There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all argument and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance. This principle is contempt prior to examination.
—Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) English Polymath, Philosopher, Sociologist, Political Theorist
I love Wagner, but the music I prefer is that of a cat hung up by its tail outside a window and trying to stick to the panes of glass with its claws.
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–67) French Poet, Art Critic, Essayist, Translator
Just the omission of Jane Austen’s books alone would make a fairly good library out of a library that hadn’t a book in it.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Slander cannot destroy the man … when the flood recedes, the rock is there.
—Chinese Proverb
If a man could say nothing against a character but what he can prove, history could not be written.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Calumny is only the noise of madmen.
—Diogenes Laertius (f.3rd Century CE) Biographer of the Greek Philosophers
I have no right, by anything I do or say, to demean a human being in his own eyes. What matters is not what I think of him; it is what he thinks of himself. To undermine a man’s self-respect is a sin.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900–44) French Novelist, Aviator
There is nothing that people bear more impatiently, or forgive less, than contempt: and an injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult.
—Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) English Statesman, Man of Letters
Obscenity is whatever happens to shock some elderly and ignorant magistrate.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.
—Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Rome, Stoic Philosopher
It is a strange desire, to seek power and lose liberty, or to seek power over others and to lose power over a man’s self. The rising unto place is laborious, and by pains men come to greater pains, and it is sometimes base; and by indignities men come to dignities. The standing is slippery, and the regress is either a downfall or at least an eclipse, which is a melancholy thing.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
Write your injuries in dust, your benefits in marble.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
You will find that silence or very gentle words are the most exquisite revenge for insult.
—Indian Proverb
He who puts up with insult invites injury.
—Yiddish Proverb
A slander is like a hornet; if you can’t kill it dead the first time, better not strike at it.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) (1818–85) American Humorist, Author, Lecturer
She looked as if she had been poured into her clothes and had forgotten to say ‘when.’
—P. G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) British Novelist, Short-story Writer, Playwright
Insults should be well avenged or well endured.
—Scottish Proverb
Our disputants put me in mind of the cuttlefish that, when he is unable to extricate himself, blackens the water about him till he becomes invisible.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
To vilify a great man is the readiest way in which a little man can himself attain greatness.
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–49) American Poet
When any one has offended me, I try to raise my soul so high that the offense cannot reach it.
—Rene Descartes (1596–1650) French Mathematician, Philosopher
Backbite: To “speak of a man as you find him” when he can’t find you.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
Oppression is more easily borne than insult.
—Junius Unidentified English Writer
The habit of sneering marks the egotist, the fool, or the knave, or all three.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801) Swiss Theologian, Poet
Insults are the arguments employed by those who are in the wrong.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) Swiss-born French Philosopher
It is a weakness of your human nature to hate those whom you have wronged.
—Tacitus (56–117) Roman Orator, Historian
He who does not shield himself from vilification receives it.
—Arabic Proverb
It is often better not to see an insult than to avenge it.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
What is said of a man is nothing. The point is, who says it.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Be thou chaste as ice, and pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Man is much more sensitive to the contempt of others than to self-contempt.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
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