"But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most, our one fellow and brother who most needed a friend yet had not a single one, the one sinner among us all who had the highest and clearest right to every Christian's daily and nightly prayers, for the plain and unassailable reason that his was the first and greatest need, he being among sinners the supremest?"
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Anime and Manga
Giyu: Don't feel sorry for a demon who ate people. It doesn't matter whether or not he had the form of a child. He's an unsightly monster who lived for tens, hundreds, thousands of years.
Tanjiro: To dispel the regrets of those killed, to stop any more victims from appearing, I will relentlessly wield my blade against the demons, and that's a fact. But I will not trample on the pains of being a demon, nor on those who regret their own actions. Because demons were humans. Because they were humans just like me. Please get your foot off. He isn't an unsightly monster. Demons are lifeless beings, sorrowful beings.
Tanjiro: To dispel the regrets of those killed, to stop any more victims from appearing, I will relentlessly wield my blade against the demons, and that's a fact. But I will not trample on the pains of being a demon, nor on those who regret their own actions. Because demons were humans. Because they were humans just like me. Please get your foot off. He isn't an unsightly monster. Demons are lifeless beings, sorrowful beings.
"I...could see he was hurting. Or rather...I could feel it. When Shigaraki's consciousness...invaded One For All... When he was focusing so hard on his own dream... I felt it inside all that rage. I felt a little boy...crying. Up until now, I've come up against all types. They refused to back down...so fighting was the only way to stop them. But...I never understood what made them turn out that way. If I had maybe things would've worked out differently. Or, who knows? Maybe I still would've had to fight them anyway. Shigaraki killed so many people. He's hurt people near and dear to me. And yet!! One For All is a power meant for saving, not killing. All Might taught me that. And not just me. All Might... and all of you who've built up this power. Have given hope to countless people out there. I get that this power was meant to destroy that evil! But you've given your lives to link the chain this far...And I think there's another big purpose behind it all! Maybe there is no other way besides killing. And I dunno what I'm gonna do when the time comes...But I want to save...that little boy."
—Izuku Midoriya, My Hero Academia
Unico: I should have know, I've never had a chance against him.
Lord Kuruku: What are you talking about? This is more than a scratch.
Unico: But I had no idea I hardly touched you. I'm sorry.
Lord Kuruku: (yells) Why are you saying that you're sorry!? Why!?
Unico: Because I feel sorry for you.
Lord Kuruku: You feel... what do you mean you feel sorry for me?
Unico: I'm sorry that you're full of... so much hate. You think that all people are your enemies but that's only because you've never had a friend.
Lord Kuruku: Did you say a friend?
Unico: I know how important friends are. That's why I understand you.
Lord Kuruku: (getting weak) Please stop it, the idea of being someone's friend. It's making me feel quite ill. (shrieks)
Unico: I know what happened to you long ago, I know that some people treated you badly. If you had a friend you'd know not everyone's like that. You must be very lonely.
Lord Kuruku: LONELY!! He says that I'm lonely! But don't you understand? I hate people, I d-o-o-o-o-o!!!
Unico: What's wrong Kuruku?
Lord Kuruku: How can you be so cruel!? All this talk of friendship and understanding is making me feel all soft and gooey! (screams) I have lived only to hate humanity and now you're telling me that I am lonely? Like people are good, that I need a friend. You're words are melting my heart! (shrieks)
Unico: Kuruku don't worry I'll be your friend okay?
Lord Kuruku: (shrieks at his suggestion)
Unico: If you free all your puppets, I'll be your friend forever!
Lord Kuruku: Ahhh that word again! Who would ever be a friend of mine? WHO!
Unico: Oh wait Kuruku don't be frightened! Anyone can have a friend, really!
Lord Kuruku: It's too late for me I'm afraid
Unico: Kuruku! (watches as he's shrinking) What's happening?
Lord Kuruku: My hatred was the only thing that kept me alive. You've taken it from me, I have nothing left! But for the first time in my life I can hardly say it... "I feel good!"
Lord Kuruku: What are you talking about? This is more than a scratch.
Unico: But I had no idea I hardly touched you. I'm sorry.
Lord Kuruku: (yells) Why are you saying that you're sorry!? Why!?
Unico: Because I feel sorry for you.
Lord Kuruku: You feel... what do you mean you feel sorry for me?
Unico: I'm sorry that you're full of... so much hate. You think that all people are your enemies but that's only because you've never had a friend.
Lord Kuruku: Did you say a friend?
Unico: I know how important friends are. That's why I understand you.
Lord Kuruku: (getting weak) Please stop it, the idea of being someone's friend. It's making me feel quite ill. (shrieks)
Unico: I know what happened to you long ago, I know that some people treated you badly. If you had a friend you'd know not everyone's like that. You must be very lonely.
Lord Kuruku: LONELY!! He says that I'm lonely! But don't you understand? I hate people, I d-o-o-o-o-o!!!
Unico: What's wrong Kuruku?
Lord Kuruku: How can you be so cruel!? All this talk of friendship and understanding is making me feel all soft and gooey! (screams) I have lived only to hate humanity and now you're telling me that I am lonely? Like people are good, that I need a friend. You're words are melting my heart! (shrieks)
Unico: Kuruku don't worry I'll be your friend okay?
Lord Kuruku: (shrieks at his suggestion)
Unico: If you free all your puppets, I'll be your friend forever!
Lord Kuruku: Ahhh that word again! Who would ever be a friend of mine? WHO!
Unico: Oh wait Kuruku don't be frightened! Anyone can have a friend, really!
Lord Kuruku: It's too late for me I'm afraid
Unico: Kuruku! (watches as he's shrinking) What's happening?
Lord Kuruku: My hatred was the only thing that kept me alive. You've taken it from me, I have nothing left! But for the first time in my life I can hardly say it... "I feel good!"
— Unico's final confrontation with a dying Kuruku, Unico in the Island of Magic
Comic Books
"The impulse to end everything — I get it. I've been there. What would have happened to me without my mom? I'm sorry you went through all that. Shit, I could have been you, Mardok. The next age will be better for everyone, I promise."
— Will, Image Comics: Maestros
"The poor fool—! If he wasn't so dangerous, I'd almost feel sorry for him!"
— Superman on Lex Luthor, The Life Story of Superman
Fan Works
"Don't you understand?! Monaca wasn't born a monster - she was made! Her mother abandoned her! Her father exploited her! Her brother violated her! Because of her abuse, she knew nothing but pain, and sorrow, and despair growing up!"
— Daisuke Hiyori, Danganronpa: Paradise Lost
"If this is purgatory and you are here to judge me for my crimes and sins, then let's make it short; I have no mind to idle about it. I declare myself guilty of pointing my blade to the heavens, attacking the Church and cursing in my head every time I heard your name or title. Of trying to end through war the hierarchy you imposed when gifting crests to the nobles. I knew from the start that hell would be my ending if it existed at all. Therefore, do not make me wait, Goddess. Just send me to the place I rightfully deserve."
"You are not afraid of hell," the Goddess spoke at last, with a… compassionate tone? Her smirk was nowhere to be seen anymore. "It suits you, the mighty Emperor image," she held her gaze on the guilty woman, inspecting her demeanor. "I wonder how broken your soul is to live up to it? How much of yourself you left behind?" Sothis fixed her posture and held both the throne's arms while meeting Edelgard's widened eyes. Was she frowning? Why did she look so sad?
"Poor child, you have suffered quite a share, have you not?"
"You are not afraid of hell," the Goddess spoke at last, with a… compassionate tone? Her smirk was nowhere to be seen anymore. "It suits you, the mighty Emperor image," she held her gaze on the guilty woman, inspecting her demeanor. "I wonder how broken your soul is to live up to it? How much of yourself you left behind?" Sothis fixed her posture and held both the throne's arms while meeting Edelgard's widened eyes. Was she frowning? Why did she look so sad?
"Poor child, you have suffered quite a share, have you not?"
"She wore a suit of white armour with accompanying robes and gave off an image of purity that baffled Twilight. Uthemiel was just as much a tyrant as her siblings. She killed Spike. However, as Uthemiel desperately tried to escape Nightmare Moon, Twilight felt a pang of pity to her former enemy. She saw in the dragon’s good eye the same sight she beheld in ponies across her travel. She saw it in the faces of her friends. She saw it in herself.
Uthemiel was terrified and knew the hour of her death had come. The worst part was that she could do nothing to prevent it."
Uthemiel was terrified and knew the hour of her death had come. The worst part was that she could do nothing to prevent it."
Film — Live-Action
Laugher: I'm sorry... I can't control it. The things that they did to my head. They made you like they made me... but you're better than me. Who told you what to do?
Mike: ...Nobody.
Laugher: ...That must be nice.
Mike: ...Nobody.
Laugher: ...That must be nice.
Literature
"Bowman could easily believe Dr Simonson's theory that unconscious feelings of guilt, caused by his program conflicts, had made Hal attempt to break the circuit with Earth. And he liked to think - though this again was something that could never be proved - that Hal had no intention of killing Poole. He had merely tried to destroy the evidence; for once the AE-35 unit reported as burned out was proved to be operational, his lies would be revealed. After that, like any clumsy criminal caught in a thickening web of deception, he had panicked.
And panic was something that Bowman understood better than he had any wish to."
And panic was something that Bowman understood better than he had any wish to."
"You must be thinking the Yeerks are pure evil. But let me tell you what it's like to be a Yeerk who isn't in a host. Yeerks are basically gray slugs. No hands, no legs, no eyes, no ears. If a Yeerk wants to be free, free to really move, free to see the beauty of the world around it, free to hear music or even the sound of rain on leaves, if a Yeerk wants that, it has to have a host. If a Yeerk wants to be free, it has to make another living creature a slave.
Not an easy choice, is it?"
Not an easy choice, is it?"
— Animorphs #29: The Sickness
"I'm getting very sorry for the Devil and his disciples such as the good Le Chiffre. The devil has a rotten time and I always like to be on the side of the underdog. We don't give the poor chap a chance...the Devil had no prophets to write his Ten Commandments and no team of authors to write his biography."
"When I'd first met Marcone, he'd tricked me into a soulgaze. Though I hadn't known the specifics, I knew then that he had a secret - one that gave him the incredible amount of will and strength needed to run one of the nation's largest criminal empires. He had something that drove him to be remorseless, practical, deadly.
Now I knew what that secret was.
Marcone was still a black hat. The pain and suffering of the criminal state he ruled accounted for an untold amount of human misery. Maybe he'd been doing it for a noble reason. I could understand that. But it didn't change anything. Marcone's good intentions could have paved a new lane on the road to hell.
But dammit, I couldn't hate him anymore. I couldn't hate him because I wasn't sure that I wouldn't have made the same choice in his place.
Hate was easier, but the world ain't a simple place. It would have been easier to just hate Marcone.
I just couldn't do it."
Now I knew what that secret was.
Marcone was still a black hat. The pain and suffering of the criminal state he ruled accounted for an untold amount of human misery. Maybe he'd been doing it for a noble reason. I could understand that. But it didn't change anything. Marcone's good intentions could have paved a new lane on the road to hell.
But dammit, I couldn't hate him anymore. I couldn't hate him because I wasn't sure that I wouldn't have made the same choice in his place.
Hate was easier, but the world ain't a simple place. It would have been easier to just hate Marcone.
I just couldn't do it."
"Jonathan dear, and you all my true, true friends, I want you to bear something in mind through all this dreadful time. I know that you must fight. That you must destroy even as you destroyed the false Lucy so that the true Lucy might live hereafter. But it is not a work of hate. That poor soul who has wrought all this misery is the saddest case of all. Just think what will be his joy when he, too, is destroyed in his worser part that his better part may have spiritual immortality. You must be pitiful to him, too, though it may not hold your hands from his destruction."
— Mina Harker, Dracula
"In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him. I think it's impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves. And then, in that very moment when I love them... I destroy them. I make it impossible for them to ever hurt me again. I grind them and grind them until they don't exist."
— Ender Wiggin, Ender's Game
Live-Action TV
Carver: Don't tell me you feel sorry for this guy.
Goren: Someone to teach you to ride a bike, two people who think you're special? Makes a difference.
Carver: Some people get by on a lot less.
Goren: They shouldn't have to.
Goren: Someone to teach you to ride a bike, two people who think you're special? Makes a difference.
Carver: Some people get by on a lot less.
Goren: They shouldn't have to.
Zozo: The whole time! Lying to my face! Were you jealous? You and Billy pull her apart for fun? You took her bell didn't you?
Ollie: (as he's getting punched) No! I didn't!
Zozo: What did you do to Nina?
Ollie: She fell apart! She was loved so much, and she fell apart!
Zozo: (begins wailing in agony)
Ollie: Billy's momma couldn't let her go. So she put a piece of her inside of me.
Zozo: (sobbing) Nina! Nina!
Ollie: I know how you feel. It hurts so, so bad. But that's okay. It's okay to hurt.
Zozo: (continues sobbing)
Ollie: If you need it, if it'll make you feel better, you can have it.
Zozo: (hugs Ollie) I thank the Lord I met you.
Ollie: (as he's getting punched) No! I didn't!
Zozo: What did you do to Nina?
Ollie: She fell apart! She was loved so much, and she fell apart!
Zozo: (begins wailing in agony)
Ollie: Billy's momma couldn't let her go. So she put a piece of her inside of me.
Zozo: (sobbing) Nina! Nina!
Ollie: I know how you feel. It hurts so, so bad. But that's okay. It's okay to hurt.
Zozo: (continues sobbing)
Ollie: If you need it, if it'll make you feel better, you can have it.
Zozo: (hugs Ollie) I thank the Lord I met you.
Video Games
"I'd never thought I'd say it, but poor zombies!"
— Woman in Threed, EarthBound (1994)
"Kuja... what you did was wrong... But you gave us all one thing... hope... we were all created for the wrong reason, but you alone defied your fate. We do not want to forget this. We want your memory to live on forever... to remind us that we were not created for the wrong reason... that our life has meaning."
— Mikoto, Final Fantasy IX
"You have compassion for me? ME!? The one who dreams of seeing your mangled body twist in agonizing pain for eternity? After a hundred and nine years of enduring my tortures, how is that you can see my pain?"
— The Id, I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
"In that moment, I could finally see my father for what he was: a man driven insane with sadness and guilt, trapped in this house, a nightmarish echo chamber of past mistakes and tragedies. It was this house, a place beyond hope, beyond redemption. I knew what I had to do...
I had given up trying to understand my father a long time ago... but I could finally forgive him."
I had given up trying to understand my father a long time ago... but I could finally forgive him."
— The Artist's Daughter, Layers of Fear: Inheritance
Visual Novels
"I don't know. I think more than anything [ghosts are] just lonely. Wouldn't you be? Think about it. What if you were a ghost and every time you tried to talk to people they screamed and told you to go away?"
— Valerie, Magical Warrior Diamond Heart, Episode 2
"The Departed killed many people, and were willing to kill far more as part of their insane plan. However, their feelings were pure, and they were gravely wronged in their lives. Most importantly, as a final act of thanks, they released Michiho and Douryou. For that, I am grateful to them."
—Kazuo Yashiki, Spirit Hunter: Death Mark II
Western Animation
Harley Quinn: There's one thing I gotta know. Why'd you stay with me all day, risking your butt for someone who's never given ya anything but trouble?
Batman: I know what it's like to try and rebuild a life. I had a bad day too once.
Harley Quinn: ...Nice guys like you shouldn't have bad days.
Batman: I know what it's like to try and rebuild a life. I had a bad day too once.
Harley Quinn: ...Nice guys like you shouldn't have bad days.
Sweetie Belle: Is it weird that I feel bad for her?
Scootaloo: If it is, then... I'm weird, too.
Scootaloo: If it is, then... I'm weird, too.
— My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, regarding Diamond Tiara
Miscellaneous
"'WHAT WILL YOU DO TO SHOW YOUR LOVE TO OUR DEAR LEADER?'
The Sparrow stood in the living room. What would she do? She had an idea. She imagined the wave. She imagined it moving through her, moving through whatever she touched.
He loves magic, she thought. He loves it so much. And he would be a part of it forever. Dissolved. Unified. A blessing.
He would never have enough. Not the way he was going about it. This was the only way to make him happy."
The Sparrow stood in the living room. What would she do? She had an idea. She imagined the wave. She imagined it moving through her, moving through whatever she touched.
He loves magic, she thought. He loves it so much. And he would be a part of it forever. Dissolved. Unified. A blessing.
He would never have enough. Not the way he was going about it. This was the only way to make him happy."
— The Unlicensed Magician, by Kelly Barnhill
