milk of human kindness

Cultural  

1. A phrase from Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, meaning humane feeling, concern for other people: “Everyone agreed that Houston was a brilliant thinker and an excellent lawyer, but some people worried that he lacked the milk of human kindness.”

---

Example Sentences

Glastonbury stalwarts Elbow proved once again they're the perfect festival band, with frontman Guy Garvey powered entirely by the milk of human kindness.

From BBC • Jun. 26, 2022

There was a depth, despite everything, to her fabled simplicity, and a courage to her lack of complications; even as the world was curdling around her, she insisted on the milk of human kindness.

From The New Yorker • May 14, 2019

Its final scene, the culmination of a relentless series of hardships, losses and deaths, offers a moment of startling compassion and intimacy — the very milk of human kindness made flesh.

From Washington Post • Feb. 14, 2019

The milk of human kindness does not flow through “Under the Tree,” a blacker than black comedy that is so savage you often don’t know whether to shudder or laugh.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 5, 2018

Not that she had suddenly become filled with the milk of human kindness.

From "The Wednesday Wars" by Gary D. Schmidt