Offence Quotes - Page 5

• Unless a love of virtue light the flame,
  Satire is, more than those he brands, to blame;
  He hides behind a magisterial air
  He own offences, and strips others' bare.

  William Cowper

  Light, Air, Flames

  William Cowper (1855). “The Complete Poetical Works of William Cowper: With Life, and Critical Notice of His Writings. Eight Engravings on Steel”, p.78

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• One of the ordinary modes, by which tyrants accomplish their purposes without resistance, is, by disarming the people, and making it an offence to keep arms, and by substituting a regular army in the stead of a resort to the militia. The friends of a free government cannot be too watchful, to overcome the dangerous tendency of the public mind to sacrifice, for the sake of mere private convenience, this powerful check upon the designs of ambitious men.

  Joseph Story

  Powerful, Army, Sacrifice

  Joseph Story (1842). “A Familiar Exposition of the Constitution of the United States”, p.264

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• Satire, being levelled at all, is never resented for an offence by any.

  Jonathan Swift

  Satire

  'A Tale of a Tub' (1704) 'The Author's Preface'

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• The scandal of the world is what makes the offence; it is not sinful to sin in silence.

  Moliere

  Silence, World, Scandal

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• Once divested of missionary virus, the cult of our gods gives no offence. It would be a peaceful age if this were recognized, and religion, Christian, communist or any other, were to rely on practice and not on conversion for her growth.

  Freya Stark

  Christian, Practice, Giving

  Freya Stark (1964). “The Journey's Echo: Selections”

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• Take advantage of the gracious condescension of the elegant calf's kidney, multiply its metamorphoses: you can without giving it any offence, call it the chameleon of cuisine.

  Emmanuel des Essarts

  Food, Giving, Cooking

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• Reproof, especially as it relates to children, administered in all gentleness, will render the culprit not afraid, but ashamed to repeat the offence.

  Hosea Ballou

  Children, Culprit, Ashamed

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• Whoever would entitle himself after death through the merits of his Redeemer, to the noblest of rewards, let him serve God throughout life in this most excellent of all duties, doing good to our brethren. Whoever is sensible of his offences, let him take this way especially of evidencing his repentance.

  Thomas Secker

  Charity, Rewards, Way

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• God will forgive you if you forgive others. Forgiving those who cause offence or injury is often exceedingly difficult. And yet, forgiveness is one of the most beautiful and important teachings of Jesus Christ. It is central to the gospel because, without it, you can't go to heaven.

  Patrick Madrid

  Beautiful, Jesus, Teaching

  Patrick Madrid (2012). “A Year with the Bible: Scriptural Wisdom for Daily Living”, p.21, TAN Books

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• A very small offence may be a just cause for great resentment: it is often much less the particular instance which is obnoxious to us than the proof it carries with it of the general tenor and disposition of the mind from whence it sprung.

  Sir Fulke Greville

  Mind, May, Causes

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• True delicacy, as true generosity, is more wounded by an offence from itself--if I may be allowed the expression--than to itself.

  Sir Fulke Greville

  Expression, Generosity, Delicacy

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• The more gifted by nature is a man, the more is deplorable the abuse that he does by using them to shameful ends. A swindler (or crook) of higher condition is more blameworthy than a vulgar scoundrel; an intelligent eveil-doer, having benefited from a higher education, represent a more saddening phenomenon ("phénomène", Fr.) than an unfortune illiterate fellow having commited an offence.

  African Spir

  Men, Intelligent, Abuse

  "Paroles d'un sage: Choix de pensées d'African Spir" ("Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir") by Hélène Claparède-Spir, (p. 48), 1937.

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• When an oath is taken ... the mind is more attentive; for it guards against two things, the reproach of friends and offence against the gods.

  Sophocles

  Taken, Two, Mind

  Sophocles, Hugh Lloyd-Jones (1996). “Sophocles: Fragments”, p.245, Harvard University Press

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• At the mention of the name and offence of this degraded being a great sound went up from the entire multitude - a universal cry of execration, not greatly dissimilar from that which may be frequently heard in the crowded Temple of Impartiality when the one whose duty it is to take up, at a venture, the folded papers, announces that the sublime Emperor, or some mandarin of exalted rank, has been so fortunate as to hold the winning number in the Annual State Lottery.

  Ernest Bramah

  Winning, Names, Numbers

  Ernest Bramah (2016). “ERNEST BRAMAH Ultimate Collection: 20+ Novels & Short Stories (Including Max Carrados Mysteries and Kai Lung Fantasy Stories): The Secret of the League, The Coin of Dionysius, The Game Played In the Dark, The Tilling Shaw Mystery, Kai Lung's Golden Hours, The Confession of Kai Lung, The Mirror of Kong Ho and many more”, p.345, e-artnow

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• The wishes of the people, seldom founded in deep disquisitions, or resulting from other reasonings than their present feelings, may not entirely accord with our true policy and interest. If they do not, to observe a proper line of conduct for promoting the one, and avoiding offence to the other, will be a work of great difficulty.

  George Washington

  People, Feelings, Wish

  George Washington (1852). “The life of General Washington: first president of the United States”, p.301

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• (Carmine Crocco) A farm-labourer and cowherd, had joined the Bourbon army, killed a comrade in a brawl, deserted and lived as an outlaw for ten years. He joined the liberal insurgents in 1860 in the hope of an amnesty for his past offences, and subsequently became the most formidable guerilla chief and leader of men on the Bourbon side.

  Eric Hobsbawm

  Army, Past, Men

  Eric J. Hobsbawm (1985). “Bandits”

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• The offence is what is improperly called the death of an infant, who has ceased to be, before knowing what existence is, a result of a nature not to give the slightest inquietude to the most timid imagination; and which can cause no regrets but to the very person who, through a sentiment of shame and pity, has refused to prolong a life begun under the auspices of misery.

  Jeremy Bentham

  Regret, Knowing, Giving

  Jeremy Bentham, Etienne Dumont (1871). “Theory of Legislation”, p.265

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• Ah Franion, treason is loved of many, but the Traitor hated of all: unjust offences may for a time escape without danger, but never without revenge.

  Robert Greene

  Revenge, Unjust, May

  Robert Greene, La Serre (Jean-Puget, M. de) (1588). “Greene's "Pandosto" or "Dorastus and Fawnia": being the original of Shakespeare's "Winter's tale"”, p.9

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• That general warrants, whereby an officer or messenger may be commanded to search suspected places without evidence of a fact committed, or to seize any person or persons not named, or whose offence is not particularly described and supported by evidence, are grievous and oppressive, and ought not to be granted.

  George Mason

  May, Messengers, Facts

  "The Federal and State Constitutions Colonial Charters, and Other Organic Laws of the States, Territories, and Colonies Now or Heretofore Forming the United States of America" compiled and edited by Newton Thorpe, Washington, DC : Government Printing Office, 1909.

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• It is sufficiently evident from many circumstances, that the doctrine of the divinity of Christ did not establish itself without much opposition, especially from the unlearned among the Christians, who thought that it savoured of Polytheism , that it was introduced by those who had had a philosophical education, and was by degrees adopted by others, on account of its covering the great offence of the cross , by exalting the personal dignity of our Saviour.

  Joseph Priestley

  Christian, Philosophical, Divinity

  Joseph Priestley (1871). “A History of the Corruptions of Christianity”, p.19

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• I think the origin of all this clamour for tonality is not so much the need to sense a relationship to the tonic, as a need for familiar chords: let us be frank and say "for the triad"; and I believe I have good reason to say that just so long as a certain kind of music contains enough such triads, it causes no offence, even if in other ways it most violently clashes with the sacred laws of tonality.

  Alban Berg

  Believe, Thinking, Law

  "Schoenberg: A Critical Biography". Book by Willi Reich, p. 34, 1971.

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• The only 'natural enemies' are those who take one's very nature as an offence.

  Simon May

  Enemy, Natural, Natural Enemies

  "The Little Book of Big Thoughts". Book by Simon May, 2005.

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• This is the slowest, yet the daintiest sense;
  For ev'n the ears of such as have no skill,
  Perceive a discord, and conceive offence;
  And knowing not what's good, yet find the ill.

  Sir John Davies

  Skills, Knowing, Ears

  Sir John Davies (1759). “The Original, Nature and Immortality of the Soul, a Poem. With an Introduction Concerning Human Knowledge ... The Fourth Edition, Corrected. With an Account of the Author's Life and Writings”, p.82

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• There is no talent so useful toward rising in the world, or which puts men more out of the reach of fortune, than that quality generally possessed by the dullest sort of men, and in common speech called discretion; a species of lower prudence, by the assistance of which, people of the meanest intellectuals, without any other qualification, pass through the world in great tranquillity, and with universal good treatment, neither giving nor taking offence.

  Jonathan Swift

  Men, People, Giving

  Jonathan Swift (1856). “The Works of Jonathan Swift ...: Containing Interesting and Valuable Papers, Not Hitherto Published ... With Memoir of the Author”, p.206

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• There is nothing so charming as the knowledge of literature; of that branch of literature, I mean, which enables us to discover the infinity of things, the immensity of Nature, the heavens, the earth, and the seas; this is that branch which has taught us religion, moderation, magnanimity, and that has rescued the soul from obscurity; to make her see all things above and below, first and last, and between both; it is this that furnishes us wherewith to live well and happily, and guides us to pass our lives without displeasure and without offence.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Knowledge, Mean, Sea

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