Vex Quotes

• Manners are of more importance than laws. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation, like that of the air we breathe.

  Edmund Burke

  Air, Law, Uniforms

  "Three Letters to a Member of Parliament on the Proposals for Peace with the Regicide Directory of France" (1796 - 1797)

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• Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you. So in like manner you must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your mind.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Inspirational, Patience, Hurt

  Leonardo (da Vinci) (1957). “Notebooks”

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• Whoso turns his attention to the bitter strifes of these days and seeks a reason for the troubles that vex public and private life must come to the conclusion that a fruitful cause of the evils which now afflict, as well as of those which threaten us, lies in this: that false conclusions concerning divine and human things, which originated in the schools of philosophy, have crept into all the orders of the state, and have been accepted by the common consent of the masses.

  Pope Leo XIII

  Lying, Philosophy, School

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• If you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you. Let us hope that.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Patience, Hurt, Clothes

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• Come not, when I am dead, To drop thy foolish tears upon my grave, To trample round my fallen head, And vex the unhappy dust thou wouldst not save. There let the wind sweep and the plover cry; But thou, go by. Child, if it were thine error or thy crime I care no longer, being all unblest; Wed whom thou wilt, but I am sick of Time, And I desire to rest. Pass on, weak heart, and leave me where I lie: Go by, go by.

  Alfred Lord Tennyson

  Time, Children, Lying

  'Come not, when I am dead' (1850)

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• O, let him pass. He hates him That would upon the rack of this tough world Stretch him out longer.

  William Shakespeare

  Hate, World, Tough

  'King Lear' (1605-6) act 5, sc. 3, l. [314]

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• We can more easily endure that which shames than that which vexes us.

  Plautus

  Shame, Endure

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• I began to understand that suffering and disappointments and melancholy are there not to vex us or cheapen us or deprive us of our dignity but to mature and transfigure us.

  Hermann Hesse

  Disappointment, Suffering, Dignity

  Hermann Hesse (2013). “Peter Camenzind: A Novel”, p.100, Macmillan

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• Beloved, have you ever thought that someday you will not have anything to try you, or anyone to vex you again? There will be no opportunity in heaven to learn or to show the spirit of patience, forbearance, and longsuffering. If you are to practice these things, it must be now.

  A. B. Simpson

  Opportunity, Practice, Heaven

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• Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Patience, Clothes, Patient

  Leonardo (da Vinci) (1957). “Notebooks”

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• It's the curse of motherhood. You're required to love us even when we vex you.

  Julia Quinn

  Motherhood, Curse

  Julia Quinn (2009). “The Duke And I”, p.17, Harper Collins

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• Everything's either concave or -vex, so whatever you dream will be something with sex.

  Piet Pieterszoon Hein

  Dream, Sex

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• A very great part of the mischiefs that vex the world arises from words.

  Edmund Burke

  World, Arise, Mischief

  Edmund Burke (1852). “The Works and Correspondance of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke”, p.58

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• Vex not thy spirit at the course of things; they heed not thy vexation. How ludicrous and outlandish is astonishment at anything that may happen in life.

  Marcus Aurelius

  Life, Acceptance, May

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• You must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your mind.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Patience, Mind, Be Patient

  Leonardo (da Vinci) (1938). “The notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci”

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• This has to be the most self-centered thing I've ever said, but no, I think you just wanted to vex me.

  Julia Quinn

  Thinking, Self, Said

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• A zeal for different opinions concerning religion, concerning government, and many other points, as well of speculation as of practice; an attachment to different leaders ambitiously contending for pre-eminence and power; or to persons of other descriptions whose fortunes have been interesting to the human passions, have, in turn, divided mankind into parties, inflamed them with mutual animosity, and rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each other than to co-operate for their common good.

  James Madison

  Party, Passion, Practice

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1842). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.44

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• It is an excellent rule to be observed in all disputes, that men should give soft words and hard arguments; that they should not so much strive to vex as to convince each other.

  John Wilkins

  Men, Giving, Strive

  John Wilkins (1802). “The Mathematical and Philosophical Works of the Right Rev. John Wilkins, Late Lord Bishop of Chester: To which is Prefix'd the Author's Life, and an Account of His Works; in Two Volumes”, p.134

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• Language, at least, may give up the secrets of life and death, leading us through the maze to the original Word as monster or angel, to the mournful place where we may meet Job and hear his cry, 'How long will you vex my soul and break me in pieces with words?

  Janet Frame

  Jobs, Giving Up, Angel

  Janet Frame (1990). “Daughter buffalo”

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• Love is a smoke rais'd with the fume of sighs; being purg'd, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes; being vex'd, a sea nourish'd with lovers' tears; what is it else? A madness most discreet, a choking gall, and a preserving sweet.

  William Shakespeare

  Sweet, Eye, Love Is

  William Shakespeare (1847). “The Plays of William Shakespeare”, p.148

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• Oh, rather give me commentators plain, Who with no deep researches vex the brain; Who from the dark and doubtful love to run, And hold their glimmering tapers to the sun.

  George Crabbe

  Love, Running, Dark

  George Crabbe, John Crabbe (1834). “The poetical works of the Rev. George Crabbe: in eight volumes”, p.145

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• Accordingly if the devil should say, 'Do not drink,' you should reply to him, 'On this very account, because you forbid it, I shall drink, and what is more, I shall drink a generous amount. Thus one must always do the opposite of that which Satan prohibits. What do you think is my reason for drinking wine undiluted, talking freely, and eating more often, if it is not to torment and vex the devil who made up his mind to torment and vex me.

  Martin Luther

  Drinking, Wine, Thinking

  Martin Luther, Theodore G. Tappert (2003). “Luther: Letters of Spiritual Counsel”, p.86, Regent College Publishing

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• It vexes me when they would constrain science by the authority of the Scriptures, and yet do not consider themselves bound to answer reason and experiment.

  Galileo Galilei

  Answers, Scripture, Reason

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• It is always our inabilities that vex us.

  Joseph Joubert

  Inability, Ability

  Joseph Joubert (1928). “Pensées and letters of Joseph Joubert”

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• Vex not thy spirit at the course of things, they heed not thy vexations

  Marcus Aurelius

  Spirit, Courses, Heed

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