William Arthur Ward Quotes

A large part of mankind is angry not with the sins, but with the sinners.

Our God is righteous enough to judge and kind enough to forgive.

To forgive all is as inhuman as to forgive none

He who is only just is cruel. Who on earth could live were all judged justly?

We are all ready to be savage in some cause. The difference between a good man and a bad one is the choice of the cause.

To punish the oppressors of humanity is clemency; to forgive them is cruelty.

Even the vilest criminal remains a human being possessed of common human dignity.

I try to show ugliness, but with compassion for the people who commit ugly acts.

The more power that we have, the less human we are.

Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult than to understand him.

When a human kills an animal for food, he is neglecting his own hunger for justice. Man prays for mercy, but is unwilling to extend it to others. Why should man then expect mercy from God? It's unfair to expect something that you are not willing to give.

I wonder why it is the man who pleads for mercy never gives it.

It is more easy to forgive the weak who have injured us than the powerful whom we have injured.

When justice has spoken, humanity must have its turn.

Humanity is to be met with in a den of robbers.

When there’s only God to blame, we forgive him. When it’s our fellow man, we destroy him.

No human being, past the thoughtless age of boyhood, will wantonly murder any creature which holds its life by the same tenure that he does.

Man and his deed are two distinct things. Whereas a good deed should call forth approbation and a wicked deed dis-approbation, the doer of the deed, whether good or wicked always deserves respect or pity as the case may be. Hate the sin and not the sinner is a precept which though easy enough to understand is rarely practised, and that is why the poison of hatred spreads in the world.

...the ultimate dwindling resource in the human arrangement isn’t cheap oil or potable water or even common sense, but mercy.

To be able to laugh and to be merciful are the only things that make man better than the beast

When men are inhuman, take care not to feel towards them as they do towards other humans.

Yes, this is what good is: to forgive evil. There is no other good.

There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it ill behooves any of us to find fault with the rest of us.

Don't overestimate the decency of the human race.

I know for certain of only one commandment, one obligation, that God imposes upon us, and that is to be compassionate toward other human beings.