Offence Quotes - Page 3

• A government that can at pleasure accuse, shoot, and hang men, as traitors, for the one general offence of refusing to surrender themselves and their property unreservedly to its arbitrary will, can practice any and all special and particular oppressions it pleases.

  Lysander Spooner

  Men, Practice, Special

  Lysander Spooner (1867). “No Treason: No. 1-”, p.15

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• Officers, what offence have these men done? DOGBERRY Marry, sir, they have committed false report; moreover, they have spoken untruths; secondarily, they are slanders; sixth and lastly, they have belied a lady; thirdly, they have verified unjust things; and, to conclude, they are lying knaves.

  William Shakespeare

  Lying, Men, Done

  1598 Dogberry to Don Pedro. Much Ado About Nothing, act 5, sc.1, l.208-12.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• She tried to explain the real state of the case to her sister. "I do not attempt to deny," said she, "that I think very highly of him--that I greatly esteem, that I like him." Marianne here burst with forth with indignation: "Esteem him! Like him! Cold-hearted Elinor. Oh! worse than cold-hearted! Ashamed of being otherwise. Use those words again, and I will leave the room this moment." Elinor could not help laughing. "Excuse me," said she, "and be assured that I meant no offence to you, by speaking, in so quiet a way, of my own feelings.

  Jane Austen

  Real, Thinking, Laughing

  Jane Austen (1864). “Sense and Sensibility”, p.17

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• From tender youth we are told by father and teacher that betrayal is the most heinous offence imaginable. But what is betrayal?…Betrayal means breaking ranks and breaking off into the unknown. Sabina knew of nothing more magnificent than going off into the unknown.

  Milan Kundera

  Teacher, Betrayal, Father

  5 Copy quote

• When a Cabinet Minister who is sacked for telling lies is re-appointed, in the face of every constitutional convention, only for the same man to be sacked again from the same Cabinet for the same offence by the same Prime Minister – no wonder the public are cynical about politics.

  William Hague

  Lying, Men, Cynical

  William Hague's Speech to the Spring forum in Harrogate, www.theguardian.com. March 4, 2001.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Be careful how you do one man a pleasure which must needs occasion equal displeasure in another. For he who is thus slighted will not forget, but will think the offence to himself the greater in that another profits by it; while he who receives the pleasure will either not remember it, or will consider the favour done him less than it really was.

  Francesco Guicciardini

  Men, Thinking, Needs

  Francesco Guicciardini (1890). “Counsels and Reflections of Francesco Guicciardini”

  66 Copy quote

  Show source

• Forgive offences by the million. And if you love all unselfishly, all will by degrees come to love one another.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Forgiveness, Forgiving, Degrees

  Swami Vivekananda, Vivekananda Kendra (2009). “Swami Vivekananda's Rousing Call to Hindu Nation”, p.138, Vivekananda Kendra

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I think it is well . . . for the man in the street to realise there is no power on earth that can protect him from bombing, whatever people may tell him. The bomber will always get through. The only defence is in offence, which means that you have to kill more women and children more quickly than the enemy if you want to save yourselves.

  Stanley Baldwin

  Children, Mean, Men

  Speech in House of Commons, 10 Nov. 1932

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• Christianity is alone in thinking that sex is entirely the Devil's business and an offence to God, This is a strange doctrine and almost implies that God and the devil must have collaborated on the creation of humanity, God working above the belly button and the Devil below.

  Robert Anton Wilson

  Sex, Thinking, Humanity

  6 Copy quote

• It ought to be a criminal offence for women to dye their hair. Especially red. What the devil do women do that sort of thing for?

  P. G. Wodehouse

  Hair, Devil, Criminals

  P. G. Wodehouse (2011). “Indiscretions of Archie”, p.282, The Floating Press

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way to the common feelings of mankind.

  Edward Gibbon

  Government, Law, Punishment

  Edward Gibbon (1846). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.444

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• The moderate are not usually the most sincere, for the same circumspection which makes them moderate makes them likewise retentive of what could give offence.

  Walter Savage Landor

  Giving, Sincere, Prudence

  Walter Savage Landor (2016). “Delphi Collected Poetical Works of Walter Savage Landor (Illustrated)”, Delphi Classics

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• It surely can be no offence to state, that the progress of science has led to new views, and that the consequences that can be deduced from the knowledge of a hundred facts may be very different from those deducible from five. It is also possible that the facts first known may be the exceptions to a rule and not the rule itself, and generalisations from these first-known facts, though useful at the time, may be highly mischievous, and impede the progress of the science if retained when it has made some advance.

  Henry De la Beche

  Science, Views, Progress

  4 Copy quote

• Now, if anything at all can be known to be wrong, it seems to me to be unshakably certain that it would be wrong to make any sentient being suffer eternally for any offence whatever.

  Antony Flew

  Fear, Suffering, Atheism

  Antony Flew (1984). “God, freedom, and immortality: a critical analysis”

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• We do not tell old friends beneath our roof-tree that they are an offence to the eyesight.

  P. G. Wodehouse

  Tree, Old Friends, Roof

  P. G. Wodehouse (2015). “Right Ho, Jeeves”, p.15, Booklassic

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• I have seen players sent off for far worse offences than that.

  Alan Brazil

  Football, Player

  7 Copy quote

• There is a very broad theory that society gets the right to hang, as the individual gets the right to defend himself. Suppose she does; there are certain principles which limit this right. Society has got the murderer within four walls; he never can do any more harm. Has society any need to take that man's life to protect itself? If any society has only the right that the individual has, she has no right to inflict the penalty of death, because she can effectually restrain the individual from ever again committing his offence.

  Wendell Phillips

  Wall, Men, Principles

  4 Copy quote

• The national laws of the five regions of India prescribe no cangue, beatings or prison. Those who are guilty are fined in accordance with the degree of the offence committed. There is no capital punishment.

  Hyecho

  Law, Punishment, India

  4 Copy quote

• The one weapon every man, soldier, sailor, or airman should be able to use effectively is the rifle. It is always his weapon of personal safety in an emergency, and for many it is the primary weapon of offence and defense. Expertness in its use cannot be over emphasized.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Gun, Men, Safety

  7 Copy quote

• When Bobby came into the league he was a rushing defenseman, a goal scorer and a point getter. He just opened the game up to more offence and that's the way the game is played now.

  Johnny Bucyk

  Hockey, Games, Rushing

  5 Copy quote

• Love is always patient and kind. It is never jealous.Love is never boastful or conceited. It is never rude or selfish. It does not take offense and is not resentful.

  Nicholas Sparks

  Selfish, Jealous, Conceited

  "Message in a Bottle". Book by Nicholas Sparks, April 1, 1998.

  21 Copy quote

  Show source

• … that sour blend of loneliness and lust for recognition, shyness and extravagance, deep insecurity and self-intoxicated egomania, that drives poets and writers out of their rooms to seek each other out, to rub shoulders with one another, bully, joke, condescend, feel each other, lay a hand on a shoulder or an arm round a waist, to chat and argue with little nudges, to spy a little, sniff out what is cooking in other pots, flatter, disagree, collude, be right, take offence, apologise, make amends, avoid each other, and seek each other’s company again.

  Amos Oz

  Loneliness, Self, Hands

  14 Copy quote

• Each famous author of antiquity whom I recover places a new offence and another cause of dishonor to the charge of earlier generations, who, not satisfied with their own disgraceful barrenness, permitted the fruit of other minds, and the writings that their ancestors had produced by toil and application, to perish through insufferable neglect. Although they had nothing of their own to hand down to those who were to come after, they robbed posterity of its ancestral heritage.

  Petrarch

  Writing, Hands, Mind

  16 Copy quote

• Pardon, we beseech Thee, all our offences of omission and commission; and grant that in all our thoughts, words, and actions, we may conform to Thy known will manifested in our consciences, and in the revelations of Jesus Christ our Saviour.

  Timothy Pickering

  Jesus, Omission, May

  12 Copy quote

• Make your enemy afraid, for it is impossible to remain quiet about their moral offences.

  Muqtada al Sadr

  Enemy, Moral, Impossible

  4 Copy quote