Contempt Quotes

• Our government... teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.

  Louis D. Brandeis

  Change, Men, Law

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• He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice.

  Albert Einstein

  Love, Inspirational, Life

  "Mein Weltbild (My World-view)". Essay by Albert Einstein, 1931.

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• Wrongs are often forgiven; but contempt never is. Our pride remembers it forever.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Forgiveness, Pride, Forever

  "Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman". Book by Lord Chesterfield, 1774.

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• You can have no influence over those for whom you have underlying contempt.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Judgement, Influence, Nonviolent Communication

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• Hatred is an affair of the heart; contempt that of the head.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Anger, Philosophical, Heart

  Arthur Schopenhauer, E. F. J. Payne (1974). “Parerga and Paralipomena: Short Philosophical Essays”, p.591, Oxford University Press

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• Contempt is the weapon of the weak and a defense against one's own despised and unwanted feelings.

  Alice Miller

  Warrior, Feelings, Defense

  Alice Miller (1997). “The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self”, p.74, Basic Books

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• I've seen a look in dogs' eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt, and I am convinced that basically dogs think humans are nuts.

  John Steinbeck

  Dog, Eye, Thinking

  John Steinbeck (2012). “The Portable Steinbeck”, p.42, Penguin

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• There is nothing that people bear more impatiently, or forgive less, than contempt: and an injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Insult To Injury, People, Forgiving

  Lord Chesterfield (1998). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.87, OUP Oxford

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• 

  Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Expression, Perfect, Silence

  Back to Methuselah (1921) pt. 5

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• Contempt is a kind of gangrene which, if it seizes one part of a character, corrupts all the rest by degrees.

  Samuel Johnson

  Character, Degrees, Kind

  Samuel Johnson (1810). “The works of the English poets, from Chaucer to Cowper”, p.320

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• The lowest form of popular culture - lack of information, misinformation, disinformation, and a contempt for the truth or the reality of most people's lives - has overrun real journalism.

  Carl Bernstein

  Real, People, Ordinary

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• To punish me for my contempt for authority, fate made me an authority myself.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Leadership, Fate

  Albert Einstein (2002). “Dear Professor Einstein: Albert Einstein's letters to and from children”

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• Anger and hate against one we love steels our hearts, but contempt or pity leaves us silent and ashamed.

  Edgar Rice Burroughs

  Hate, Anger, Heart

  Edgar Rice Burroughs (2008). “Tarzan of the Apes”, p.162, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Christ saw much in this world to weep over, and much to pray over: but he saw nothing in it to look upon with contempt.

  Edwin Hubbel Chapin

  Looks, World, Saws

  "Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers". Book by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, 1895.

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• To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all laws into contempt.

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton

  Men, Law, Libertarian

  Address to the Tenth National Women's Rights Convention on Marriage and Divorce, New York City, on May 11, 1860. "Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Feminist as Thinker". Book edited by Ellen Carol DuBois and Richard Cándida Smith, 2007.

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• Teach not thy lip such scorn, for it was made For kissing, lady, not for such contempt.

  William Shakespeare

  Kissing, Romantic Love, Best Kiss

  'Richard III' (1591) act 1, sc. 2, l. 172

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• Familiarity breeds contempt.

  Aesop

  Relationship, Wisdom, Disrespect

  Aesop, Pat Ronson Stewart (1994). “Aesop's Fables”, p.19, Courier Corporation

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• Contempt; the feeling of a prudent man for an enemy who is too formidable safely to be opposed.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Men, Feelings, Enemy

  Ambrose Bierce (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)”, p.2374, Delphi Classics

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• He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, deplorable love-of-country stance, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.

  Albert Einstein

  Love, Country, Peace

  "Mein Weltbild (My World-view)". Essay by Albert Einstein, 1931.

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• Don't hold your parents up to contempt. After all, you are their son, and it is just possible that you may take after them.

  Evelyn Waugh

  Family, Son, Parent

  Evelyn Waugh (2012). “A Little Order: Selected Journalism”, p.175, Penguin UK

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• Pride defeats its own end, by bringing the man who seeks esteem and reverence into contempt.

  Henry Bolingbroke

  Pride, Men, Dignity

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• Behind all their personal vanity, women themselves always have an impersonal contempt for woman.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Vanity, Behinds

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• Isn't it fitting that so many of those who have contempt for the private sector will soon find themselves back in it?

  Mitt Romney

  Fitting, Private Sector

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• Antipathy, dissimilarity of views, hate, contempt, can accompany true love.

  Marshall McLuhan

  Love, Hate, Views

  13 Copy quote

• God shows his contempt for wealth by the kind of person he selects to receive it.

  Austin O'Malley

  Funny, Money, Kindness

  11 Copy quote