milk of human kindness

the milk of human kindness

An innate sense of compassion. The phrase comes from Shakespeare's Macbeth. Lisa would never say anything that cruel—she has the milk of human kindness in her.
See also: human, kindness, milk, of
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

milk of human kindness

Fig. natural kindness and sympathy shown to others. (From Shakespeare's play Macbeth, I. v.) Mary is completely hard and selfish—she doesn't have the milk of human kindness in her. Roger is too full of the milk of human kindness and people take advantage of him.
See also: human, kindness, milk, of
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

the milk of human kindness

care and compassion for others.
This phrase comes from Macbeth. In Lady Macbeth's soliloquy on the subject of her husband's character, she remarks: ‘Yet I do fear thy nature; It is too full o' the milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way’.
See also: human, kindness, milk, of
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

the milk of human ˈkindness

kind feelings: There’s not much of the milk of human kindness in him. I’ve never known such a hard man.This expression comes from Shakespeare’s play Macbeth.
See also: human, kindness, milk, of
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

milk of human kindness, the

Sympathy, compassion. This expression, too, comes from Shakespeare. He used it in Macbeth (1.5), where Lady Macbeth tells her husband, “Yet do I fear thy nature. It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness” (to act as ruthlessly as he must in order to become king). Numerous writers have used the term, often to comment on the souring or curdling of that very milk, although one writer reports of one bishop meeting another and saying, “He had often heard of the milk of human kindness, but never hitherto had he met the cow” (E. M. Sneyd-Kynnersley, H.M.I., 1908).
See also: human, milk, of
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer

milk of human kindness

Compassion or benevolence. Shakespeare again, but this time Macbeth. Lady Macbeth regrets that her husband doesn't have the overwhelming ambition that she has by saying, “Yet do I fear thy nature, It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness. To catch the nearest way.” Macbeth heeds his wife, schemes and murders his way to the throne, and is then deposed and killed. The milk must have curdled. A compliment to a sweetheart of a person is to say that he or she is “full of the milk of human kindness.”
See also: human, kindness, milk, of
Endangered Phrases by Steven D. Price
See also:
  • milk of human kindness, the
  • the milk of human kindness
  • kill (one) with kindness
  • kill somebody with kindness
  • kill someone with kindness
  • kill with kindness
  • like a duck to water
  • take to (something) like a duck to water
  • take to something like a duck to water
  • do a kindness
References in periodicals archive
"Most of the productivity we see over time," said a top intelligence official, "comes from the milk of human kindness." That's not a message often heard from administration officials in Washington, who continue to insist that the CIA requires authority to use "alternative procedures"--sleep deprivation, temperature extremes and other harsh methods--to extract information from captured al-Qaeda operatives.
In other words, when it comes to giving real help to real people wherever they live, the milk of human kindness is wholly inadequate.
For instance, the milk of human kindness requires us to not harm migratory birds in any way, such as casting stones or nets or shooting them while they are resting for brief moments in the course of their long journey from one country or continent to another.
Do you think the consumer public is so stupid they don't understand that sucralose is a chlorocarbon poison?" Martini is filled with the milk of human kindness, even offering to send her documentation of adverse effects to the company executives and researchers in Braille, since they must obviously be blind--unable to read the evidence about the adverse effects of chlorinated substances like DDT.
8 CARIBOU, THE MILK OF HUMAN KINDNESS (LEAF) As a live act, they blow minds more charmingly than most.
Nowadays, though, the milk of human kindness seems to have infiltrated the veins of the nation's backers.
It's obviously the condensed milk of human kindness at Pond House - sickly sweet and odds on to make you boak if taken straight.
the milk of human kindness is not altogether absorbed by the strife for wealth and the cares of business," he decided.
So too, perhaps, our leaders who, having briefly sated their aggressions during Shock and Awe, are now brimming over with the milk of human kindness.
This would truly be turning the milk of human kindness into something sour and toxic.
While it is usually true that too much of anything is a bad thing and one can even drown in the milk of human kindness, let's not overlook the benefits and the reasons why certain activities are "addictive."
When it comes to the milk of human kindness these days, the information industry has a splintered approach.
Compare "I need some milk" (Reality-1) and "I need some milk of human kindness (Reality-2)." Which conveys meaning more reliably?
The treatment of letter writing in antiquity is perhaps too cursory to be persuasive (was there more about this in an earlier draft?) and the thesis verbluffend (even were it proved, it would surely not deserve our credence): that letter writing from Plato's Seventh Letter to Horace, Cicero, and Seneca is following the epistolary scheme, and that the |arguments' [character no conversion] of the apostle are syllogistic' in form, even when |syllogistic' has been churned up by the milk of human kindness, served up on a lordly dish, and liberally construed as |epistolarily syllogistic'.
I have a wonderful book called The Milk of Human Kindness...Is Not Pasteurized by William Campbell Douglass, M.D.