lenience: mercifulness as a consequence of being lenient or tolerant
indulgence: a disposition to yield to the wishes of someone
lenience: lightening a penalty or excusing from a chore by judges or parents or teachers
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
Mercy (Middle English, from Anglo-French merci, from Medieval Latin merced-, merces, from Latin, "price paid, wages", from merc-, merx "merchandise") can refer both to compassionate behaviour on the part of those in power (e.g. mercy shown by a judge toward a convict) or on the part of a ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leniency
The quality of mercy or forgiveness, especially in the assignment of punishment as in a court case; An act of being lenient
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/leniency
lenient - indulgent: tolerant or lenient
lenient - not strict
lenient - characterized by tolerance and mercy
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
lenient - lax; tolerant of deviation; permissive; not strict
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lenient
"Love has its place, as does hate. Peace has its place, as does war. Mercy has its place, as do cruelty and revenge."
(Meir Kahane)
Cigarettes And Whiskey And Wild, Wild Women
(from a song)
Perhaps I was born kneeling,
born coughing on the long winter,
born expecting the kiss of mercy,
born with a passion for quickness
and yet, as things progressed,
I learned early about the stockade
or taken out, the fume of the enema.
By two or three I learned not to kneel,
not to expect, to plant my fires underground
where none but the dolls, perfect and awful,
could be whispered to or laid down to die.
Now that I have written many words,
and let out so many loves, for so many,
and been altogether what I always was—
a woman of excess, of zeal and greed,
I find the effort useless.
Do I not look in the mirror,
these days,
and see a drunken rat avert her eyes?
Do I not feel the hunger so acutely
that I would rather die than look
into its face?
I kneel once more,
in case mercy should come
in the nick of time.
Anne Sexton
