upon him;
The third day comes a frost, a killing frost,
And when he thinks, good easy man, full surely
His greatness is a-ripening, nips his root,
And then he falls, as I do. I have ventured,
Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders,
This many summers in a sea of glory,
But far beyond my depth: my high-blown pride
At length broke under me and now has left me,
Weary and old with service, to the mercy
Of a rude stream, that must forever hide me.
Vain pomp and glory of this world, I hate ye:
I feel my heart new opened. O, how wretched
Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favours!
There is betwixt that smile we would aspire to,
That sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin,
More pangs and fears than wars or women have:
And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer,
Never to hope again.
Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge.
Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy.
No ceremony that to great ones 'longs,
Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword,
The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe,
Become them with one half so good a grace
As mercy does.
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.
'T is 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. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.
Yet I shall temper so
Justice with mercy, as may illustrate most
Them fully satisfy'd, and thee appease.
A God all mercy is a God unjust.
Teach me to feel another's woe,
To hide the fault I see;
That mercy I to others show,
That mercy show to me.
Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne,
And shut the gates of mercy on mankind.
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.
And lovelier things have mercy shown
To every failing but their own;
And every woe a tear can claim,
Except an erring sister's shame.
Hope withering fled, and Mercy sighed farewell!
He play'd an ancient ditty long since mute,
In Provence call'd "La belle dame sans mercy."
Are gods more ruthless than mortals?
Have they no mercy for youth? no love for the souls who have loved them?
I see not a step before me as I tread on another year;
But I 've left the Past in God's keeping,--the Future
His mercy shall clear;
And what looks dark in the distance may brighten as I draw near.
Betwixt the stirrup and the ground,
Mercy I ask'd; mercy I found.
Note 5.Altered by Johnson (1783),--
Between the stirrup and the ground,
I mercy ask'd; I mercy found.
Mercy and justice, marching cheek by joule.
Mercy and truth are met together: righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
Have mercy upon us miserable sinners.
Mercy is the word, mercy. And a greater word is love.
Why could he do nothing for his brother, whom he loved, yet be an agent of divine mercy for a total stranger?
I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.
If there is justice with no mercy, Ira Flatow will have to come back countless times as a lab rat for all the cruelty he has promoted on NPR.