Impertinence Quotes

• It is undoubtedly true that some people mistake sycophancy for good nature, but it is equally true that many more mistake impertinence for sincerity.

  George D. Prentice

  Mistake, People, Sincerity

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• Silence is the safest response for all the contradiction that arises from impertinence, vulgarity, or envy.

  Johann Georg Ritter von Zimmermann

  Envy, Silence, Contradiction

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• It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions.

  Mark Twain

  Nature, Animal, Men

  Mark Twain (2009). “Mark Twain’s Book of Animals”, p.304, Univ of California Press

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• May I make a suggestion, hoping it is not an impertinence? Write it down: write down what you feel. It is sometimes a wonderful help in misery.

  Robertson Davies

  Sad, Depression, Writing

  Robertson Davies (1999). “"For Your Eye Alone": Letters 1976-1995”, McClelland & Stewart

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• Some persons take reproof good-humoredly enough, unless you are so unlucky as to hit a sore place. Then they wince and writhe, and start up and knock you down for your impertinence, or wish you good morning.

  Augustus William Hare

  Morning, Wish, Enough

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• In many people it is already an impertinence to say 'I'.

  Theodor Adorno

  People

  Theodor W. Adorno, E. F. N. Jephcott (2005). “Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life”, p.50, Verso

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• The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creatures that cannot.

  Mark Twain

  Recovery, Animal, Intelligent

  Mark Twain (2009). “Mark Twain’s Book of Animals”, p.264, Univ of California Press

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• Ask an impertinent question and you are on the way to the pertinent answer.

  Jacob Bronowski

  Courage, Science, Asking Questions

  Jacob Bronowski (1976). “The ascent of man”

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• There is a certain impertinence in allowing oneself to be burned for an opinion.

  Anatole France

  Moral, Opinion, Manners

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• The fly ought to be used as the symbol of impertinence and audacity; for whilst all other animals shun man more than anything else, and run away even before he comes near them, the fly lights upon his very nose.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Running, Animal, Men

  Arthur Schopenhauer (1951). “Essays from the Parerga and Paralipomena”

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• I conceive disgust at these impertinent and misbecoming familiarities inscribed upon your ordinary tombstone.

  Charles Lamb

  Tombstone, Ordinary, Disgusting

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• Literary criticism can be no more than a reasoned account of the feeling produced upon the critic by the book he is criticising.

  D. H. Lawrence

  Book, Feelings, Criticism

  D. H. Lawrence, Bruce Steele (1985). “Study of Thomas Hardy and Other Essays”, p.209, Cambridge University Press

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• Neither man nor woman can be worth anything until they have discovered that they are fools. The sooner the discovery is made the better, as there is more time and power for taking advantage of it.

  William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne

  Men, Discovery, Fool

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• Impertinence will intermeddle in things in which it has no concern, showing a want of breeding, or, more commonly, a spirit of sheer impudence.

  George Crabbe

  Disrespect, Want, Spirit

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• Now be sincere; did you admire me for my impertinence?" "For the liveliness of your mind, I did.

  Jane Austen

  Mind, Sincere, Admire

  Jane Austen (2009). “Pride and Prejudice Thrift Study Edition”, p.256, Courier Corporation

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• Scholes was probably the best English midfielder since Bobby Charlton. He was such a brilliant long passer that he could choose a hair on the head of any team-mate answering the call of nature at our training ground. Gary Neville once thought he had found refuge in a bush, but Scholesy found him from 40 yeards. He inflicted a similar long-range missile strike, once, on Peter Schmeichel, and was chased round the training ground for his impertinence. Scholesy would have made a first class-sniper.

  Alex Ferguson

  Team, Class, Hair

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• Silence holds the door against the strife of tongue and all the impertinences of idle conversation.

  James Hervey

  Doors, Silence, Tongue

  James Hervey, William ROMAINE (1812). “Meditations and Contemplations ... To which is prefixed the life of the author: and a sermon on his death by the Rev. W. Romaine ... With ... engravings, etc. [With a portrait.]”, p.214

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• It is simple impertinence for any man, or any body of men, to begin, or to contemplate, reform of the whole world.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Simple, Men, Reform

  Mahatma Gandhi, Mohandas Gandhi, Homer A. Jack (2005). “The Wit and Wisdom of Gandhi”, p.78, Courier Corporation

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• I am proud up to the point of equality; everything above or below that appears to me arrant impertinence or abject meanness.

  William Hazlitt

  Class, Proud, Meanness

  William Hazlitt, James Thornton (1967). “Miscellaneous writings”

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• The one resolution, which was in my mind long before it took the form of a resolution, is the key-note of my life. It is this, always to regard as mere impertinences of fate the handicaps which were placed upon my life almost at the beginning. I resolved that they should not crush or dwarf my soul, but rather be made to blossom, like Aaron's rod, with flowers.

  Helen Keller

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

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• Arrogance is a mixture of impertinence, disobedience, indiscipline, rudeness, harshness, and a self-assertive nature.

  Sivananda

  Self, Arrogance, Mixtures

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• After all, when a thought takes one's breath away, a lesson on grammar seems an impertinence. As Ruskin wrote in his earlier and better days, "No weight nor mass nor beauty of execution can outweigh one grain or fragment of thought.

  Thomas Wentworth Higginson

  Weight, Lessons, Execution

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• Men are subject to various inconveniences merely through lack of a small share of courage, which is a quality very necessary in the common occurrences of life, as well as in a battle. How many impertinences do we daily suffer with great uneasiness, because we have not courage enough to discover our dislike.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Men, Suffering, Battle

  Benjamin Franklin “Poor Richard Day by Day”, Lulu.com

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• Neither man nor woman can be worth anything until they have discovered that they are fools. wThis is the first step towards becoming either estimable or agreeable; and until it be taken there is no hope. wThe sooner the discovery is made the better, as there is more time and power for taking advantage of it. Sometimes the great truth is found out too late to apply to it any effectual remedy.w Sometimes it is never found at all; and these form the desperate and inveterate causes of folly, self-conceit, and impertinence.

  William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne

  Time, Truth, Taken

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• It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions. Heaven is by favor; if it were by merit your dog would go in and you would stay out. Of all the creatures ever made he (man) is the most detestable. Of the entire brood, he is the only one...that possesses malice. He is the only creature that inflicts pain for sport, knowing it to be pain. The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot.

  Mark Twain

  Sports, Dog, Pain

  60 Copy quote