Contemptuous Quotes

• I'm not at all contemptuous of comforts, but they have their place and it is not first.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Comfort, Firsts

  9 Copy quote

• Many men are contemptuous of riches; few can give them away.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Men, Giving, Riches

  10 Copy quote

• People are what you make them. A scornful look turns into a complete fool a man of average intelligence. A contemptuous indifference turns into an enemy a woman who, well treated, might have been an angel.

  Andre Maurois

  Teaching, Angel, Men

  7 Copy quote

• The whole tone of Church teaching in regard to women is, to the last degree, contemptuous and degrading.

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton

  Teaching, Aggravation, Church

  85 Copy quote

• I'm crass, contemptuous and crude, obstreperous, obnoxious, rambunctiously raw and rude.

  Mario Cantone

  Rude, Crass, Obnoxious

  12 Copy quote

• I consider it a mark of great prudence in a man to abstain from threats or any contemptuous expressions, for neither of these weaken the enemy, but threats make him more cautious, and the other excites his hatred, and a desire to revenge himself.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Revenge, Men, Expression

  18 Copy quote

• In place of a world, there is a city, a point, in which the whole life of broad regions is collecting while the rest dries up. In place of a type-true people, born of and grown on the soil, there is a new sort of nomad, cohering unstably in fluid masses, the parasitical city dweller, traditionless, utterly matter-of-fact, religionless, clever, unfruitful, deeply contemptuous of the countryman and especially that highest form of countryman, the country gentleman.

  Oswald Spengler

  Country, Clever, Cities

  Oswald Spengler (1991). “The Decline of the West”, p.25, Oxford University Press, USA

  35 Copy quote

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• Quotation... A writer expresses himself in words that have been used before because they give his meaning better than he can give it himself, or because they are beautiful or witty, or because he expects them to touch a cord of association in his reader, or because he wishes to show that he is learned and well read. Quotations due to the last motive are invariably ill-advised; the discerning reader detects it and is contemptuous; the undiscerning is perhaps impressed, but even then is at the same time repelled, pretentious quotations being the surest road to tedium.

  Henry Watson Fowler

  Beautiful, Witty, Giving

  A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926)

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• Children are contemptuous, haughty, irritable, envious, sneaky, selfish, lazy, flighty, timid, liars and hypocrites, quick to laugh and cry, extreme in expressing joy and sorrow, especially about trifles, they'll do anything to avoid pain but they enjoy inflicting it: little men already.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Pain, Children, Liars

  53 Copy quote

• It wants to be, and proclaims itself to be, 'the greatest', but greatness is not required of a country; only goodness is.

  Sydney J. Harris

  Country, Greatness, Patriotism

  Sydney J. Harris (1985). “Pieces of Eight Pa”, Mariner Books

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• Until we have a better relationship between private performance and the public truth, as was demonstrated with Watergate, we as the public are absolutely right to remain suspicious, contemptuous even, of the secrecy and the misinformation which is the digest of our news.

  John le Carre

  News, Literature, Secrecy

  32 Copy quote

• Patriotism is proud of a country's virtues and eager to correct its deficiencies; it also acknowledges the legitimate patriotism of other countries, with their own specific virtues. The pride of nationalism, however, trumpets its country's virtues and denies its deficiencies, while it is contemptuous toward the virtues of other countries. It wants to be, and proclaims itself to be, "the greatest," but greatness is not required of a country; only goodness is.

  Sydney J. Harris

  Country, Humility, Pride

  "Pieces of Eight". Book by Sydney J. Harris, 1982.

  24 Copy quote

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• Instead of fulfilling the promise of infinite orgasmic bliss, sex in the America of the feminine mystique is becoming a strangely joyless national compulsion, if not a contemptuous mockery.

  Betty Friedan

  Sex, America, Promise

  "Feminist icon Betty Friedan dies aged 85" by Jamie Doward, www.theguardian.com. February 4, 2006.

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• Violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism and tribalism and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children: organized religion ought to have a great deal on its conscience.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Children, Ignorance, Racism

  Christopher Hitchens (2011). “God is Not Great”, p.44, Atlantic Books Ltd

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• The leader is best, When people are hardly aware of his existence, Not so good when people praise his government, Less good when people stand in fear, Worst, when people are contemptuous. Fail to honor people, and they will fail to honor you. But of a good leader, who speaks little, When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, The people say, 'We did it ourselves.'

  Laozi

  Inspirational, Government, People

  4 Copy quote

• Government is contemptuous of true religion when it confiscates the taxes of Caesar to finance the things of God.

  Sam Ervin

  Government, Atheism, Finance

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• I have never had much confidence in my own work, and even now when I am assured (still much to my grateful surprise) that it has value for other people, I feel diffident, reluctant as it were to expose my world of imagination to possibly contemptuous eyes and ears.

  J. R. R. Tolkien

  Grateful, Eye, People

  J.R.R. Tolkien (2014). “The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien”, p.366, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Geniuses are justifiably contemptuous of the opinions of their inferiors.

  Jubal

  Genius, Opinion, Inferiors

  6 Copy quote

• In selling his scheme, Obama has been promoting the myth that our system is no better than those of other advanced nations. His recent statements have betrayed his openly contemptuous attitude toward American health care and out top-flight medical profession. His attitude is consistent with his revealed general attitude about America, which he denigrates every time he gets a chance, especially on foreign soil.

  David Limbaugh

  Attitude, America, Care

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• But if we come back, if German men come back, if British men come back, and Japs, and French, and all the other men, all of us talking, writing, painting, making movies of heroes, and cockroaches and foxholes and blood, then future generations will always be doomed to future Hitlers. It's never occurred to boys to have contempt for wars, to point to soldiers' pictures in history books, laughing at them. If German boys had learned to be contemptuous of violence, Hitler would have had to take up knitting to keep his ego warm.

  J. D. Salinger

  War, Book, Hero

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• Scientific education for the masses will do little good, and probably a lot of harm, if it simply boils down to more physics, more chemistry, more biology, etc to the detriment of literature and history. Its probable effect on the average human being would be to narrow the range of his thoughts and make him more than ever contemptuous of such knowledge as he did not possess.

  George Orwell

  Average, Lefties, Would Be

  "What is Science?". Tribune, orwell.ru. October 26, 1945.

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• The decor bowled me over. Everywhere I looked, there was something more to see. Botanical prints, a cross section of pomegranates, a passionflower vine and its fruit. Stacks of thick books on art and design and a collection of glass paperweights filled the coffee table. It was enormously beautiful, a sensibility I'd never encountered anywhere, a relaxed luxury. I could feel my mother's contemptuous gaze falling on the cluttered surfaces, but I was tired of three white flowers in a glass vase. There was more to life than that.

  Janet Fitch

  Beautiful, Mother, Art

  18 Copy quote

• I think we musicians are emissaries. Every time we go before the public, we're there to make converts. We can either be ugly and contemptuous in our behavior, which will turn people off, or else we can carry ourselves with dignity and pride.

  Hazel Scott

  Pride, Thinking, People

  8 Copy quote

• I'm not an angry person, just very disappointed and contemptuous of my fellow humans' choices - and on stage those feelings sometimes are exaggerated for a theatric stage - you're on a stage you have an audience of 2500 or 3000 people: you need to project the feelings, the emotions it's heightened, and people mistake it for a personal anger but it's more dissatisfaction, disappointment and contempt for these things we've settled for.

  George Carlin

  Disappointment, Mistake, People

  Source: www.psychologytoday.com

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• My strengths make me contemptuous. My weaknesses make me charitable.

  Mason Cooley

  Strength, Weakness, Charitable

  5 Copy quote