I think it means that a compassionate person assumes the people he's compassiona... | Hacker News

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maw on April 30, 2008 | parent | context | favorite | on: John McCarthy - Wikiquote

I think it means that a compassionate person assumes the people he's compassionate towards are incapable of bettering themselves, and thus contemptible.

I'm not sure whether I agree or not, but my first guess is that it's sometimes true and sometimes not. Deep, huh?

suboptimal on April 30, 2008 [–]

I think your interpretation is spot-on, but I disagree with the quote.

I suspect the author is defining compassion more like "pity" than "patience and understanding" (sympathy, by definition).

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