QuoteProject
Pity was meant to be a spur that drives joy to help misery. But it can be used the wrong way round. It can be used for a kind of blackmailing. Those who choose misery can hold joy up to ransom, by pity.
C. S. Lewis
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Pity can be a motivating force for compassion and joy, but it can also be misused to manipulate others.

In this quote, C. S. Lewis explores the dual nature of pity as both a positive and negative force. While it is intended to inspire kindness and support for those in misery, it can also be counterproductive, leading to manipulation where individuals may use their suffering to control or coerce others into feeling guilty or obligated to provide help, thereby turning a potentially uplifting emotion into a tool for emotional blackmail.

Themes

PityJoyMiseryManipulationCompassion

In practice

Example use cases

In a discussion about emotional intelligence, this quote can illustrate the complexity of feelings like pity and joy.

More from C. S. Lewis

A dogmatic belief in objective value is necessary to the very idea of a rule which is not tyranny or an obedience which is not slavery.
C. S. LewisRead
I enjoyed my breakfast this morning, and I think that was a good thing and do not think it was condemned by God. But I do not think myself a good man for enjoying it.
C. S. LewisRead
Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.
C. S. LewisRead
Forgiving and being forgiven are two names for the same thing. The important thing is that a discord has been resolved.
C. S. LewisRead
I pray because I can't help myself. I pray because I'm helpless. It doesn't change God - it changes me.
C. S. LewisRead
The instrument through which you see God is your whole self. And if a man's self is not kept clean and bright, his glimpse of God will be blurred
C. S. LewisRead

Similar quotes

A certain kind of shittiness, a certain kind of stagnation, a certain kind of darkness, goes on propagating itself by its own power in its own self-contained cycle. And once it passes a certain point, no one can stop it-even if the person himself wants to stop it.
Haruki MurakamiRead
I think it only makes sense to seek out and identify structures of authority, hierarchy, and domination in every aspect of life, and to challenge them; unless a justification for them can be given, they are illegitimate, and should be dismantled, to increase the scope of human freedom.
Noam ChomskyRead
Freedom to many means immediate betterment, as if by magic. Unless I can meet at least some of these aspirations, my support will wane and my head will roll just as surely as the tickbird follows the rhino.
Julius NyerereRead
If men would consider not so much wherein they differ, as wherein they agree, there would be far less of uncharitableness and angry feeling in the world.
Joseph AddisonRead
It's a fool boy who mocks a giant, and a mad world when a cripple has to defend him.
George R. R. MartinRead
Eternity is said not to be an extension of time but an absence of time, and sometimes it seemed to me that her abandonment touched that strange mathematical point of endlessness, a point with no width, occupying no space.
Graham GreeneRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.