O thou, the friend of man assigned, With balmy hands his wounds to bind, And charm his frantic woe: When first Distress with dagger keen Broke forth to waste his destined scene, His wild unsated foe!

-Collins,William
  Odes on Several Descriptive and  Allegoric Subjects,'Ode to Pity', no.1.

So I lie, whose fount of pride, Dear distress, and joy allied, Is my somber flesh and skin, With the dark blood dammed within.

-Cullen, Countee
  On These I Stand,'Heritage'.

Il y a une espe'  ce de honte d'e"  tre heureux a'   la vue de certaines mise'  res. There is a type of shame which comes from being happy at another's distress.

-La Bruye'  re,Jean de
  Les Caracte'  res ou les m½urs de ce sie'  cle,'De l'homme', no.82.

Non ignara mali, miseris succurrere disco. No stranger totrouble myself,Iam learning to help those who are in distress.

-Virgil full name Publius Vergilius Maro
Dido, queen of Carthage. Aeneid, bk.1, l.630.

Compassed round by pleasure, sighed For independent happiness; craving peace, The central feeling of all happiness, Not as a refuge from distress or pain, A breathing-time, vacation, or a truce, But for its absolute self.

-Wordsworth,William
  'The Excursion', bk.3, l.380^5.