Ignoble Quotes - Page 2

• Self-pity is an ignoble emotion, but we all feel it, and the orthodox critical line that it represents some kind of artistic flaw is dubious, a form of emotional correctness.

  Nick Hornby

  Emotional, Self, Dubious

  Nick Hornby (2003). “Songbook”, p.49, Penguin

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray; Along the cool sequester'd vale of life They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.

  Thomas Gray

  Life, Learning, Wish

  Thomas Gray, William Mason (1820). “The poems and letters of Thomas Gray, with memoirs of his life and writings by W. Mason”, p.494

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Not the children of the rich or of the powerful only, but of all alike, boys and girls, both noble and ignoble, rich and poor, in all cities and towns, villages and hamlets, should be sent to school

  John Amos Comenius

  Girl, Children, Powerful

  118 Copy quote

• My philosophy of life is that the meek shall inherit nothing but debasement, frustration, and ignoble deaths.

  Harlan Ellison

  Philosophy, Frustration, Life Is

  Harlan Ellison (2014). “The Harlan Ellison Hornbook”, p.208, Open Road Media

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Man, do not pride yourself on your superiority to the animals, for they are without sin, while you, with all your greatness, you defile the earth wherever you appear and leave an ignoble trail behind you -- and that is true, alas, for almost every one of us!

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

  Pride, Greatness, Men

  Fyodor Dostoevsky (2003). “Brothers Karamazov”, p.427, Bantam Classics

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Many of us, whether in the jungles of Asia or on the streets of Chicago, had discovered that noble causes can lead to ignoble actions and that we were capable of sacrificing honor to a sense of efficacy.

  Linda Grant

  War, Sacrifice, Honor

  Linda Grant (1991). “Blind Trust”, Fawcett Books

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The technique of winning is so shoddy, the terms of winning are so ignoble, the tenure of winning is so brief; and the specter of the has-been-a shameful rather than a pitiable sight today-brings a sudden chill even to our sunlit moments.

  Louis Kronenberger

  Success, Winning, Sight

  4 Copy quote

• A good man may fall, but he falls like a ball [and rebounds]; the ignoble man falls like a lump of clay.

  Bhartrhari

  Fall, Men, Good Man

  19 Copy quote

• To believe something in the face of evidence and against reason - to believe something by faith - is ignoble, irresponsible and ignorant, and merits the opposite of respect.

  A.C. Grayling

  Believe, Opposites, Ignorant

  A.C. Grayling (2012). “Against All Gods: Six Polemics on Religion and an Essay on Kindness”, p.8, Oberon Books

  83 Copy quote

  Show source

• Since all motives at bottom are selfish and ignoble, we may judge acts and qualities only be their effects.

  H. P. Lovecraft

  Selfish, Judging, Quality

  "Collected Essays, Volume 5: Philosophy" edited by S. T. Joshi, (p. 71), 2006.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Life is indeed either a rich possession or a poor, according as it is made subservient to noble aims or ignoble pleasures.

  Christian Nestell Bovee

  Life, Noble, Rich

  Christian Nestell Bovee (1862). “Intuitions and Summaries of Thought”, p.14

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• The early ascendancy of leisure as a means of reputability is traceable to the archaic distinction between noble and ignoble employments. Leisure is honourable and becomes imperative partly because it shows exemption from ignoble labour.

  Thorstein Veblen

  Mean, Employment, Noble

  Thorstein Veblen (2012). “The Theory of the Leisure Class”, p.64, Courier Corporation

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• It's a great myth that the British public want our soldiers to be sent into harm's way on a bogus prospectus for ignoble reasons. There is nothing patriotic about that. It is the opposite of patriotism.

  George Galloway

  Patriotic, Opposites, Soldier

  4 Copy quote

• Men were created for something better than merely to make money. A close application to business, until a competence is gained, is one of the chief virtues; but to continue in trade long after this result is obtained, is one of the signs, not to be mistaken, of a sordid and ignoble nature.

  Christian Nestell Bovee

  Money, Men, Long

  4 Copy quote

• The more unharmonious and inconsistent your objects of desire, the more inconsequent, inconstant, unquiet, the more ignoble, idiotical, and criminal yourself.

  Johann Kaspar Lavater

  Desire, Criminals, Inconsistent

  4 Copy quote

• All flesh is grass. and all its glory fades
  Like the fair flower dishevell'd in the wind;
  Riches have wings, and grandeur is a dream;
  The man we celebrate must find a tomb,
  And we that worship him, ignoble graves.

  William Cowper

  Death, Dream, Flower

  William Cowper (1856). “The task, Table talk, and other poems: With critical observations of various authors on his genius and character, and notes, critical and illustrative”, p.186

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The cure-alls of the present day are infinitely various and infinitely obliging. Applied psychology, autosuggestion, and royal roads to learning or to wealth are urged upon us by kindly, if not altogether disinterested, reformers. Simple and easy systems for the dissolution of discord and strife; simple and easy systems for the development of personality and power. Booklets of counsel on 'How to Get What We Want,' which is impossible; booklets on 'Visualization,' warranted to make us want what we get, which is ignoble.

  Agnes Repplier

  Simple, Thinking, Personality

  34 Copy quote

• I wish to preach not the doctrine of ignoble ease but the doctrine of the strenuous life; the life of toil and effort; of labour and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes not to the man who desires mere easy peace but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph. A life of ignoble ease, a life of that peace which springs merely from lack either of desire or of power to strive after great things, is as little worthy of a nation as of an individual.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Spring, Winning, Men

  Theodore Roosevelt (1904). “The Roosevelt Book: Selections from the Writings of Theodore Roosevelt”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• In landing operations, retreat is impossible, to surrender is as ignoble as it is foolish. above all else remember that we as attackers have the initiative, we know exactly what we are going to do, while the enemy is ignorant of our intentions and can only parry our blows. We must retain this tremendous advantage by always attacking rapidly, ruthlessly, viciously, and without rest.

  George S. Patton

  War, Blow, Ignorant

  12 Copy quote

• Democracy turns upon and devours itself. Universal suffrage, in theory the palladium of our liberties, becomes the assurance of our slavery. And that slavery will grow more and more abject and ignoble as the differential birth rate, the deliberate encouragement of mendicancy and the failure of popular education produce a larger and larger mass of prehensile half-wits, and so make the demagogues more and more secure.

  H. L. Mencken

  Encouragement, Birth Rate, Democracy

  13 Copy quote

• Something ignoble, loathsome, undignified attends all associations between people and has been transferred to all objects, dwelling, tools, even the landscape itself.

  Bertolt Brecht

  Dwelling, People, Tools

  4 Copy quote

• All men are almost led to believe not of proof, but by attraction. This way is base, ignoble, and irrelevant; every one therefore disavows it. Each one professes to believe and even to love
  nothing but what he knows to be worthy of belief and love.

  Blaise Pascal

  Believe, Men, And Love

  Blaise Pascal (2010). “Thoughts, Letters & Minor Works”, p.406, Cosimo, Inc.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Today the manliest man would be ashamed to look into the eyes of the woman by his side and tell her that he is the master because he could knock her down with perfect ease, and break her bones with much greater facility than she could his. And yet, out of man's brute nature, out of that most ignoble in himself, has come his loudest assumption of superiority, his longest and lowest tyranny.

  Mary C. Ames

  Eye, Men, Perfect

  5 Copy quote

• Poverty is relative, and, therefor not ignoble.

  Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

  Poverty, Relative

  4 Copy quote

• Many minds that have withstood the most severe trials have been broken down by a succession of ignoble cares.

  Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington

  Broken, Mind, Trials

  4 Copy quote