Instead of feeling pity for Oedipus and Jocasta, who both commit suicide in the end, it is the fate of Adrastus and Eurydice that arouses compassion and sympathy.

Such information can be used for odious or immoral purposes, but it can also be used to arouse the concern and compassion needed to cure misery.

James Vernon, in his Hunger: A Modern History, wrote that in Britain before the 20th century, it was generally only women and children suffering from hunger who could arouse compassion.

But even granting the obvious, a Paulist priest and film maker who has used celebrities in his own work to arouse compassion for victims of starvation defends the technique.

You're asking help for an unsavory clientele, and one that does not arouse compassion like assisting the blind or disabled or children.

A simple confession - a heartbroken "I pushed her, God help me" - a change of plea to guilty might have aroused compassion in you - and indeed in me.

And this ability to arouse compassion is the very secret of humor.

While many of the portraits ring true, arousing our interest and compassion, there are some glaring stereotypes that will make readers groan in disbelief.

The situation at Fukushima arouses dread and compassion in all of us, and asks questions of our own system for producing nuclear energy.