A nonconformist oath (and, no, it didn’t come from Plato)

“Be pitiful, for every man is fighting a hard battle.”
— Ian Maclaren

This quote has a bit of history since the Scottish writer Ian Maclaren contributed it to the nonconformist religious publication British Weekly in 1897.

It travelled within months across the Atlantic, and through the years has evolved into other wording, primarily “Be kind, for every man is fighting a hard battle.”

The word “pitiful,” though, is important, even though it likely lands differently in our time than in his. It was meant to connote compassion and mercy, and not thinking of someone as, say, pathetic or sad.

Sometimes, online quote boards mistakenly attribute the thought to Plato. You can read all about this on Quote Investigator.

Other times, you might see that quote attributed to one John Watson — and that’s all right, because Ian Maclaren was the pen name that John Watson (1850-1907) used, to some considerable late Victorian success. His 1894 story collection Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush was a great bestseller, evidently selling 700,000 copies. I have to say, I never heard of it until I looked into Maclaren/Watson for this post.

The advice of the quote above is sound, and is similar to all kinds of “you don’t know what someone is going through” memes and posts you see on social media, extolling empathy and an expansive approach to mental health.

It seems that Watson, who was a theologian as well as a writer, drew upon his personal beliefs.

The nonconformist movement of the time set members (Watson was Presbyterian; many were Methodists or Congregationalists, among others) apart from the prevailing Church of England.

The British Weekly was very much a part of that movement, of respecting the conscience of its individual members and of empathy for others.