Offense Quotes

• He who takes offense when offense was not intended is a fool, yet he who takes offense when offense is intended is an even greater fool for he has succumbed to the will of his adversary.

  Brigham Young

  Fool, Greater, Adversaries

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• Individuals who deliberately decide not to take offense lead happier, more productive lives.

  Lloyd D. Newell

  Attitude, Productive Life, Individual

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• When we believe or say we have been offended, we usually mean we feel insulted, mistreated, snubbed, or disrespected. And certainly clumsy, embarrassing, unprincipled, and mean-spirited things do occur in our interactions with other people that would allow us to take offense. However, it ultimately is impossible for another person to offend you or to offend me. Indeed, believing that another person offended us is fundamentally false. To be offended is a choice we make; it is not a condition inflicted or imposed upon us by someone or something else.

  David A. Bednar

  Believe, Mean, Offending

  "And Nothing Shall Offend Them". David A. Bednar's address at the General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, www.lds.org. October 2006.

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• People who wish to be offended will always find some occasion for taking offense.

  John Wesley

  People, Wish, Occasions

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• A fool contributes nothing worth hearing and takes offense at everything.

  Aristotle

  Hearing, Fool, Nonsense

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• The problem with taking offense is that it's really hard to figure out what to do with it after you're done using it. Better to just leave it on the table and walk away. Umbrage untaken quietly disappears.

  Seth Godin

  Done, Tables, Problem

  FaceBook post by Seth Godin from Feb 21, 2014

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• It is a poor sermon that gives no offense; that neither makes the hearer displeased with himself nor with the preacher.

  George Whitefield

  Christian, Spiritual, Giving

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• Our response to an offense determines our future.

  John Bevere

  Our Future, Determine, Response

  Twitter post from Sep 12, 2014

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• It is just as much an offense to take offense as it is to give offense.

  Ken Kesey

  Giving

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• Whenever anyone has offended me, I try to raise my soul so high that the offense cannot reach it.

  Rene Descartes

  Inspirational, Spiritual, Attitude

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• When someone gives you offense, it doesn't mean you have to take it.

  Joyce Meyer

  Mean, Giving

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• We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Motivational, Attitude, Character

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• As we forge deeper into this issue of forgiveness, we must be prepared to open up and discuss things that bother us before they escalate to a crisis level. We must examine our struggles with forgiveness in which there are not overt offenses or blatant betrayals. I'm convinced that seeds of resentment take root in the silent frustrations that never get discussed. Other people cannot read our minds--or our palms!--and that is why we have tongues to speak.

  T. D. Jakes

  Betrayal, Struggle, Frustration

  T.D. Jakes (2013). “Let It Go: Forgive So You Can Be Forgiven”, p.73, Simon and Schuster

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• And where the offense is, let the great axe fall.

  William Shakespeare

  Revenge, Fall

  William Shakespeare (2014). “Shakespeare's HAMLET eBook”, p.192, First Folio Productions

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• Satan gains more ground in the believer's life through unforgiveness than any other thing, so be sure you let go of all offense and pray for those who have hurt you. It may be hard, but it is the best thing you can do for yourself and the kingdom of God. Don't stay angry at anyone today because it will hurt you more than it hurts them.

  Joyce Meyer

  Letting Go, Hurt, May

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• Taking offense has become America's national pastime; being theatrically offended supposedly signifies the exquisitely refined moral delicacy of people who feel entitled to pass through life without encountering ideas or practices that annoy them.

  George Will

  Practice, Ideas, America

  "Thin Skins and Legislative Prayer". www.washingtonpost.com. May 07, 2014.

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• You add to the suffering in the world when you take offense, just as much as you do when you give offense.

  Ken Keyes Jr.

  Giving, Suffering, World

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• The Irish are hearty, the Scotch plausible, the French polite, the Germans good-natured, the Italians courtly, the Spaniards reserved and decorous - the English alone seem to exist in taking and giving offense.

  William Hazlitt

  Country, Scotch, Giving

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

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• The best defense is a good offense.

  Jack Dempsey

  Offense And Defense, Defense

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• All people make mistakes. All of us are sinners. All of us are criminals. All of us violate the law at some point in our lives. In fact, if the worst thing you have ever done is speed ten miles over the speed limit on the freeway, you have put yourself and others at more risk of harm than someone smoking marijuana in the privacy of his or her living room. Yet there are people in the United States serving life sentences for first-time drug offenses, something virtually unheard of anywhere else in the world.

  Michelle Alexander

  Mistake, Marijuana, Law

  Michelle Alexander (2013). “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness”, p.215, The New Press

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• The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offense.

  Edsger Dijkstra

  Witty, Humorous, Teaching

  "How do we tell truths that might hurt?" by Edsger Dijkstra, June 18, 1975.

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• Severities should be dealt out all at once, so that their suddenness may give less offense; benefits ought to be handed ought drop by drop, so that they may be relished the more.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Giving, Political, Benefits

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• No other offense has ever been visited with such severe penalties as seeking to help the oppressed.

  Clarence Darrow

  Helping, Fierce, Penalties

  Clarence Darrow (2015). “The Story of My Life”, p.72, Lulu.com

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• Let no one dare to call another mad who is not himself willing to rank in the same class for every perversion and fault of judgment. Let no one dare aid in punishing another as criminal who is not willing to suffer the penalty due to his own offenses.

  Margaret Fuller

  Class, Mad, Suffering

  Margaret Fuller (1869). “Life Without and Life Within: Or, Reviews, Narratives, Essays, and Poems”, p.230

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• If a man offend a harmless, pure, and innocent person, the evil falls back upon that fool, like light dust thrown up against the wind.

  Gautama Buddha

  Fall, Men, Dust

  Gautama Buddha (2013). “The Dhammapada”, p.19, Simon and Schuster

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