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Mercy   /mˈərsi/   Listen
Mercy

noun
(pl. mercies)
1.
Leniency and compassion shown toward offenders by a person or agency charged with administering justice.  Synonyms: clemency, mercifulness.
2.
A disposition to be kind and forgiving.  Synonym: mercifulness.
3.
The feeling that motivates compassion.  Synonym: mercifulness.
4.
Something for which to be thankful.
5.
Alleviation of distress; showing great kindness toward the distressed.



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"Mercy" Quotes from Famous Books



... faithfulness of God cannot be fully measured now is not to say that it cannot be measured at all. Do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God, and our life will not only come out right at the end, it will come out right all the way. The lesson for us to learn is to labour and to wait; to give God and ourselves space to work in. Whether God is in His heaven or not, of ...
— Men in the Making • Ambrose Shepherd

... dreamy listlessness, nervousness, mental incapacity, lack of consideration for others, vanity, affectation, disobedience, untruthfulness, grumbling, etc., follow. Inattention to a degree that makes some children at the mercy of their environment and all its changes, and their mental life one perpetual distraction, is a fault which teachers, of course, naturally observe. Children's views of their own faults and those of other children lay a very different ...
— Youth: Its Education, Regimen, and Hygiene • G. Stanley Hall

... "For vengeance (she opined) they there should stay Upon man's sex, which had so sore offended. She willed each bark and crew which to that bay For shelter from the angry tempest wended, They should, without remorse, burn, sack, and slay, Nor mercy be to any one extended. Such was the lady's motion, such the course Adopted; and the ...
— Orlando Furioso • Lodovico Ariosto

... involved him, made him more disgusted than ever with the world; and his desire to consecrate himself to God in the holy priesthood became stronger and stronger every day. The Almighty seemed to have some special mission in view for this spotless child of St. Patrick, when his mercy had conducted him, like the children in the fiery furnace, so early through such meritorious trials and sufferings, as it requires the most faithful correspondence with grace to endure, and it falls to the lot ...
— The Cross and the Shamrock • Hugh Quigley

... professional soldier, was a very acute observer, further remarks that the whole interior of the city is dominated from the rising ground 700 yards distant and covered with solid buildings at the northeast angle, while the water supply both for the ditch and the city would be at the mercy of an enemy holding the outside country; the wells and reservoirs inside the wall, which could then alone be available—being quite inadequate to the wants of the inhabitants: but on the other hand, all experience testifies to the defensibility ...
— Afghanistan and the Anglo-Russian Dispute • Theo. F. Rodenbough

... if you want to reconcile their country to you, if you want to win back Ireland, if you want to make her children love you—then do not embitter their hearts still more by taking the lives of these men. Temper your strength with mercy; do not use the sword of justice like one of vengeance; for the day may come when it shall be broken in your hands, and you yourselves brained by the hilt of the weapon you have so ...
— Autobiographical Sketches • Annie Besant

... a law of sequence! The tree of knowledge will never prove to man the tree of life. There is no law says, Thou shalt know; a thousand laws cry out, Thou shalt do right. These men are a law unto themselves—and what a law! It is the old story: the greed of knowing casts out righteousness, and mercy, and faith. Whatever believed a benefit may or may not thus be wrought for higher creatures, the injustice to the lower is nowise affected. Justice has no respect of persons, but they are surely the weaker that stand ...
— Hope of the Gospel • George MacDonald

... for doubt! some Indian tribes, pursued perhaps by new conquerors from Europe, have just disembarked on the shore. Wo to him! he can hope from them neither pity nor mercy. A cold sweat bathes his forehead; he runs to his grotto, takes his gun, puts in his goatskin pouch some horns of powder and shot, a piece of smoked meat, not forgetting his Bible! and passes the night wandering in the woods, in the mountains, a prey to a thousand ...
— The Solitary of Juan Fernandez, or The Real Robinson Crusoe • Joseph Xavier Saintine

... good Sir Dietrich, show thy mercy, and help me hence or I die. Save me and the king from this ...
— The Fall of the Niebelungs • Unknown

... indifference that the gang first gained a footing, but by degrees it became evident that they couldn't be dislodged without a vigorous effort. People shrank from making it; and, with Beamish backing them, the fellows got steadily bolder and better organized. All the time, however, they were really at the mercy of the general body of orderly citizens. Now they have gone too far; this last affair can't be tolerated. Instead of apathy, there'll be an outbreak of indignation; and I expect the people who might have stopped the thing at the ...
— Ranching for Sylvia • Harold Bindloss

... poor soils and forced to send abroad the product, their wretched cultivator becomes poorer from day to day, and the less he obtains the more he becomes a slave to the caprices of his landlord, and the more is he thrown upon the mercy of the money-lender, who lends on good security at three per cent. per month, but from him must have fifty or a hundred per cent. for a loan until harvest. That under such circumstances the wages of labour should ...
— The trade, domestic and foreign • Henry Charles Carey

... it towards him that with main force he made Rodrigo lose the shield; but Rodrigo did not forget himself, and wounded him again in the face. And they both became greatly enraged, and cruel against each other, striking without mercy, for both of them were men who knew how to demean themselves. But while they thus struggled Don Martin Gonzalez lost much blood, and for very weakness he could not hold himself upon his horse, but fell ...
— Chronicle Of The Cid • Various

... strength had gone out of his legs, all the feeling from his bowels, leaving only a nauseating pity which brought up memory upon memory of horrible emotions, without any physical memory to fix them so that he was at their mercy. At last physical memories began to emerge, rather ridiculously, theatrical lodgings, provincial theatres, the arcades at Birmingham. And a blue straw hat that he had bought for her long ago; and at last her name. Kitty Messenger, and her mother, a golden-haired actress with a tongue like a ...
— Mummery - A Tale of Three Idealists • Gilbert Cannan

... afraid we now have a stiff piece of work cut out for ourselves. A third party is coming from the rear, and there is no telling but what there may be still more. We must do our best and fight to a finish, for they are on the war-path for fair, and they'll show us no mercy if once they git at us. Load up and fire jest as quick as ye can! Give it ...
— For the Liberty of Texas • Edward Stratemeyer

... revolver in his hand. Never before had the hand held a lethal weapon, yet no slightest doubt as to his ability to use it entered his brain. Above him, somewhere upon the plain beyond the bench rim, the woman he loved was at the mercy of a man whom Endicott instinctively knew would stop at nothing to gain an end. The thought that the man he intended to kill was armed and that he was a dead shot never entered his head, nor did he ...
— The Texan - A Story of the Cattle Country • James B. Hendryx

... justice may then appear an act of vengeance. [Murmurs.] My anxiety for the cause of France has become for the moment concern for her honor. If, on my return to America, I should employ myself on a history of the French Revolution, I had rather record a thousand errors on the side of mercy, than be obliged to tell one act of severe justice. I voted against an appeal to the people, because it appeared to me that the Convention was needlessly wearied on that point; but I so voted in the hope that this Assembly would pronounce against ...
— The Writings Of Thomas Paine, Complete - With Index to Volumes I - IV • Thomas Paine

... The goddess Mercy, however, the sweetest goddess that ever sat upon a cloud, and the dearest to poor, frail, erring man, appeared on the field in the person of Mr. Greenacre. Never was ...
— Barchester Towers • Anthony Trollope

... could expect nothing but the most determined hostility from Vanslyperken was certain; but for this the corporal cared little, as he had all the crew of the cutter on his side, and he was in his own person too high in rank to be at the mercy of Vanslyperken. ...
— Snarley-yow - or The Dog Fiend • Frederick Marryat

... But you're all mistaken, Clovy; you must be. She's only stiff and dull and horribly English, and very tired after her journey. She'll be all right in a day or two. If she isn't, I shall 'go for' her without mercy." ...
— In the High Valley - Being the fifth and last volume of the Katy Did series • Susan Coolidge

... to escape," he said, speaking to the whole party generally; "if you do you will be shot down without mercy." ...
— A Memory Of The Southern Seas - 1904 • Louis Becke

... economic factors. Let us suppose that the geologist is free to choose his field of exploration. An obvious preliminary step is to eliminate from consideration mineral commodities which are not in steady or large demand and are much at the mercy of market conditions, or which are otherwise not well situated commercially. The underlying factors are many and complex. They include the present nature and future possibilities of foreign competition, the domestic competition, the grades necessary to meet competition, the cost ...
— The Economic Aspect of Geology • C. K. Leith

... murderer were not handed over to him within an hour from dawn, when the camp was to break up, he would before marching burn the village to the ground. The Herr Pfarrer was on his way back from the camp where he had been to plead for mercy, but ...
— The Love of Ulrich Nebendahl • Jerome K. Jerome

... Father and merciful God Almighty, the prayer of me thy most unworthy servant; and let my supplications, which I offer before Thee and thy saints, come unto the ears of thy mercy. Amen. ...
— Henry the Sixth - A Reprint of John Blacman's Memoir with Translation and Notes • John Blacman

... when the Priest is at seruice no man sitteth, but gagle and ducke like so many Geese. And as for their prayers they haue but little skill, but vse to say As bodi pomele: As much to say, Lord haue mercy vpon me. For the tenth man within the land cannot say the Pater noster. And as for the Creede, no man may be so bolde as to meddle therewith but in the Church: for they say it shoulde not bee spoken of, but in the Churches. Speake to them of the Commandements, ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, • Richard Hakluyt

... possess power whom thou seest to wish what he cannot bring to pass? Dost thou count him to possess power who encompasses himself with a body-guard, who fears those he terrifies more than they fear him, who, to keep up the semblance of power, is himself at the mercy of his slaves? Need I say anything of the friends of kings, when I show royal dominion itself so utterly and miserably weak—why ofttimes the royal power in its plenitude brings them low, ofttimes involves them in its fall? Nero drove his friend and ...
— The Consolation of Philosophy • Boethius

... one well worthy of being seen, and one that cannot be witnessed every day—even in the swamps of Louisiana. Its occurrence at that time was accounted for by the drying up of the lake, which left the fish at the mercy of their ...
— Bruin - The Grand Bear Hunt • Mayne Reid

... continued to serve, might have done anything; and then to throw up the service and everything else in order to go over to Roman Catholicism and turn Jesuit—openly, too—almost triumphantly. By Jove! it was positively a mercy that he died when he did—it was indeed—everyone said so ...
— The Idiot • (AKA Feodor Dostoevsky) Fyodor Dostoyevsky

... without expense, and to that school they went. I don't know why, but they say the master had had a quarrel with their father when he was alive, and the master had not forgotten it now he was dead, and in consequence he was very severe upon these two boys, and used to beat them without mercy: at all events it did them good, for they learnt faster than any of the others who were at all favoured, and they soon proved the best boys in the school. Well, time ran on till Archibald was thirteen and ...
— Poor Jack • Frederick Marryat

... scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye tithe mint and anise and cummin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law, justice, and mercy, and faith: but these ye ought to have done, and not to have left the other undone. Ye blind guides, that strain out the gnat, and swallow ...
— His Last Week - The Story of the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus • William E. Barton

... Dan. "Bad hours, they fall to the ground. They are not His holy hours and He will send them back. Oh, a storm is coming! O Lord, have mercy on those ...
— The Crushed Flower and Other Stories • Leonid Andreyev

... permitted to see her but the family and nurses, for the doctor said all excitement must be carefully avoided. We said, "She will not die; God will raise her up." In our weakness and blindness, we could see no mercy nor wisdom in this terrible bereavement, this scorching desolation of the already heavily-stricken servant of the Most High. He was naturally of a most hopeful disposition, and this, notwithstanding the discouraging words of the physician, buoyed up his soul, and ...
— Words of Cheer for the Tempted, the Toiling, and the Sorrowing • T. S. Arthur

... call came too late; he could find no sureties for his good behaviour in the future; he had never in his life shown any love for God or pity for man, and he found in his utmost need neither mercy nor pity now. He strained his eyes in vain over the crests of the restless billows, calling for the help that did not come. The receding sails never shivered; no land was near, no vessel in sight. The sun went down, and the hopeless sinner was ...
— The Book of the Bush • George Dunderdale

... an epic struggle, on the bed thrown into confusion and disorder, as after a murder; huge slaps on the firm, rounded forms; virile smackings; and Glass-Eye, breathlessly, had to own herself beaten, to beg for mercy. ...
— The Bill-Toppers • Andre Castaigne

... was an orator of great power, and he presented his plea with all the eloquence of which he was master. But it fell on ears that understood not its purport. I know of no more pathetic incident in all the long chapter of human woe and despair than this pitiful prayer of a perishing people for mercy and forgiveness, spoken in a tongue that carried no meaning to those who heard. Let us hope that if the petition had been understood it ...
— Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 7 • Charles H. Sylvester

... almost unexampled in any other part of our civil economy. That sole beneficial result, for the sake of which some legislators were willing to sanction a wrong otherwise admitted to be indefensible, is so little protected and secured to the public, that it is first of all placed at the mercy of an agent in London, whose negligence or indifference may defeat the provision altogether, (I know a publisher of a splendid botanical work, who told me that, by forbearing to attract notice to it within the statutable time, he saved his eleven copies;) and placed at the mercy of a librarian, who ...
— Autobiographic Sketches • Thomas de Quincey

... of Mr. Feeble-mind's history," says our ablest commentator on Bunyan, "was the finest mercy of his history." That one calamity was his falling into Giant Slay-good's hands, and his finest mercy was his rescue by Greatheart, and his consequent companionship with his deliverer, with Mr. Honest, ...
— Bunyan Characters (Second Series) • Alexander Whyte

... seated, that hid her face. But, as you draw near, the woman raises her wasted features. Would Domrmy know them again for the features of her child? Ah, but you know them, bishop, well! Oh, mercy! what a groan was that which the servants, waiting outside the bishop's dream at his bedside, heard from his labouring heart, as at this moment he turned away from the fountain and the woman, seeking rest in the forests ...
— The English Mail-Coach and Joan of Arc • Thomas de Quincey

... either of person or property. He was entirely in the hands of the Chiefs, was forced to labour unremittingly that others might profit by his toil; and neither his life, his land, his cattle, nor the very persons of his women-folk, could properly be said to belong to him, since all were at the mercy of any one who desired to take them from him, and was strong enough to do so. This, of course, is the weak point in the Feudal System, and was probably not confined to the peoples of Asia. The chroniclers of Mediaeval Europe tell only of Princes and Nobles, and Knights ...
— In Court and Kampong - Being Tales and Sketches of Native Life in the Malay Peninsula • Hugh Clifford

... every day three requests, of what nature soever they might be; but this century passed as well as the two former, and I continued in prison. At last, being angry to find myself a prisoner so long, I swore that if afterward any one should deliver me, I would kill him without mercy, and grant him no favour but to choose the manner of his death; and, therefore, since thou hast delivered me to-day, ...
— The Arabian Nights - Their Best-known Tales • Unknown

... a moment the despair which cannot be described; it was repugnant to her, notwithstanding the exquisite delicacy which Raoul had exhibited, to feel herself at the mercy of an indiscretion. It was equally repugnant to her to accept the evasion offered by this delicate deception. Agitated, nervous, she struggled against the double stings of the two troubles. Raoul comprehended her position, ...
— The Vicomte de Bragelonne - Or Ten Years Later being the completion of "The Three - Musketeers" And "Twenty Years After" • Alexandre Dumas

... writing. If it were given to me, through your prayers, once to see you, to profit by your gifts and to add to the history of my life a meeting with such a great and apostolic soul, surely I should consider that the loving mercy of God has given me a compensation for all the ills with which my life ...
— Saint Athanasius - The Father of Orthodoxy • F.A. [Frances Alice] Forbes

... child he calls Lo-Ruhamah. She was set for a witness that God would take away His mercy from the House of Israel for a time, and that God would utterly take them away out of the land. So He did; for a few years after this we find the children of Israel were carried captive into Assyria by Shalmaneser, and ...
— The Lost Ten Tribes, and 1882 • Joseph Wild

... history of its editors) Lowell[5] complained bitterly that he was never rewarded properly for the time and work he did; Fields was (in a way) one of its owners; it was sold out from under Howells, etc., etc. I might (probably should) have been at the mercy completely of owners some day who would have dismissed me for a younger man. Nearly all hired editors suffer this fate. My good friends in Boston were sincere in thinking that my day of doom would never come; but they didn't ...
— The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page, Volume I • Burton J. Hendrick

... that the path of moral progress has never taken a straight line, but has ever been a zig-zag course amid the conflicting forces of right and wrong, truth and error, justice and injustice, cruelty and mercy. Do not be discouraged, then, that all the wrongs of the universe are not righted at your bidding. The great humanitarian movement which has been sweeping over the civilized world from the middle of the eighteenth century ...
— The American Missionary - Volume 52, No. 3, September, 1898 • Various

... They say that when a king of old would consent to see a petitioner for his life, he was bound by his royalty to mercy. So it was with the Duke. Then, very early in the argument, he forgot himself, and called her—Mary. I knew he had ...
— The Duke's Children • Anthony Trollope

... surpassed the bloodiest of those of modern days, despite the enormously more destructive weapons and implements now employed. When men fought hand to hand, and no idea of quarter for the defeated existed, entire armies were at times slaughtered on the field. In our days, when the idea of mercy for the vanquished prevails, this wholesale slaughter of beaten hosts has ceased, and the death list of the battle-field has been largely reduced by caution on the part of the fighters. With the feeling that a dead soldier is utterly useless, and a wounded one often worse than ...
— A History of The Nations and Empires Involved and a Study - of the Events Culminating in The Great Conflict • Logan Marshall

... as it ought to be kept; and as some part of it was frequently employed in works of mercy, the hour she allotted to visiting the neighbouring poor was occasionally supplied from this day, and ...
— Clarissa Harlowe, Volume 9 (of 9) - The History Of A Young Lady • Samuel Richardson

... on, Ch'in Chung's spirit suddenly grasped the four words, "Pao-yue has come," and without loss of time, it went on again to make further urgent appeals. "Gentlemen, spiritual deputies," it exclaimed; "show me a little mercy and allow me to return to make just one remark to an intimate friend of mine, ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book I • Cao Xueqin

... if the philanthropist of half a century since is the philanthropist still,—still kind, hopeful, and unwearied, though with the snows of age upon his head, and the hand that never told its fellow of what it did now trembling as it does the deed of mercy; then I think that even the most doubtful will believe that the principle and the religion of such men were a glorious reality! The sternest of all touchstones of the genuineness of our better feelings is the fashion in which they stand the ...
— The Recreations of A Country Parson • A. K. H. Boyd

... souls from dung; Thrilling the dust to holy, beautiful spirit, And returning the spirit to dust. Come and ye shall know Peace and Joy. Let what ye desire of the Universe penetrate you, Let Loving-kindness and Mercy pass through you, And Truth be the Law of your mouth. For so ye are channels of the divine sea, Which may not flood the earth but only steal in Through rifts ...
— Dreamers of the Ghetto • I. Zangwill

... loose earth thrown in and rammed closely around him. He was then scalped and permitted to remain in that situation for several hours. A fire was next kindled near his head. In vain did the poor suffering victim of hellish barbarity exclaim, that his brains were boiling in his head; and entreat the mercy of instant death. Deaf to his cries, and inexorable to his entreaties, they continued the fire 'till his eye balls burst and gushed from their sockets, and death put a period ...
— Chronicles of Border Warfare • Alexander Scott Withers

... did by a proclamation issued in March 1560. The discarded regent lived for some time in rebellion, endeavouring to establish an independent principality in Malwa, but at last he was forced to cast himself on Akbar's mercy. The emperor not only freely pardoned him, but magnanimously offered him the choice of a high place in the army or a suitable escort for a pilgrimage to Mecca, and Bairam preferred the latter alternative. When ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia

... silent for a moment. The cabman was driving slowly. She watched a distant barge drifting, like a great shadow, at the mercy of the tide. Then she turned a little, looked at Artois's ...
— The Call of the Blood • Robert Smythe Hichens

... smallest and ill is greatest?" "The Banu Thakif."[FN62] "And wherefore so?" "Because thou, O Hajjaj, art of them." Thereupon the Lieutenant of Kufah raged with exceeding rage and ordered the slaughter of the youth; but the Grandees of the State rose up and prayed him for mercy, when he accepted their intercession and pardoned the offender. After which he said to him, "O young man, concerning the kid[FN63] that is in the firmament, tell me be it male or female?" for he was ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 5 • Richard F. Burton

... "For mercy's sake, you never came all the way from Wendover to Charlottesville to ask that question, did you, Mr. Kyte?" inquired irrepressible ...
— Victor's Triumph - Sequel to A Beautiful Fiend • Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth

... turned into a permanent body wielding the almost unlimited powers of the Crown. All opinions or acts contrary to the Statutes of Supremacy and Uniformity fell within its cognizance. A right of deprivation placed the clergy at its mercy. It had power to alter or amend the statutes of colleges or schools. Not only heresy and schism and nonconformity, but incest or aggravated adultery were held to fall within its scope; its means of enquiry were left without limit, and it might fine or imprison at its will. ...
— History of the English People - Volume 4 (of 8) • John Richard Green

... your daughter?" asked the man, looking hard at the portly, pleasant-faced matron who was dandling her thirteenth infant on her knees. "You will show her no mercy, now she ...
— Drolls From Shadowland • J. H. Pearce

... in her most emphatic style. "Don't, for mercy's sake, be taken in by such nonsense. It is a wonder what folks can get into their heads when they have nothing else in them! Sister Ada is very much concerned about the low tone of spirituality which she sees in you—stupid ...
— In Convent Walls - The Story of the Despensers • Emily Sarah Holt

... them Manitou-being, Manitou-hearing, Manitou-seeing. Him to know, and knowing, adore, Manitou all forever more. Up and forth to meet the day, Over the hills and far away; Many a race must be begun, Some be finished ere set of sun, All in Manitou fashion run, All in Manitou mercy done, Great Wahcondah ...
— The Red Moccasins - A Story • Morrison Heady

... with strange, darkened eyes, strained with underworld knowledge, almost supplicating, like those of a creature which is at his mercy, yet which is his ultimate victor. He did not know what to say to her. He felt the mutual hellish recognition. And he felt he ought to say something, to cover it. He had the power of lightning in his nerves, she seemed like a soft recipient of his magical, hideous white fire. ...
— Women in Love • D. H. Lawrence

... Tancarville calme replyd, Nor joie in dethe, lyke madmen most distraught; In peace and mercy is a Chrystians pryde; He that dothe contestes pryze is in a faulte. And now the news was to Duke William brought, 65 That men of Haroldes armie taken were; For theyre good cheere all caties were enthoughte, And Gyrthe and Eilwardus enjoi'd goode cheere. Quod Willyam; thus shall Willyam ...
— The Rowley Poems • Thomas Chatterton

... repeated Magdalen, afraid of committing herself to a child like Hoodie, who never, under any circumstances, forgot anything in the shape of a promise that was made to her, or had the least mercy on any unfortunate "big person" that showed any signs of "crying off" ...
— Hoodie • Mary Louisa Stewart Molesworth

... a word to him about it, Nan!" he cried. "Don't you go interceding with him for me. I've got some pride left. He can take the farm from me, and he can take you maybe, but he can't take my self-respect. I won't beg him for mercy. Don't you dare to say a ...
— Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories, 1904 • Lucy Maud Montgomery

... if everything were as clear and simple as it seems to Mary. How good it would be to know where to seek for help in this life, and what to expect after it beyond the grave! How happy and calm I should be if I could now say: 'Lord, have mercy on me!'... But to whom should I say that? Either to a Power indefinable, incomprehensible, which I not only cannot address but which I cannot even express in words—the Great All or Nothing-" said he to himself, "or to ...
— War and Peace • Leo Tolstoy

... plantation by whut they call relay. Iffen you was caught, they whipped you till you said, "Oh, pray Master!" One day a man gitting whipped was saying "Oh pray master, Lord have mercy!" They'd say "Keep whipping that nigger Goddamn him." He was whipped till he said, "Oh pray Master, I gotta nuff." Then they said, "Let him up now, 'cause he's praying to ...
— Slave Narratives, Oklahoma - A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From - Interviews with Former Slaves • Various

... of the accused was deprived of its property by confiscation; half went to the papal treasury, half to the inquisitors. Life only, said Innocent III., was to be left to the sons of misbelievers, and that merely as an act of mercy. The consequence was, that popes, such as Nicolas III., enriched their families through plunder acquired by this tribunal. Inquisitors did ...
— History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science • John William Draper

... not responsible for your actions at the moment of committing this crime. There is no, doubt, I think, that this was a device to bring out at first hand the nature of the temptation to which you succumbed. For throughout the trial your counsel was in reality making an appeal for mercy. The setting up of this defence of course enabled him to put in some evidence that might weigh in that direction. Whether he was well advised to so is another matter. He claimed that you should be treated rather as a patient than as ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy

... expected him, and assuredly with the desire to see and embrace him; and pressing him in this manner, I took the liberty to gently push him. He cast upon me a look that pierced my soul and went away: I followed him some few steps and then withdrew to recover breath; I never saw him again. May I, by the mercy of God, see him eternally where God's goodness ...
— The Memoirs of Louis XIV., His Court and The Regency, Complete • Duc de Saint-Simon

... helps them according to what may be for their welfare. Now he is measuring off the land for them, but I hear it said that he measures it very, very small, and I am sad about that. If only he would have mercy and measure it off for them largely, that is what I think. A good while ago the Grandfather made a treaty with the Indians and promised to give them three hundred and twenty acres, and according to that I have chosen my homestead and that suits me. Therefore I prize ...
— The American Missionary - Volume 42, No. 2, February 1888 • Various

... I will have no mercy now," cried Richard, excitedly. "I tried to spare you, but this life is intolerable since you came here. Once more, will ...
— The Queen's Scarlet - The Adventures and Misadventures of Sir Richard Frayne • George Manville Fenn

... "Mercy!" the other broke out, "I guess you'll have to! I've had scoldings enough over the old pin! I wouldn't carry it home again ...
— Polly of Lady Gay Cottage • Emma C. Dowd

... Divine decrees as a Mohamedan accepts his fate. What was, was right—all as it should be; elect, or non-elect, according to the fore-knowledge, it was well. Sucking in their theology with their mothers' milk, and cradled in sectarian traditions, they loved justice before mercy, and seldom walked humbly before God. And yet these Rehoboth mothers had borne and reared a strong offspring—children hard, narrow, and self-righteous, yet of firm fibre, and of ...
— Lancashire Idylls (1898) • Marshall Mather

... As a flash of lightning in the night shows up in an instant every detail of a wide landscape, so at one glance I seemed to see every possible result of such an action—the detection, the capture, the honoured career ending in irreparable failure and disgrace, my friend himself lying at the mercy of the ...
— The Return of Sherlock Holmes - Magazine Edition • Arthur Conan Doyle

... what would give dishonour, as thou callest it, or harm, to thyself, for give me—I knew it not—and leave me. But if it were not of thyself that thou didst speak, believe that thou hast done me but a cruel mercy. Let me go with thee, I implore! I have no friend here: no one loves me. I hate the faces I gaze upon; I loathe the voices I hear. And, were it for nothing else, thou remindest me of him who is gone:—thou art familiar to me—every look of thee breathes ...
— Godolphin, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... it goin' to be?" he asked, breaking off; "an' if 'tis by Shamus O'Neil's blunderbust that he's fumblin' yondther, will I stand afore or ahint ut? for 'tis fatal both ends, I'm thinkin', like Barney Sullivan's mule. Wirra, wirra! May our souls find mercy, Shamus O'Neil, for we'll both, be wantin' ut this day. Better for you, Shamus, that this millstone was hung round your black neck, an' you drownin' in ...
— The Delectable Duchy • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... He wasted no breath in useless protest against the decision of this man of iron. What must be, must. A plea for mercy or for a reversal of judgment would be ...
— Steve Yeager • William MacLeod Raine

... "I cry you mercy, Doctor," said Mr. Touchwood; "but would you compare these parchment fellows with me, that have made my legs my compasses over great part of the ...
— St. Ronan's Well • Sir Walter Scott

... to me, whichever way you figure it—if I don't spend it, it goes to Stoddard. He won't have any mercy on me, even if we win this case. My stock is gone when the ninety days are up. The most I can hope is to beat him on this suit. That will make my Tecolote stock more valuable and maybe I can borrow the money to pay off the debt ...
— Rimrock Jones • Dane Coolidge

... resumed. "It looks as though things were coming pretty nearly to a show-down up there. We are going to find out all about that. Incidentally, we are going to find out everything about this poor girl here, whose name and reputation only the mercy of God kept you from ruining this very night." The two now sat looking each other fairly and fully in the eye. For the first time in many years Henry Decherd recognized ...
— The Law of the Land • Emerson Hough

... "Lord have mercy on us!" Samoylenko whispered rapidly and intensely, and there was positively a breaking note in his throat. "I've been stripped of everything; I am owed seven thousand, and I'm in debt all round. Is it ...
— The Duel and Other Stories • Anton Chekhov

... leaders of the mob would brook no interference. A physician examined Juanita and announced to the mob that she was in a condition that demanded the highest sympathy of every man, but he was forced to flee from town to save his life. A prominent citizen made an appeal for mercy, but he was driven down the main street and across the river by a mob with drawn revolvers, and with threats of instant death. The well-known John B. Weller was in town at the time, and was asked to reason with the mob, but refused to ...
— Death Valley in '49 • William Lewis Manly

... the same, but have pleasure in them that do them." What a terrible list of sins! Oh, we must flee from any of them. If you get your dictionary and look up the meaning of each one of these you would see how sinful sin is. No wonder God looks down upon sinful mankind and is grieved. Now mercy is held out to all who will turn to Him and through Jesus Christ seek forgiveness and turn away from sin, but the time is coming when mercy will be withdrawn. This old world will be on fire and only the holy and true will be taken to that prepared place for a prepared people who have sought God. ...
— The Key To Peace • A. Marie Miles

... dreary repetition of a siege Sunday's monotony. The situation had been discussed threadbare, and there was little else to converse about. The dust outdoors was blinding, and the people for the most part dozed over books. That was the cardinal mercy vouchsafed us; we had books to read, and never were they so ravenously devoured. Reading was much in vogue; it was a siege innovation—a very good one, too. Persons who had never hitherto believed in the pleasure to be derived from books were disillusioned, ...
— The Siege of Kimberley • T. Phelan

... there not crime in this world that is beyond pardon? Are not some people guilty of sins so terrible and so numerous that the Church dares not pardon them, and if God, in His justice, takes account of them, He cannot for all His mercy pardon them? See, I begin with this question, because, if I am to have no hope, it is needless ...
— CELEBRATED CRIMES, COMPLETE - THE MARQUISE DE BRINVILLIERS • ALEXANDRE DUMAS, PERE

... errand," said he, "and are causing the bride to wait in vain!" Once more he looked at a sorcerer and said: "Do you go and hunt them up!" But the sorcerer flung himself on the ground and begged for mercy. And all the rest of the sorcerers and witches knelt to him in a row, and pleaded for grace. And they took an oath that they would never again seek a bride for ...
— The Chinese Fairy Book • Various

... attributes that God doth vindicate to himself, eternity, omnipotency, immutability, wisdom, majesty, justice, mercy, &c., his [6312]beauty is not the least, one thing, saith David, have I desired of the Lord, and that I will still desire, to behold the beauty of the Lord, Psal. xxvii. 4. And out of Sion, which is the perfection of beauty, hath God shined, Psal. 1. 2. All other ...
— The Anatomy of Melancholy • Democritus Junior

... your manners," he cried, gaily, "or some day I'll take my pen in hand to you, and then, may the Lord have mercy on your soul!" adding low, ...
— Nancy Stair - A Novel • Elinor Macartney Lane

... aloud. Standing over the fallen man she appealed to the soldier for mercy. Then, seeing that there was none to hope for from him, she cast her great eyes around until they fell ...
— Moon of Israel • H. Rider Haggard

... and accordingly, even at this point of their advance, he once more deliberately brought under review the whole question of the revolt. The question was formally debated before the Council, whether, even at this point, they should untread their steps, and, throwing themselves upon the Czarina's mercy, return to their old allegiance? In that case, Oubacha professed himself willing to become the scapegoat for the general transgression. This, he argued, was no fantastic scheme, but even easy of accomplishment; for the ...
— Narrative And Miscellaneous Papers • Thomas De Quincey

... peril, if not already dead. Volunteers for the relief expedition had been called for by the department. Lieutenant De Haven and others had responded, and on May 24th, 1850, started on their errand of mercy. In July, the party was in Baffin's Bay, and here the brigs remained embedded in the ice for twenty-one days. On the 29th of July, by a sudden movement of the floe, an opening at the north presented itself; ...
— The Naval History of the United States - Volume 2 (of 2) • Willis J. Abbot

... be a better man. I know, my friends, from sad experience, that when we get down under men's feet, and are sent to places like these, we lose heart and hope; we feel that there is no chance for us to get up again, we are tempted to be despairing and reckless; but through the kindness and mercy of that good lady, Mrs. Arnot, I learned of a kindness and mercy greater even than hers. The world may hate us, scorn us, and even trample us down, and if we will be honest with ourselves we must admit that we have given it some reason to do all this—at least I feel that I have—but the ...
— A Knight Of The Nineteenth Century • E. P. Roe

... Indian nature well. To command the respect of the savages was the only way to lessen his torture. He knew that a cry for mercy would only increase his sufferings and not hasten his death,—indeed it would prolong both. He had resolved to die without a moan. He had determined to show absolute indifference to his torture, which was the only way to appeal to the savage nature, and if anything could, make the Indians show ...
— Betty Zane • Zane Grey

... "mercy is for the fireside, not for the throne. In great causes, what is a screw of tyranny here, a bolt of oppression there, or a few thousand lives!" He suddenly got to his feet, and, looking into the distance, made a swift motion of his hand, his eyes half closed, his brows brooding and firm. ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... provide for their three small sons had given her the strength to resolve not to succumb to a like fate. Her voice brightened when she told me that in all her misery there had come one tiny streak of good fortune to her, a poor, helpless widow cast upon the mercy of the world with three children. The new section foreman, whom the company had sent to fill the vacancy caused by Mr. McDonald's death, proved to be a crusty, old bachelor of perhaps sixty-five who no doubt appreciating a few extra comforts at his ...
— The Trail of the Tramp • A-No. 1 (AKA Leon Ray Livingston)

... too, special Bible Readings on the Lord's Day evening,—mother and children and visitors reading in turns, with fresh and interesting question, answer, and exposition, all tending to impress us with the infinite grace of a God of love and mercy in the great gift of His dear Son Jesus, our Saviour. The Shorter Catechism was gone through regularly, each answering the question asked, till the whole had been explained, and its foundation in Scripture shown by the proof-texts adduced. ...
— The Story of John G. Paton - Or Thirty Years Among South Sea Cannibals • James Paton

... another planet are not strangers to the men in power. It is on record that they are inhuman monsters capable of killing without mercy—yet they are quite ordinary in appearance. They walk the streets, unsuspected, among us. It is on record right here in Washington that these creatures are not human but, rather, soulless androids, manufactured to destroy us, ...
— Ten From Infinity • Paul W. Fairman

... do to organise and stiffen resistance. At Louvain (August 12) he made a last effort to save the capital and repeatedly exposed his life, but the Belgians were completely routed and Brussels lay at the victor's mercy. It was a terrible humiliation for the new Belgian state. But the prince had accomplished his task and did not advance beyond Louvain. On hearing that a French army, at the invitation of King Leopold, had entered Belgium with the sanction of the Powers, he concluded an armistice, by the mediation ...
— History of Holland • George Edmundson

... shall leave you in command here to-night. I have other work to do. General Harford will be here at dawn. The attacking force will be on the east of the camp. You will crush them between you! You will stamp them down without mercy. Let them see the Empire is ready for them! They will not trouble us again for perhaps ...
— Rosa Mundi and Other Stories • Ethel M. Dell

... in His infinite mercy, and for the sake of truth, has compelled, as it were, the Church of Rome to acknowledge the moral dangers and corrupting tendencies of auricular confession. In His eternal wisdom, he knew that Roman ...
— The Priest, The Woman And The Confessional • Father Chiniquy

... insinuate a vein of comedy. A peasant, summarily condemned for some misdeed, lies flat upon the ground with bared back: two friends take hold of his arms, and two others his legs, to keep him in the proper position. His wife or his son intercedes for him to the man with the stick: "For mercy's sake strike on the ground!" And as a fact, the bastinado was commonly rather a mere form of chastisement than an actual punishment: the blows, dealt with apparent ferocity, missed their aim and fell upon the earth; the culprit howled loudly, but was let off with only ...
— History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 2 (of 12) • G. Maspero

... saying, "rise up and pray," which strengthened me. I fell on my knees and prayed the best I could the Lord's prayer. Knowing no more to say, I halted, but continued on my knees. My spirit was then taught to pray, "Lord, have mercy on me—Christ save me." Immediately there appeared a director, clothed in white raiment. I thought he took me by the hand and said, "come with me." He led me down a long journey to a fiery gulf, and left me standing upon the ...
— Memoir of Old Elizabeth, A Coloured Woman • Anonymous



Words linked to "Mercy" :   mercy killing, pity, pardon, leniency, mercilessness, forgivingness, mercy seat, free pardon, humaneness, amnesty, re-sentencing, succor, quarter, succour, mildness, respite, lenity, lenience, commutation, compassionateness, blessing, boon, forgiveness, mercifulness, relief, reprieve, kindness, ministration, compassion



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