Offence Quotes - Page 7

• There is no talent so useful toward rising in the world, or which puts men more out of the reach of fortune, than that quality generally possessed by the dullest sort of men, and in common speech called discretion; a species of lower prudence, by the assistance of which, people of the meanest intellectuals, without any other qualification, pass through the world in great tranquillity, and with universal good treatment, neither giving nor taking offence.

  Jonathan Swift

  Men, People, Giving

  Jonathan Swift (1856). “The Works of Jonathan Swift ...: Containing Interesting and Valuable Papers, Not Hitherto Published ... With Memoir of the Author”, p.206

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is nothing so charming as the knowledge of literature; of that branch of literature, I mean, which enables us to discover the infinity of things, the immensity of Nature, the heavens, the earth, and the seas; this is that branch which has taught us religion, moderation, magnanimity, and that has rescued the soul from obscurity; to make her see all things above and below, first and last, and between both; it is this that furnishes us wherewith to live well and happily, and guides us to pass our lives without displeasure and without offence.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Knowledge, Mean, Sea

  6 Copy quote

• I think the origin of all this clamour for tonality is not so much the need to sense a relationship to the tonic, as a need for familiar chords: let us be frank and say "for the triad"; and I believe I have good reason to say that just so long as a certain kind of music contains enough such triads, it causes no offence, even if in other ways it most violently clashes with the sacred laws of tonality.

  Alban Berg

  Believe, Thinking, Law

  "Schoenberg: A Critical Biography". Book by Willi Reich, p. 34, 1971.

  52 Copy quote

  Show source

• Everything written, if it has anything in it, will offend someone, and if the mere taking of offence was to amount to a licence to kill the offender, well the world would be sadly underpopulated of novelists, columnists, bloggers, and the writers of editorials.

  Rex Murphy

  Novelists, Would Be, World

  9 Copy quote

• The law of England is much more severe upon offences against property than against the person, as becomes a people whose ruling passion is money.

  H. Rider Haggard

  Passion, Law, People

  H. Rider Haggard (2015). “Allan Quatermain: Mystery & Adventure Story”, p.115, 谷月社

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• English law in 1572 decreed that beggars above 14 years of age are to be severely flogged and branded on the left ear unless some one will take them into service for two years; in case of a repetition of the offense, if they are over 18, they are to be executed, unless some one will take them into service for two years; but for the third offence they are to be executed without mercy as felons.

  Karl Marx

  Years, Law, Two

  7 Copy quote

• Were we to think more of our own mistakes and offences, we should be less apt to judge other people.

  Matthew Henry

  Mistake, Thinking, People

  Matthew Henry, Leslie F. Church (1992). “The NIV Matthew Henry Commentary in One Volume: Based on the Broad Oak Edition”, p.8397, Harper Collins

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Offence is important; that's how you know you care about things. Imagine a life where you're not offended. So dull.

  Marcus Brigstocke

  Important, Care, Dull

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

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• We have come to think of taking offence as a fundamental right. We value very little more highly than our rage, which gives us, in our opinion, the moral high ground. From there we can shoot down at our enemies and inflict heavy fatalities.

  Salman Rushdie

  Thinking, Moral High Ground, Giving

  "Raging from the moral highground" by Ian Sansom, www.theguardian.com. August 11, 2000.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is no gospel without the offence. This is God's wisdom. It never seems sensible to us in our flesh.

  Mark Dever

  Flesh, Sensible, Seems

  Source: matthiasmedia.com

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Your accumulated offences do not surpass the multitude of God's mercies: your wounds do not surpass the great Physician's skill.

  Cyril of Jerusalem

  God, Christian, Religious

  99 Copy quote

• The crime of bribery of foreign officials is an offence under the Commonwealth Criminal Code.

  George Brandis

  Criminals, Crime, Code

  Source: thebriefonline.atavist.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Sometimes, I, anyway, get tired of playing defence, and like to play offence.

  Bill McKibben

  Tired, Play, Sometimes

  Source: www.opendemocracy.net

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Cooper's art has some defects. In one place in 'Deerslayer,' and in the restricted space of two-thirds of a page, Cooper has scored 114 offences against literary art out of a possible 115. It breaks the record.

  Mark Twain

  Art, Two, Space

  Mark Twain (2014). “Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses”, p.4, The Floating Press

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I thank God I am not a woman, to be touched in so many giddy offences as He hath generally taxed their whole their whole sex withal.

  William Shakespeare

  Sex, Thank God, Giddy

  4 Copy quote

• He that resigns his peace to little casualties, and suffers the course of his life to be interrupted for fortuitous inadvertencies or offences, delivers up himself to the direction of the wind, and loses all that constancy and equanimity which constitutes the chief praise of a wise man.

  Samuel Johnson

  Wise, Men, Wind

  Samuel Johnson (1793). “The Rambler”, p.254

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Truly upon mortals cometh swift of foot their evil and his offence upon him that trespasseth against Right.

  Aeschylus

  Feet, Evil, Mortals

  Aeschylus (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Aeschylus (Illustrated)”, p.317, Delphi Classics

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Other offences, even the greatest, are the violation of one law: despotism is the violation of all.

  Walter Savage Landor

  Law, Despotism, Violation

  Walter Savage Landor (1826). “Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen”, p.60

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• I think of the company advertising "Thought Processors" or the college pretending that learning BASIC suffices or at least helps, whereas the teaching of BASIC should be rated as a criminal offence: it mutilates the mind beyond recovery.

  Edsger Dijkstra

  Teaching, Recovery, College

  "The threats to computing science". Edsger Dijkstra remarks at ACM South Central Regional Conference, www.cs.utexas.edu. November 16-18, 1984.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Citizens who take it upon themselves to do unusual actions which attract the attention of the police should be careful to bring these actions into one of the recognized categories of crimes and offences, for it is intolerable that the police should be put to the pains of inventing reasons for finding them undesirable.

  A. P. Herbert

  Pain, Police, Citizens

  "Uncommon Law". Book by A. P. Herbert. Chapter "Is It a Free Country?", 1935.

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Even bear-baiting was esteemed heathenish and unchristian: the sport of it, not the inhumanity, gave offence.

  Alexander Hume

  Sports, Bears, Unchristian

  12 Copy quote

• Those who offend us are generally punished for the offence they give; but we so frequently miss the satisfaction of knowing that we are avenged !.

  Anthony Trollope

  Knowing, Giving, Missing

  Anthony Trollope (2016). “Anthony Trollope: The Chronicles of Barsetshire & The Palliser Novels (Unabridged): The Warden + The Barchester Towers + Doctor Thorne + Framley Parsonage + The Small House at Allington + The Last Chronicle of Barset + Can You Forgive Her? + The Prime Minister + Eustace Diamonds...”, p.1927, e-artnow (Open Publishing)

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Since trifles make the sum of human things, And half our misery from our foibles springs; Since life's best joys consist in peace and ease, And though but few can serve, yet all may please; On, let th' ungentle spirit learn from hence, A small unkindness is a great offence.

  Hannah More

  Spring, Joy, Ease

  Hannah More (1835). “The works of Hannah More”, p.380

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• All zeal for a reform, that gives offence To peace and charity, is mere pretence.

  William Cowper

  Giving, Reform, Charity

  William Cowper (1872). “Table talk, Truth, Expostulation, Hope, Charity, and other poems”, p.108

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Indulgent gods, grant me to sin once with impunity. That is sufficient. Let a second offence bear its punishment.

  Ovid

  Punishment, Bears, Sin

  7 Copy quote