Vulgarity Quotes - Page 3

• Vulgarity is, in reality, nothing but a modern, chic, pert descendant of the goddess Dullness.

  Edith Sitwell

  God, Reality, Vulgarity Is

  "Taken Care Of" by Edith Sitwell, (Ch. 19), 1965.

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• Today, when death and old age are increasingly concealed behind euphemisms and comforting baby talk, and life is threatened with being smothered in the mass consumption of hypnotic mechanized vulgarity, the need to confront man with the reality of his situation is greater than ever. For the dignity of man lies in his ability to face reality in all its senselessness; to accept it freely, without fear, without illusions - and to laugh at it.

  Martin Esslin

  Baby, Lying, Reality

  Martin Esslin (2009). “The Theatre of the Absurd”, p.429, Vintage

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• I never pump up my vulgarity. I wait for it to arrive in its own terms.

  Charles Bukowski

  Waiting, Pumps, Term

  Charles Bukowski (1978). “Women”

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• Minimalism is not a style, it is an attitude, a way of being. It’s a fundamental reaction against noise, visual noise, disorder, vulgarity. Minimalism is the pursuit of the essence of things, not the appearance.

  Claudio Silvestrin

  Attitude, Essence, Style

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• We all need a splash of bad taste. No taste is what I am against.

  Diana Vreeland

  Fashion, Needs, Taste

  Diana Vreeland (1997). “D.V.”

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• I feel with some passion that what we truly are is private, and almost infinitely complex, and ambiguous, and both external and internal, and double- or triple- or multiply natured, and largely mysterious even to ourselves; and furthermore that what we are is only part of us, because identity, unlike "identity", must include what we do. And I think that to find oneself and every aspect of this complexity reduced in the public mind to one property that apparently subsumes all the rest ("gay", "black", "Muslim", whatever) is to be the victim of a piece of extraordinary intellectual vulgarity.

  Philip Pullman

  Passion, Gay, Thinking

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• It is disgusting to pick your teeth; what is vulgar is to use a gold toothpick.

  Louis Kronenberger

  Gold, Use, Teeth

  Louis Kronenberger (1972). “A Mania for Magnificence”

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• Whenever a man is known to seek promotion by intrigue, by temporizing, or by resorting to the haunts of vulgarity and vice for support, it may be inferred, with moral certainty, that he is not a man of real respectability, nor is he entitled to public confidence.

  Noah Webster

  Real, Men, Support

  Noah Webster (1823). “Letters to a Young Gentleman Commencing His Education: To which is Subjoined a Brief History of the United States”, p.19

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• There is a point in portraying surface vulgarity where tragedy and comedy are very close.

  Barbara Stanwyck

  Vulgarity Is, Tragedy, Comedy

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• To anyone who has followed the practice of using profanity or vulgarity and would like to correct the habit, could I offer this suggestion? First, make the commitment to erase such words from your vocabulary. Next, if you slip and say a swear word or a substitute word, mentally reconstruct the sentence without the vulgarity or substitute word and repeat the new sentence aloud. Eventually you will develop a non-vulgar speech habit.

  L. Tom Perry

  Commitment, Vocabulary, Practice

  "Thy Speech Reveals Thee". L. Tom Perry's speech at the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City, Utah, www.lds.org. August 1986.

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• One is born with good taste. It's very hard to acquire. You can acquire the patina of taste. But what Elsie Mendl had was something else that's particularly American––an appreciation of vulgarity. Vulgarity is a very important ingredient in life. I'm a great believer in vulgarity––if it's got vitality. A little bad taste is like a nice splash of paprika. We all need a splash of bad taste––it's hearty, it's healthy, it's physical. I think we could use more of it. No taste is what I'm against.

  Diana Vreeland

  Appreciation, Nice, Thinking

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• Books are a refuge, a sort of cloistral refuge, from the vulgarities of the actual world.

  Walter Pater

  Book, World, Refuge

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• I like people who can make you laugh without using vulgarity, or bad words.

  Michael Jackson

  People, Laughing, Bad Word

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• Greed is really the religion of vulgarity.

  Massimo Vignelli

  Greed

  Source: bigthink.com

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• Those who are addicted to the phrase "to use a vulgarism" expect to achieve the feat of being at once vulgar and superior to vulgarity.

  Henry Watson Fowler

  Phrases, Use, Achieve

  Henry Watson Fowler (1994). “A Dictionary of Modern English Usage”, p.352, Wordsworth Editions

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• Luck often raises vulgarity to a high position, to create mirth for the beholders.

  Juvenal

  Luck, Mirth, Beholder

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• To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never to forget.

  Arundhati Roy

  Life, Sad, Romantic

  Arundhati Roy (2002). “The Algebra of Infinite Justice”, p.24, Penguin Books India

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• Words have basic inalienable meanings, departure from which is either conscious metaphor or inexcusable vulgarity.

  Evelyn Waugh

  Writing, Departure, Metaphor

  Evelyn Waugh (2012). “A Little Learning: The First Volume of an Autobiography”, p.128, Penguin UK

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• Every characteristic absence of spirituality, every piece of common vulgarity, is due to an inability to resist a stimulus - you have to react, you follow every impulse.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Vulgarity Is, Inability, Pieces

  Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Aaron Ridley, Judith Norman (2005). “Nietzsche: The Anti-Christ, Ecce Homo, Twilight of the Idols: And Other Writings”, p.190, Cambridge University Press

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• Mock jewelry on a woman is tangible vulgarity.

  Bayard Taylor

  Tangible, Taste, Jewelry

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• Silence is the safest response for all the contradiction that arises from impertinence, vulgarity, or envy.

  Johann Georg Ritter von Zimmermann

  Envy, Silence, Contradiction

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• Fashion is gentility running away from vulgarity and afraid of being overtaken

  William Hazlitt

  Running, Fashion, Gentility

  William Hazlitt (1856). “Criticisms on Art”, p.92

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• There is in the world only the choice between loneliness and vulgarity. All young people should be taught now to put up with loneliness ... because the less man is compelled to come into contact with others, the better off he is.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Loneliness, Men, People

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• Vulgarity is setting store by the things which are seen.

  Sydney, Lady Morgan

  Vulgarity Is, Stores, Settings

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• When you look on one of your contemporary 'good copies' of historical remains, ask yourself the question: Not what style, but in what civilization is this building? And the absurdity, vulgarity, anachronism and solecism of the modern structure will be revealed to you in a most startling fashion.

  Louis Sullivan

  Fashion, Civilization, Historical

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