When he adds that it is pitiable to beat a cripple with his own crutches, the little prose passage is lifted up into poetry, for we are brought into a state of ecstasy by the imaginative illustration.
"The Literature of Ecstasy"
Albert Mordell
And he laughed-the shadow of the old laugh-even more pitiable than tears.
"Only One Love, or Who Was the Heir"
Charles Garvice
You can't imagine the excuses a woman will invent for a man's not telling her that he loves her-pitiable arguments that she would see through at a glance if any other woman used them!
"The Greater Inclination"
Edith Wharton