These words are comparable in the broad sense of having an interest in or concern for the welfare and happiness of others. Humane , the most comprehensive of them, implies considerateness in our dealings not only with people but with all living creatures and in situations involving either: a humane judge; a humane treatment of animals; a humane management policy. Benign carries the suggestion of a mild, sometimes faintly condescending gentleness and tolerance, with a secondary meaning of harmlessness: a benign attitude towards the follies of others; a benign tumour.

Etymologically, sympathetic and compassionate mean the same thing: felling or suffering, usually with another person. But sympathetic , from the Greek, has a wider, frequently more generalized and impersonal range than the Latin compassionate . One can be sympathetic with a point of view, a philosophy, belief or way of life, or feel sympathy for the hardships of a fictional character; but compassionate implies a stronger and more directly personal feeling for suffering and misfortune at the individual level: His own experiences had taught him to be compassionate towards lonely and misunderstood children.

Charitable , humanitarian and philanthropic all suggest a sense of obligation to aspects of life that are, or are regarded as, worthy of generous understanding and practical help. A charitable person is disposed to show a kindly and merciful attitude towards people in distress and to help them when and where possible. A humanitarian will generalize his interest in mankind along philosophic and often vaguely sentimental lines that disregard the individual in favour of the mass. A philanthropic person may be charitable and humanitarian , but has both the capacity and desire to be useful by giving large sums of money to specific causes, institutions, foundations, etc.

In all these distinctions the word human is a rock-bottom term that can be used wherever men are thought of apart from animals and inanimate nature and are regarded as capable of concern for and communication with others: a drop of human kindness. Human and humane are very different in their implications, however. Humane can suggest an attitude of impersonal high-mindedness, whereas human can often gloss over weakness or failings as being all too common and, therefore, forgivable.

• It is human to err; little foibles that made the great man more human ; After all, it was only human to do everything he could to win the prize.

But the word can also suggest a flexible and tolerant attitude towards the imperfections of others: if he’d only stop moralizing all the time and be a little bit human .