Nasty Quotes - Page 9

• Two generations ago only a few unfortunate children ever saw anyone hit over the head with a brick, shot, rammed by a car, blown up, immolated, raped or tortured. Now all children, along with their elders, see such images every day of their lives and are expected to enjoy them. ... The seven-year-old who hides his eyes in the family cops-and-robbers drama is desensitized four years later to a point where he crunches potato chips through the latest video nasty.

  Penelope Leach

  Children, Drama, Eye

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• Just because someone's a member of an ethnic minority doesn't mean they're not a nasty small-minded little jerk [...]

  Terry Pratchett

  Mean, Minorities, Littles

  Stephen Briggs, Terry Pratchett (2008). “The Wit And Wisdom Of Discworld”, p.158, Random House

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• It is interesting to ask whether there's any general reason why being religious might make you do nice things or indeed nasty things. It's possible that people do nice things because they're religious. One reason might be they're hoping for a reward in Heaven, which is not a very noble reason.

  Richard Dawkins

  Religious, Nice, People

  "Richard Dawkins at the Sydney Writers' Festival". Interview with Robyn Williams, www.abc.net.au. September 8, 2007.

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• I hope nobody is seriously suggesting that we get our morals from scripture because if we did we'd be stoning people for working on the Sabbath or switching on a light on the Sabbath. So the point is that you can find good bits of the Bible but you have to cherry-pick, you have reject the nasty bits and pick the nice bits.

  Richard Dawkins

  Nice, Light, People

  "Richard Dawkins at the Sydney Writers' Festival". Interview with Robyn Williams, www.abc.net.au. September 8, 2007.

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• Most traditional ghost stories feature rather hapless protagonists, who have nasty things happen to them.

  Jonathan Stroud

  Ghost Stories, Protagonists, Happens

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• When you start attacking cronyism and peoples political interests, it gets nasty.

  Charles Koch

  Political, Attacking, Cronyism

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• Young children are such nasty little beasts!

  Jane Welsh Carlyle

  Children, Littles, Beast

  Thomas Carlyle, Jane Welsh Carlyle (1909). “The Love Letters of Thomas Carlyle and Jane Welsh”

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• The Animals were their own worst enemy. The Animals were a band that couldnt live up to their name. I was the singer in the band and as long as I was enjoying myself I would keep on working with the band. But it got to be rather nasty once the big money showed up - things started to turn toxic.

  Eric Burdon

  Animal, Worst Enemy, Names

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• You listen to any monologue on late-night TV or just in general, to people talking, and there's always a joke at someone's expense. It's sarcasm; it's nasty. Kids grow up hearing that, and they think that's what humor is, and they think it's OK. But that negativity permeates the entire planet.

  Ellen DeGeneres

  Growing Up, Kids, Sarcasm

  "Ellen DeGeneres: Nice Girls Finish First". Interview with David Hochman, www.goodhousekeeping.com. September 10, 2011.

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• One of the keys to our present definition of good taste is that it is better to be kind than to be 'correct.' There is no situation in which it is smart to be nasty.

  Millicent Fenwick

  Smart, Keys, Definitions

  Millicent Fenwick (1948). “Vogue's book of etiquette: a complete guide to traditional forms and modern usage”

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• Enthusiasm for conservation can be fashioned into a nasty weapon for those who dislike business on general principles.

  William F. Buckley, Jr.

  Money, Business, Principles

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• As an actor, it's much, much easier to be really nasty to someone that you really like.

  Tom Hiddleston

  Actors, Easier

  "Thor - Tom Hiddleston interview". Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

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• A man was like a child with his appetites. A woman had to yield him what he wanted, or like a child he would probably turn nasty and flounce away and spoil what was a very pleasant connection.

  D. H. Lawrence

  Children, Men, Yield

  D. H. Lawrence, Michael Squires (2002). “Lady Chatterley's Lover and A Propos of 'Lady Chatterley's Lover'”, p.7, Cambridge University Press

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• As a girl, I was always told I was nasty or dirty if I was sexual in any way. Americans are such prudes.

  Jessica Alba

  Girl, Dirty, Prudes

  "Fantasy figure" by Allison Glock, www.theguardian.com. July 17, 2005.

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• The real tragedy of human existence is not that we are nasty by nature, but that a cruel structural asymmetry grants to rare events of meanness such power to shape our history.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Real, Rare Events, Tragedy

  Stephen Jay Gould (1993). “Eight little piggies: reflections in natural history”, Vintage

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• WESTBURY, a nasty odious rotten-borough, a really rotten place.

  William Cobbett

  Rotten

  1826 On Westbury, Wiltshire. Rural Rides (published 1830), entry for 3 Sep.

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• I have my detractors in Washington. There are bastards who spread things around, of course, who planted nasty things in the media. Not that I cared very much.

  Hans Blix

  Media, Spread, Courses

  "Blix: I Was Smeared by the Pentagon". Interview with Helena Smith, www.theguardian.com. June 11, 2003.

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• You may have noticed that Senator Obama’s supporters have been saying some pretty nasty things about Western Pennsylvania lately. And you know, I couldn’t agree with them more.

  John McCain

  Pennsylvania, May, Agree

  "McCain Fights to Keep Crucial Blue State in Play" by • Elisabeth Bumiller and Jeff Zeleny, www.nytimes.com. October 21, 2008.

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• [Vathek] has, in parts, been called, but to some judgments, never is, dull: it is certainly in parts, grotesque, extravagant and even nasty. But Beckford could plead sufficient "local colour" for it, and a contrast, again almost Shakespearean, between the flickering farce atrocities of the beginning and the sombre magnificence of the end. Beckford's claims, in fact, rest on the half-score or even half-dozen pages towards the end: but these pages are hard to parallel in the later literature of prose fiction.

  William Thomas Beckford

  Fiction, Half, Literature

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• War is smaller in scale than in recent memory, but it is far more ambiguous, intractable, and nasty. Money flows more quickly than ever, but it is still somehow manages to gather and puddle in certain places, for certain people rather then others.

  Mark Kingwell

  Memories, War, People

  "The World We Want: Restoring Citizenship in a Fractured Age". Book by Mark Kingwell, 2000.

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• A sort of moral blackmail is exerted from both poles. The underclass, one gathers, should be dulled with charity and welfare provision lest it turn nasty. The upper class must likewise be conciliated by vast handouts, lest it lose the "incentive" to go on generating wealth.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Class, Goes On, Charity

  Christopher Hitchens (2014). “Prepared for the Worst: Selected Essays and Minority Reports”, p.391, Atlantic Books Ltd

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• No problem, but just know that no one steals from Nero. He knows who you are and he will hunt you down and make you pay in ways you can’t imagine – including this whole brain squeeze thing he does that will leave you with a migraine so bad, you’ll wish you could bleed out your eyes to stop the pain. He’s nasty that way. (Syn)

  Sherrilyn Kenyon

  Pain, Eye, Brain

  Sherrilyn Kenyon (2009). “Born of Fire”, p.447, Macmillan

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• Stain Boy Of all the super heroes, the strangest one by far, doesn't have a special power, or drive a fancy car. next to Superman and batman, I guess he must seem tame. But to me he is quite special, and Stain Boy is his name. He can't fly around tall buildings, or outrun a speeding train, the only talent he seems to have is to leave a nasty stain. Sometimes I know it bothers him, that he can't run or swim or fly, and because of this one ability, his dry cleaning bill is sky-high.

  Tim Burton

  Running, Hero, Boys

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• Over the years, during television interviews, whenever the host or the reviewer or whoever gets cynical and nasty with me, I will behave accordingly. I will defend myself.

  John Lydon

  Years, Cynical, Television

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• He was seemingly born not only with a gift for language, but with a particularly nasty clock which makes him go crazy every three years or so.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Crazy, Years, Three

  Kurt Vonnegut (2009). “Bluebeard: A Novel”, p.209, Dial Press

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