Contempt Quotes - Page 24

• Natural dignity of mind or manners can never be concealed; it ever commands our respect: assumed dignity, or importance, excites our ridicule and contempt.

  Joseph R. Bartlett

  Mind, Dignity, Natural

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• The philosophers of antiquity taught contempt for work, that degradation of the free man, the poets sang of idleness, that gift from the Gods.

  Paul Lafargue

  Work, Men, Degradation

  Paul Lafargue (2016). “The Right to be Lazy and Other Studies”, p.4, Library of Alexandria

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• This sentiment of self-contempt is a frequent one in young people of both sexes. Their valuation of themselves varies as much as the barometer, and is as much affected by outward causes.

  Humphry Davy

  Sex, Self, People

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• our contempt of wealth does not extend beyond the hour when we can get it in possession.

  Julia McNair Wright

  Doe, Wealth, Hours

  Julia McNair Wright (1895). “Ideal Homes, Or, Our Golden Mile-stones ...: A Volume of Practical Experices, Popularly Illustrated : Embracing All the Interests of the Household”

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• The contempt which men feel for the prostitute, and the fact that they have always regarded themselves as far superior to her, even when they made use of her, suggests an attempt to rationalize the situation; it might be explained as an unconscious transference to the woman of the shame they feel for themselves in these relations.

  Alison Roberta Noble Neilans

  Men, Use, Might

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• It is incumbent on us diligently to remember that the kingdom of heaven was promised to the poor in spirit, and that minds afflicted by calamity and the contempt of mankind cheerfully listen to the divine promise of future happiness; while, on the contrary, the fortunate are satisfied with the possession of this world; and the wise abuse in doubt and dispute their vain superiority of reason and knowledge.

  Edward Gibbon

  Wise, History, Heaven

  Edward Gibbon (1854). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.217

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• Fashion was the only law, pleasure the only pursuit, and the splendour of dress and furniture was the only distinction of the citizens of Antioch. The arts of luxury were honoured; the serious and manly virtues were the subject of ridicule; and the contempt for female modesty and reverent age announced the universal corruption of the capital of the East.

  Edward Gibbon

  Fashion, Art, Luxury

  Edward Gibbon (1860). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.174

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• Those who merely possess the goods of fortune may be haughty and insolent; . . . they try to imitate the great-souled man without being really like him, and only copy him in what they can, reproducing his contempt for others but not his virtuous conduct. For the great-souled man is justified in despising other people - his estimates are correct; but most proud men have no good ground for their pride.

  Aristotle

  Pride, Men, People

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• Every person - whether Greek or Barbarian - who is in training for wisdom, leading a blameless, irreproachable life, chooses neither to commit injustice nor return it unto others, but to avoid the company of busybodies, and hold in contempt the places where they spend their time - courts, councils, marketplaces, assemblies - in short, every kind of meeting or reunion of thoughtless people. ... People such as these, who find their joy in virtue, celebrate a festival their whole life long.

  Pierre Hadot

  Long, People, Joy

  "La Philosophie comme manière de vivre: Entretiens avec Jeannie Carlier et Arnold I. Davidson" by Pierre Hadot, Jeannie Carlier, Arnold I. Davidson, Paris: Albin Michel, translated by Michael Chase, (p. 264), 2001.

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• Those with a gift for action, for their part, often express contempt for those whose gifts are more reflective. Men of action like to say, Those who can, do, those who cant, teach, forgetting that those who teach get to write the history books.

  Michael Ignatieff

  Book, Writing, Men

  Michael Ignatieff (2013). “Fire and Ashes”, p.171, Harvard University Press

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• We must see to it that enthusiasm for the future does not give rise to contempt for the past.

  Pope Paul VI

  Past, Giving, Doe

  Pope Paul VI “Insegnamenti di Paolo VI.”

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• To be too busie gets contempt.

  George Herbert

  George Herbert (1874). “The Complete Works of George Herbert: Prose”, p.352

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• The one consistent policy running through this [Clinton] administration is the love it has lavished on Marxists -- food aid for North Korea, diplomatic recognition of the Hanoi regime, chronic kowtowing to Beijing and now doing Castro's dirty work. How can the Clinton gang -- which carried the Viet Cong flag during anti-war demonstrations and decorated their dorm rooms with pictures of Che Guevara -- not feel contempt for people who insist, with every fiber of their being, that communism is mankind's mortal enemy?

  Don Feder

  Running, War, Dirty

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• Scientists themselves are of surprisingly little help. They find it difficult to talk of what they do because they tend to assume detailed knowledge is required for generalities to be understood. They find it hard to grasp the concept of the meaning of their work, assuming this to be a debate that takes place at a lower level than the specialized discussions with their colleagues. When they do generalize, - or "popularize" as it is usually called with a noticeable degree of contempt - they tend to reveal a startling philosophical naiveté.

  Bryan Appleyard

  Philosophical, Levels, Littles

  Bryan Appleyard (2004). “Understanding the Present: An Alternative History of Science”, p.18, Tauris Parke Paperbacks

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• Nature always wears the colors of the spirit. To a man laboring under calamity the heat of his own fire hath sadness in it. Then there is a kind of contempt of the landscape felt by him who has just lost by death a dear friend. The sky is less grand as it shuts down over less worth in the population.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Sympathy, Sadness, Men

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2012). “Nature and Other Essays”, p.4, Courier Corporation

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• Such men alone are my readers, my proper readers, my preordained readers. Of what account are the rest? The rest are simply... humanity. One must be superior to humanity in power, in loftiness of soul- in contempt.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Men, Soul, Humanity

  Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (2007). “Twilight of the Idols with the Antichrist and Ecce Homo”, p.93, Wordsworth Editions

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• The storm center of lawlessness in every American State is the State Capitol. It is there that the worst crimes are committed; it is there that lawbreaking attains to the estate and dignity of a learned profession; it is there that contempt for the laws is engendered, fostered, and spread broadcast.

  H. L. Mencken

  Government, Law, Liberty

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• Spirituality authors, who are generally forgiving of most human foibles ... take a hard line on intellectualism.... Skepticism they view with contempt, as the refuge of the unenlightened.

  Wendy Kaminer

  Views, Forgiving, Atheism

  Wendy Kaminer (2000). “Sleeping with Extra-terrestrials: The Rise of Irrationalism and Perils of Piety”, Vintage

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• All over Europe the organs that represent dogmatic interests are in permanent opposition to the progressive tendencies around them, and are rapidly sinking into contempt. In every country in which a strong political life is manifested, the secularisation of politics is the consequence. Each stage of that movement has been initiated and effected by those who are most indifferent to dogmatic theology, and each has been opposed by those who are most occupied with theology.

  William Edward Hartpole Lecky

  Country, Strong, Europe

  William Edward Hartpole Lecky (1870). “History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe”, p.129

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• We cannot fulfill that purpose [environmentalism] if we are heaping contempt on God's creation.

  Joe Lieberman

  Scary, God's Creation, Purpose

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• Contempt is the emotion we feel for an opponent whose arguments are too formidable to refute.

  Ann Coulter

  Opponents, Emotion, Argument

  "Ann Coulter Defends Controversial Comments About Single Mothers". "The O'Reilly Factor", www.foxnews.com. January 15, 2009.

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• You don't have contempt for a horse that's troubled. Everybody has baggage, everybody has things that they've had to deal with in their life, and it can be something positive depending on how you use it.

  Buck Brannaman

  Horse, Use, Baggage

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

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• And I live on, but in grief and self-contempt,
  Left here without the light I loved so much,
  In a great tempest and with shrouds unkempt.

  Petrarch

  Life, Grief, Light

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• We have to be despised by somebody whom we regard as above us, or we are not happy; we have to have somebody to worship and envy,or we cannot be content. In America we manifest this in all the ancient and customary ways. In public we scoff at titles and hereditary privilege, but privately we hanker after them, and when we get a chance we buy them for cash and a daughter.

  Mark Twain

  Daughter, America, Envy

  Mark Twain (2010). “Mark Twain's Own Autobiography: The Chapters from the North American Review”, p.80, Univ of Wisconsin Press

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• contempt is as frequently produced at first sight as love.

  Herman Melville

  Love, Sight, Firsts

  Herman Melville (1847). “Omoo, a narrative of adventures in the south seas”, p.77

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