Contempt Quotes - Page 24

• "Well, it's no use your talking about waking him," said Tweedledum, "when you're only one of the things in his dream. You know very well you're not real."

  Lewis Carroll

  Dream, Real, Thinking

  "Through the Looking-Glass". Book by Lewis Carroll, ch. 4, 1871.

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• Impelled by feelings that were primal yet paradoxically wholly impersonal. Feelings of contempt born of inchoate, unacknowledged fear--civilization's fear of nature, men's fear of women, power's fear of powerlessness. Man's subliminal urge to destroy what he could neither subdue nor deify.

  Arundhati Roy

  Men, Civilization, Feelings

  Arundhati Roy (2002). “The God of Small Things”, p.308, Penguin Books India

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• I have told my sons that they are not under any circumstances to take part in massacres, and that the news of massacres of enemies is not to fill them with satisfaction or glee. I have also told them not to work for companies which make massacre machinery, and to express contempt for people who think we need machinery like that.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Son, Thinking, People

  KURT VONNEGUT JR (1969). “SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE”

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• I do not look on self-indulgent, sensual people as worthy of my hatred; I simply look upon them with contempt for their poorness of character.

  Elizabeth Gaskell

  Character, Self, People

  Elizabeth Gaskell (2010). “The Complete Works of Elizabeth Gaskell (20+ Books)”, p.1422, BookCaps Study Guides

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• There are persons whom in my heart I despise, others I abhor. Yet I am not obliged to inform the one of my contempt, nor the other of my detestation. This kind of dissimulation...is a necessary branch of wisdom, and so far from being immoral...that it is a duty and a virtue.

  John Adams

  Heart, Branches, Kind

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• It sometimes happened that you might be familiar with a man for several years thinking he was a wild animal, and you would regard him with contempt. And then suddenly a moment would arrive when some uncontrollable impulse would lay his soul bare, and you would behold in it such riches, such sensitivity and warmth, such a vivid awareness of its own suffering and the suffering of others, that the scales would fall from your eyes and at first you would hardly be able to believe what you had seen and heard. The reverse also happens.

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

  Believe, Fall, Eye

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• Kill me then,' panted Harry, who felt no fear at all, but only rage and contempt. 'Kill me like you killed him, you coward-' DON'T-' screamed Snape, and his face was suddenly demented, inhuman, as though he was in as much pain as the yelping, howling dog stuck in the house behind them- 'CALL ME A COWARD!

  J. K. Rowling

  Dog, Pain, House

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• Nature hath meal and bran, contempt and grace.

  William Shakespeare

  Grace, Meals, Contrast

  William Shakespeare (2011). “Cymbeline”, p.93, Palgrave Macmillan

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• The great unthankfulness, contempt of God's word, and wilfulness of the world, make me fear that the divine light will soon cease to shine on man, for God's word has ever had its certain course.

  Martin Luther

  Men, Shine On, Light

  Martin Luther (2017). “Martin Luther's Table Talk”, p.84, Gideon House Books

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• There are some surely whom you like and whom you dislike, for whom you entertain esteem and for whom you feel contempt? Have you not thought that you have some duties toward them, that you can aid them in leading better lives?

  Paul Bourget

  Aids, Better Life, Duty

  Paul Bourget (1893). “Cosmopolis”, p.34, Library of Alexandria

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• Strange is the vigour in a brave man's soul. The strength of his spirit and his irresistible power, the greatness of his heart and the height of his condition, his mighty confidence and contempt of danger, his true security and repose in himself, his liberty to dare and do what he pleaseth, his alacrity in the midst of fears, his invincible temper, are advantages which make him master of fortune.

  Thomas Traherne

  Heart, Greatness, Men

  "The Poetical Works of Thomas Traherne, B.D". Book edited by Bertram Dobell, London: Bertram Dobell, p. LVII, "Christian Ethicks" (1675), 1903.

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• The invasion of Iraq was a bandit act, an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of international law.

  Harold Pinter

  Law, Iraq, Invasion

  Harold Pinter (2015). “Death etc.”, p.9, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• Oh!” said she, “I heard you before, but I could not immediately determine what to say in reply. You wanted me, I know, to say ‘Yes,’ that you might have the pleasure of despising my taste; but I always delight in overthrowing those kind of schemes, and cheating a person of their premeditated contempt. I have, therefore made up my mind to tell you, that I do not want to dance a reel at all--and now despise me if you dare.” “Indeed I do not dare.

  Jane Austen

  Cheating, Mind, Delight

  Jane Austen (2006). “8 Books in 1: Jane Austen's Complete Novels. Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, Lady Susan, and Love an”, p.151, Shoes & Ships & Sealing Wax

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• The mockery made him feel an outsider; and feeling an outsider he behaved like one, which increased the prejudice against him and intensified the contempt and hostility aroused by his physical defects. Which in turn increased his sense of being alien and alone. A chronic fear of being slighted made him avoid his equals, made him stand, where his inferiors were concerned, self-consciously on his dignity.

  Aldous Huxley

  Self, Feelings, Outsiders

  Aldous Huxley (1950). “The Collected Works of Aldous Huxley: Brave new world”

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• He managed to convey indifference, contempt, and boredom in the one word.

  Charlaine Harris

  Boredom, Indifference, One Word

  Charlaine Harris (2009). “Dead and Gone: A Sookie Stackhouse Novel”, p.85, Penguin

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• When I beheld you, suddenly - for perhaps a second - I had the strength to reject everything that wasn't you and to laugh at the illusion. But my shoulders are very frail. I was unable to bear the weight of the world's condemnation. And I began to hate you when everything about you would have kindled my love and when love would have made men's contempt unbearable, and their contempt would have made my love unbearable. The fact is, I hate you.

  Jean Genet

  Hate, Men, Laughing

  Jean Genet (1994). “The Blacks: A Clown Show”, p.12, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• He's swept with the broom of contempt and the rooms have an empty ring.

  Joni Mitchell

  Relationship, Rooms, Empty

  Song: I Had A King, Album: Song to a Seagull

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• I take a few breaths to calm myself, step back, and lift Buttercup by the scruff of the neck. "I should've drowned you when I had the chance." His ears flatten and he raises a paw. I hiss before he gets a chance, which seems to annoy him a little, since he considers hissing his own personal sound of contempt.

  Suzanne Collins

  Sound, Ears, Littles

  Suzanne Collins (2010). “Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, Book 3)”, p.144, Scholastic Inc.

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• But wherever the truth may lie, this much is crystal-clear: our bigger-and-better society is now like a hypochondriac, so obsessed with its own economic health as to have lost the capacity to remain healthy. . . . Nothing could be more salutary at this stage than a little healthy contempt for a plethora of material blessings.

  Aldo Leopold

  Lying, Blessing, Healthy

  Aldo Leopold (2013). “Aldo Leopold: A Sand County Almanac & Other Writings on Conservation and Ecology: (Library of America #238)”, p.19, Library of America

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• if she had ordered me to throw myself down then, I would have done it! If she had said it only as a joke, said it with contempt, spitting on me--even then I would have jumped!

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

  Done, Said, Ifs

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• You've got to shake your fists at lightning now, you've got to roar like forest fire You've got to spread your light like blazes all across the sky They're going to aim the hoses on you, show 'em you won't expire Not till you burn up every passion, not even when you die Come on now, you've got to try, if you're feeling contempt, well then you tell it If you're tired of the silent night, Jesus, well then you yell it Condemned to wires and hammers, strike every chord that you feel That broken trees and elephant ivories conceal

  Joni Mitchell

  Jesus, Passion, Tired

  Song: Judgement of the Moon and Stars, Album: For the Roses, 1972

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• Above all, avoid lies, all lies, especially the lie to yourself. Keep watch on your own lie and examine it every hour, every minute. And avoid contempt, both of others and of yourself: what seems bad to you in yourself is purified by the very fact that you have noticed it in yourself. And avoid fear, though fear is simply the consequence of every lie. Never be frightened at your own faintheartedness in attaining love, and meanwhile do not even be very frightened by your own bad acts.

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

  Lying, Watches, Deceit

  Fyodor Dostoevsky (2002). “The Brothers Karamazov: A Novel in Four Parts With Epilogue”, p.58, Macmillan

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• Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill it teaches the whole people by example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. To declare that in the administration of the criminal law the end justifies the means - to declare that the Government may commit crimes in order to secure the conviction of a private criminal - would bring terrible retributions.

  Louis D. Brandeis

  Teacher, Mean, Men

  Olmstead v. United States (dissenting opinion) (1928)

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• We should always look back on our own past with a sort of contempt, as long as the tenderness is there - but please let some of the contempt be there.

  Dennis Potter

  Past, Long, Looks

  Dennis Potter, Melvyn Bragg (1994). “An interview with Dennis Potter: an edited transcript of Melvyn Bragg's interview with Dennis Potter, broadcast on the 5th of April 1994”

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• My father had a deep and lifelong contempt for politicians in general ("They tell lies," he used to say with wonder, "even when they don't have to").

  Gore Vidal

  Father, Lying, Wonder

  FaceBook post by Gore Vidal from Dec 03, 2014

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