cruelty

I remember an hypothesis argued upon by the young students, when I was at St. Omer's, and maintained with much learning and pleasantry on both sides, 'Whether supposing that the flavour of a big who obtained his death by whipping (per flagellationem extremem) superadded a pleasure upon the palate of a man more intense than any possible suffering we can conceive in the animal, is man justified in using that method of putting an animal to death?' I forget the decision.

In all Thénardier's outpourings, the words and gestures, the fury blazing in his eyes, this explosion of an evil nature brazenly exposed, the mixture of bravado and abjectness, arrogance, pettiness, rage, absurdity; the hodgepodge of genuine distress, and lying sentiment, the shamelessness of a vicious man rejoicing in viciousness, the bare crudity of an ugly soul -- in this eruption of all suffering and hatred there was something which was hideous as evil itself and still as poignant as truth.

Those stories tended to be located around the places where things went wrong, and people were cruel to one another, and so on. They reflected what was probably the most urgent truth operating in me at that time: oh, shit, things can go wrong, and if they do, people get hurt, and I might be one of them, in spite of the fact that I am, you know, me.

...here's what I've learned - people will hurt you, but you don't have to respond - not every mean comment or cruel act deserves to be noticed ...

Despite our disapproval with what God allows us to endure, he still remains the same God that is not interested in our convenience, as much as our character.

The influence of the iniquitous system necessarily fosters an unfeeling and cruel spirit, even in the bosoms of those who, among their equals, are regarded as humane and generous.

No man is brave that has never walked a hundred miles. If you want to know the truth of who you are, walk until not a person knows your name. Travel is the great leveler, the great teacher, bitter as medicine, crueler than mirror-glass. A long stretch of road will teach you more about yourself than a hundred years of quiet introspection.

What__ the kindest thing you almost did? Is your fear of insomnia stronger than your fear of what awoke you? Are bonsai cruel? Do you love what you love, or just the feeling? Your earliest memories: do you look through your young eyes, or look at your young self? Which feels worse: to know that there are people who do more with less talent, or that there are people with more talent? Do you walk on moving walkways? Should it make any difference that you knew it was wrong _s you were doing it? Would you trade actual intelligence for the perception of being smarter? Why does it bother you when someone at the next table is having a conversation on a cell phone? How many years of your life would you trade for the greatest month of your life? What would you tell your father, if it were possible? Which is changing faster, your body, or your mind? Is it cruel to tell an old person his prognosis? Are you in any way angry at your phone? When you pass _ storefront, do you look at what__ inside, look at your reflection, or neither? Is there anything you would die for if no one could ever know you died for it? If you could be assured that money wouldn__ make _ou any small bit happier, would you still want more money? What has _een irrevocably spoiled for you? If your deepest secret became public, _ould you be forgiven? Is your best friend your kindest friend? Is it in any way cruel to give a dog a name? Is there anything you feel a need to confess? You know it__ a __urder of crows_ and a __ake of buzzards_ but it__ a what of ravens, again? What is it about death that you__e _fraid of? How does it make you feel to know that it__ an __nkindness _f ravens_?

The modeling world _ and the world at large _ is a pretty cruel place. It__ up to you to decide whether or not that turns you into a cruel person as well. Are you going to be mean and selfish because some of the people around you are, or are you going to overcome that and walk away a decent human being? The world gives you every reason in the book to become callous. It__ your job not to become that way as well.

We have probably all seen teachers who would pick a student up by the scruff of the neck for saying __hit,_ but who would walk by without a word when overhearing that same student taunting a classmate, calling him a __ag._ It is often easier not to intervene _ even when there is a clear-cut victim. It__ out in the hall. It isn__ our business. It isn__ our problem.But our inactions, like our actions, define who we are and what are true values are.

Fearlessness is not what you do to win, but what you don't do. When you love yourself as much as your God, you won't see other people as the source of your pain. Rather, you will see who you have become because you honestly believed that your chains would be broken through hatred, instead of kindness.

So what if you__e right? So what if you__e wrong? In the end you might be surprised to find that God doesn__ care so much about whether you were right or wrong but whether, despite it all, you were kind or cruel.

Sweet mother Mary, boy, think about what you__e doing! Be cruel or be kind, but don__ be both, because now you__e made a mess you can__ clean up in a hurry.

I must be cruel only to be kind;Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.

It__ much easier to be cruel than one might think.

I coudn't be kind to him after what he'd done, couldn't be cruel after what I had done

Since my arrival in Rome, I have had many opportunities to wonder if compassion__ opposite is cruelty, or to reflect whether or not indifference would serve as a better black to its white.

Live with an open mind and an open heart. Always choose love over fear and kindness over cruelty.