Contempt Quotes

• Our government... teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.

  Louis D. Brandeis

  Change, Men, Law

  90 Copy quote

• He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice.

  Albert Einstein

  Love, Inspirational, Life

  "Mein Weltbild (My World-view)". Essay by Albert Einstein, 1931.

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• I've seen a look in dogs' eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt, and I am convinced that basically dogs think humans are nuts.

  John Steinbeck

  Dog, Eye, Thinking

  John Steinbeck (2012). “The Portable Steinbeck”, p.42, Penguin

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• Wrongs are often forgiven; but contempt never is. Our pride remembers it forever.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Forgiveness, Pride, Forever

  "Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman". Book by Lord Chesterfield, 1774.

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• Isn't it fitting that so many of those who have contempt for the private sector will soon find themselves back in it?

  Mitt Romney

  Fitting, Private Sector

  33 Copy quote

• You can have no influence over those for whom you have underlying contempt.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Judgement, Influence, Nonviolent Communication

  21 Copy quote

• Contempt is the weapon of the weak and a defense against one's own despised and unwanted feelings.

  Alice Miller

  Warrior, Feelings, Defense

  Alice Miller (1997). “The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self”, p.74, Basic Books

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• Hatred is an affair of the heart; contempt that of the head.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Anger, Philosophical, Heart

  Arthur Schopenhauer, E. F. J. Payne (1974). “Parerga and Paralipomena: Short Philosophical Essays”, p.591, Oxford University Press

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• To punish me for my contempt for authority, fate made me an authority myself.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Leadership, Fate

  Albert Einstein (2002). “Dear Professor Einstein: Albert Einstein's letters to and from children”

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• Contempt; the feeling of a prudent man for an enemy who is too formidable safely to be opposed.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Men, Feelings, Enemy

  Ambrose Bierce (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)”, p.2374, Delphi Classics

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• He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, deplorable love-of-country stance, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.

  Albert Einstein

  Love, Country, Peace

  "Mein Weltbild (My World-view)". Essay by Albert Einstein, 1931.

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• There is nothing that people bear more impatiently, or forgive less, than contempt: and an injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Insult To Injury, People, Forgiving

  Lord Chesterfield (1998). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.87, OUP Oxford

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• Rotten travesty. Yeah. Send me to jail for contempt. Try that. Go ahead.

  Jack Kevorkian

  Jail, Trying, Rotten

  50 Copy quote

• To be remembered after we are dead, is but poor recompense for being treated with contempt while we are living.

  William Hazlitt

  Memories, Poor, Recompense

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1518, Delphi Classics

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• Of all afflictions, the worst is self contempt.

  Berthold Auerbach

  Love Yourself, Acceptance, Loving Yourself

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• I'm awash in self-contempt!

  Woody Allen

  Sad, Self

  "Fictional character: Lee Simon". "Celebrity", www.imdb.com. 1998.

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• Although Alchemy has now fallen into contempt, and is even considered a thing of the past, the physicain should not be influenced by such judgements.

  Paracelsus

  Past, Judgement, Should

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• He grew weary of this condescension, and began to treat the opinions of his wife with that haughtiuess and insolence, which none but those who deserve some contempt themselves can bestow, and those only who deserve no contempt can bear.

  Henry Fielding

  Literature, Bears, Insolence

  "The Works of Henry Fielding: Complete in One Volume".

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• Anger and hate against one we love steels our hearts, but contempt or pity leaves us silent and ashamed.

  Edgar Rice Burroughs

  Hate, Anger, Heart

  Edgar Rice Burroughs (2008). “Tarzan of the Apes”, p.162, Cosimo, Inc.

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• I am convinced that basically dogs think humans are nuts.

  John Steinbeck

  Dog, Thinking, Nuts

  John Steinbeck (2012). “The Portable Steinbeck”, p.42, Penguin

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• Comedy is defiance. It's a snort of contempt in the face of fear and anxiety. And it's the laughter that allows hope to creep back on the inhale.

  Will Durst

  Happiness, Laughter, Fear

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• I wonder sometimes if the motivation for writers ought to be contempt, not admiration.

  Orson Scott Card

  Motivational, Admiration, Sometimes

  "Future on Fire". Book by Orson Scott Card, 1991.

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• To me all men are equal: there are jackasses everywhere, and I have the same contempt for them all.

  Karl Kraus

  Men, Literature, Equal

  Karl Kraus (1976). “Half-truths & One-and-a-half Truths: Selected Aphorisms”

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• Christ saw much in this world to weep over, and much to pray over: but he saw nothing in it to look upon with contempt.

  Edwin Hubbel Chapin

  Looks, World, Saws

  "Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers". Book by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, 1895.

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• When a man is not amused, he feels an involuntary contempt for those who are.

  Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

  Men, Feels, Involuntary

  4 Copy quote