Petulance Quotes

• The great accomplishment of Jobs's life is how effectively he put his idiosyncrasies - his petulance, his narcissism, and his rudeness - in the service of perfection.

  Malcolm Gladwell

  Jobs, Accomplishment, Perfection

  "The Tweaker" by Malcolm Gladwell, www.newyorker.com. November 14, 2011.

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• Great allowances ought to be made for the petulance of persons labouring under ill-health.

  Samuel Richardson

  Ill Health, Made, Allowance

  "A collection of the moral and instructive sentiments: a facsimile reproduction".

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• Every old man complains of the growing depravity of the world, of the petulance and insolence of the rising generation.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Age, Complaining

  Samuel Johnson (1820). “The Rambler”, p.266

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• Our attitude toward our own culture has recently been characterized by two qualities, braggadocio and petulance. Braggadocio - empty boasting of American power, American virtue, American know-how - has dominated our foreign relations now for some decades. Here at home - within the family, so to speak - our attitude to our culture expresses a superficially different spirit, the spirit of petulance. Never before, perhaps, has a culture been so fragmented into groups, each full of its own virtue, each annoyed and irritated at the others.

  Daniel J. Boorstin

  Attitude, Home, Two

  "The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations" by Robert Andrews, Columbia University Press, (p. 207), 1993.

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• Always meet petulance with gentleness and perverseness with kindness. A gentle hand can lead even en elephant by a hair. Reply to thine enemy with gentleness.

  Zoroaster

  Kindness, Hair, Hands

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• Scurrility has no object in view but incivility; if it is uttered from feelings of petulance, it is mere abuse; if it is spoken in a joking manner, it may be considered raillery.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Views, Feelings, Abuse

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• Every old man complains of the growing depravity of the world, of the petulance and insolence of the rising generation. He recounts the decency and regularity of former times, and celebrates the discipline and sobriety of the age in which his youth was passed; a happy age which is now no more to be expected, since confusion has broken in upon the world, and thrown down all the boundaries of civility and reverence.

  Lyndon B. Johnson

  Men, Discipline, Broken

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• Have charity; have patience; have mercy. Never bring a human being, however silly, ignorant, or weak--above all, any little child--to shame and confusion of face. Never by petulance, by suspicion, by ridicule, even by selfish and silly haste--never, above all, by indulging in the devilish pleasure of a sneer--crush what is finest and rouse up what is coarsest in the heart of any fellow-creature.

  Charles Kingsley

  Crush, Children, Selfish

  Charles Kingsley (2008). “Daily Thoughts (EasyRead Super Large 18pt Edition)”, p.253, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• Stand still, close your eyes and listen; in the silence you can hear the cries of pain and low moans of anguish of animals waiting to die... do everything you can even if today it is just one small thing. There are no excuses for inaction, despair, egotism, or petulance that matter to the animals.

  Ashley Montagu

  Pain, Eye, Animal

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• It appears to be among the laws of nature, that the mighty of intellect should be pursued and carped by the little, as the solitary flight of one great bird is followed by the twittering petulance of many smaller.

  Walter Savage Landor

  Greatness, Law, Bird

  Walter Savage Landor (1853). “Imaginary Conversations of Greeks and Romans”, p.166

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• Ronaldo is a disgrace to the game. His petulance, temperament, throwing himself on the ground. It was a disgrace to professional football. This fella Ronaldo is a cod.

  Eamon Dunphy

  Football, Memorable, Games

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• I know all about the despair of overcoming chronic temptation. It is not serious, provided self-offended petulance, annoyance at breaking records, impatience, etc., don't get the upper hand. No amount of falls will really undo us if we keep picking ourselves up each time...The only fatal thing is to lose one's temper and give up.

  C. S. Lewis

  Happiness, Giving Up, Fall

  7 Copy quote

• Why should I tell you?" he asked, with no small amount of petulance. "If you tell me, I will leave you alone," I said. "And if you don't tell me, I'm going to grab the nearest ghostwritten James Patterson romance novel and I am going to follow you through this store reading it out loud until you relent." Now I could see the fright beneath the defiance.

  Rachel Cohn

  Reading, Romance, Everlasting Love

  Rachel Cohn, David Levithan (2010). “Dash & Lily's Book of Dares”, p.135, Knopf Books for Young Readers

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• By the consultation of books, whether of dead or living authors, many temptations to petulance and opposition, which occur in oral conferences, are avoided. An author cannot obtrude his service unasked, nor can be often suspected of any malignant intention to insult his readers with his knowledge or his wit. Yet so prevalent is the habit of comparing ourselves with others, while they remain within the reach of our passions, that books are seldom read with complete impartiality, but by those from whom the writer is placed at such a distance that his life or death is indifferent.

  Samuel Johnson

  Distance, Book, Passion

  "The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.: D., with an Essay on His Life and Genius".

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• The spleen is seldom felt where Flora reigns;
  The low'ring eye, the petulance, the frown,
  And sullen sadness, that o'ershade, distort,
  And mar the face of beauty, when no cause
  For such immeasurable woe appears;
  These Flora banishes, and gives the fair
  Sweet smiles, and bloom less transient than her own.

  William Cowper

  Sweet, Sadness, Eye

  William Cowper, James Sambrook (2016). “William Cowper: The Task and Selected Other Poems”, p.72, Routledge

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