milk of human kindness

English

Etymology

First used by Shakespeare in Macbeth (see quotations).[1]

Noun

milk of human kindness (uncountable)

  1. (idiomatic) Compassion shown to other people.
    • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v], page 134, column 1:
      Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be / What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature; / It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness / To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great, / Art not without ambition, but without / The illness should attend it.

References
  1. “milk of human kindness”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present, reproduced from E. D. Hirsch Jr.; Joseph F. Kett; James Trefil, The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, 3rd edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2002, →ISBN.
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