Sneer Quotes

• Never be a cynic, even a gentle one. Never help out a sneer, even at the devil.

  Vachel Lindsay

  Devil, Helping, Cynicism

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• What looks like enjoyment is the sneer of contempt. That's not a smile.

  Jack Kevorkian

  Smile, Looks, Enjoyment

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• The poorest way to face life is to face it with a sneer.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Way, Faces, Life Is

  Citizenship in a Republic - The Man in the Arena, delivered 23 April 1910, Le Sorbonne, University of Paris

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• A sneer is the weapon of the weak.

  James Russell Lowell

  Criticism, Weapons, Weak

  James Russell Lowell (1845). “Conversations on Some of the Old Poets”, p.56

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• It's one thing to be a high achiever; it's quite another to privately sneer at your girlfriend's friends after feigning friendliness because they have the "misfortune" to drive a bus for a living.

  Mallory Ortberg

  Girlfriend, Bus, Achiever

  "I Think She's in Love". Live chat, www.slate.com. February 2, 2016.

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• A sneer is like a flame; it may occasionally be curative because it cauterizes, but it leaves a bitter scar.

  Margaret Deland

  Positive, Flames, May

  Margaret Deland (2015). “The Awakening of Helena Richie”, p.230, The Floating Press

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• Have charity; have patience; have mercy. Never bring a human being, however silly, ignorant, or weak--above all, any little child--to shame and confusion of face. Never by petulance, by suspicion, by ridicule, even by selfish and silly haste--never, above all, by indulging in the devilish pleasure of a sneer--crush what is finest and rouse up what is coarsest in the heart of any fellow-creature.

  Charles Kingsley

  Crush, Children, Selfish

  Charles Kingsley (2008). “Daily Thoughts (EasyRead Super Large 18pt Edition)”, p.253, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• The most insignificant people are the most apt to sneer at others. They are safe from reprisals. And have no hope of rising in their own self esteem but by lowering their neighbors.

  William Hazlitt

  Hope, Self Esteem, People

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• . . .this prayer I make, Knowing that Nature never did betray The heart that loved her; 't is her privilege, Through all the years of this our life, to lead From joy to joy: for she can so inform The mind that is within us, so impress With quietness and beauty, and so feed With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues, Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men, Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all The dreary intercourse of daily life, Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturb Our cheerful faith, that all which we behold Is full of blessings.

  William Wordsworth

  Nature, Kindness, Prayer

  William Wordsworth (1992). “Favorite Poems”, p.24, Courier Corporation

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• We can never sneer at the stars, mock the dawn, or scoff at the totality of being.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Stars, Dawn, Mock

  Abraham Joshua Heschel (1976). “Man Is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion”, p.25, Macmillan

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• Were it not for the Clash, punk would have been just a sneer, a safety pin and a pair of bondage trousers.

  Billy Bragg

  Safety Pins, Pairs, Punk

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• When you stay in your room and rage or sneer or shrug your shoulders, as I did for many years, the world and its problems are impossibly daunting. But when you go out and put yourself in real relation to real people, or even just real animals, there’s a very real danger that you might end up loving some of them. And who knows what might happen to you then?

  Jonathan Franzen

  Real, Animal, Years

  FaceBook post by Jonathan Franzen from Apr 06, 2012

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• The world goes up and the world goes down, the sunshine follows the rain; and yesterday's sneer and yesterday's frown can never come over again.

  Charles Kingsley

  Change, Nature, Travel

  Charles Kingsley (2008). “Andromeda and Other Poems: Easyread Super Large 18pt Edition”, p.111, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• The most durable thing in writing is style, and style is the single most valuable investment a writer can make with his time.

  Raymond Chandler

  Writing, Style, Investment

  Raymond Chandler, Dorothy Gardiner, Kathrine Sorley Walker (1977). “Raymond Chandler Speaking”, p.75, Univ of California Press

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• It is generally the man who is not ready to argue, who is ready to sneer.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Men, Arguing, Apologetic

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• Most runners run not because they want to live longer, but because they want to live life to the fullest.

  Haruki Murakami

  Running, Live Life, Endurance

  "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running". Book by Haruki Murakami, October 15, 2007.

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• My general theory since 1971 has been that the word is literally a virus, and that it has not been recognized as such because it has achieved a state of relatively stable symbiosis with its human host; that is to say, the word virus (the other Half) has established itself so firmly as an accepted part of the human organism that it can now sneer at gangster viruses like smallpox and turn them in to the Pasteur Institute.

  William S. Burroughs

  Past, Viruses, Half

  William S. Burroughs (2013). “The Adding Machine”, p.59, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• We no longer dare to believe in beauty and we make of it a mere appearance in order the more easily to dispose of it. Our situation today shows that beauty demands for itself at least as much courage and decision as do truth and goodness, and she will not allow herself to be separated and banned from her two sisters without taking them along with herself in an act of mysterious vengeance. We can be sure that whoever sneers at her name as if she were the ornament of a bourgeois past -- whether he admits it or not -- can no longer pray and soon will no longer be able to love.

  Hans Urs von Balthasar

  Believe, Past, Order

  Hans Urs von Balthasar (1982). “Glory of the Lord VOL 1: Seeing The Form”, p.18, A&C Black

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• The present is no more exempt from the sneer of the future than the past has been.

  Cassius Jackson Keyser

  Past, Has Beens

  Cassius Jackson Keyser (1927). “Mole Philosophy & Other Essays”

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• Remind me one day to teach you how to achieve a sneer, Hugh. Yours is too pronounced, and thus but a grimace. It should be but a faint curl of the lips.

  Georgette Heyer

  One Day, Curls, Lips

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• So often do you see collegians enter life with high resolve and lofty purpose and then watch them shrink and shrink to sordid, selfish, shrewd plodders, full of distrust and sneers.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Selfish, Learning, Watches

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• Never trust a species that grins all the time. It’s up to something.

  Terry Pratchett

  Trust, Pyramids, Smirk

  "Pyramids" by Terry Pratchett, Harper, (p. 171), January 2008.

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• A sneer is the weapon of the weak. Like other devil's weapons, it is always cunningly ready to our hand, and there is more poison in the handle than in the point.

  James Russell Lowell

  Hands, Devil, Poison

  James Russell Lowell (1846). “Conversations on Some of the Old Poets”, p.58

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• It is remarkable by how much a pinch of malice enhances the penetrating power of an idea or an opinion. Our ears, it seems, are wonderfully attuned to sneers and evil reports about our fellow men.

  Eric Hoffer

  Men, Ideas, Evil

  Eric Hoffer (1955). “The passionate state of mind, and other aphorisms”

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• A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a quip and worried to death by a frown on the right person's brow. When innovations are in the exploration stage, they need a champion to take them through the rest of the developmental stages. Otherwise the bureaucracy, politics, and people who can only see the fledgling and potential innovation through today's glasses will smother it or let it quietly die from malnourishment.

  Charles Bowers

  Change, Glasses, Ideas

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