Vulgarity is the rich man’s modest contribution to democracy.
—Unknown
I’ve tried to reduce profanity but I reduced so much profanity when writing the book that I’m afraid not much could come out. Perhaps we will have to consider it simply as a profane book and hope that the next book will be less profane or perhaps more sacred.
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American Author, Journalist, Short Story Writer
A whoreson jackanapes must take me up for swearing; as if I borrowed mine oaths of him and might not spend them at my pleasure. When a gentleman is disposed to swear, it is not for any standers-by to curtail his oaths, ha?
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Ill deeds are doubled with an evil word; the sting of a reproach is the truth of it.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Ethelberta breathed a sort of exclamation, not right out, but stealthily, like a parson’s damn.
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) English Novelist, Poet
Vulgarity is more obvious in satin than in homespun.
—Nathaniel Parker Willis (1806–67) American Poet, Playwright, Essayist
Vulgarity is the garlic in the salad of taste.
—Cyril Connolly (1903–74) British Literary Critic, Writer
It’s only with great vulgarity that you can achieve real refinement, only out of bawdy that you can get tenderness.
—Lawrence Durrell (1912–90) British Biographer, Poet, Playwright, Novelist
Obscenity is whatever happens to shock some elderly and ignorant magistrate.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
Nothing is a greater, or more fearful sacrilege than to prostitute the great name of God to the petulancy of an idle tongue.
—Jeremy Taylor
Common swearing, if it have any serious meaning at all, argues in man a perpetual distrust of his own reputation, and is an acknowledgment that he thinks his bare word not to be worthy of credit. And it is so far from adorning and filling a man’s discourse, that it makes it look swollen and bloated, and more bold and blustering than becomes persons of genteel and good breeding.
—John Tillotson
Obscenity, which is ever blasphemy against the divine beauty in life… is a monster for which the corruption of society forever brings forth new food, which it devours in secret.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Poet, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist
There are no people who are quite so vulgar as the over-refined.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
‘Twas but my tongue, ’twas not my soul that swore.
—Euripides (480–406 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
Profanity is both an unreasonable and an unmanly sin, a violation alike of good taste and good morals; an offence against both man and God.—Some sins are productive of temporary profit or pleasure; but profaneness is productive of nothing unless it be shame on earth, and damnation in hell. It is the most gratuitous of all kinds of wickedness—a sort of pepper-corn acknowledgment of the sovereignty of the devil over those who indulge it.
—Tryon Edwards (1809–94) American Theologian, Author
Not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, does the enlightened man dislike to wade into its waters.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
It chills my blood to hear the blest Supreme rudely appealed to on each trifling theme.—Maintain your rank, vulgarity despise.—To swear is neither brave, polite, nor wise.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
Very notable was his distinction between coarseness and vulgarity, coarseness, revealing something; vulgarity, concealing something.
—E. M. Forster (1879–1970) English Novelist, Short Story Writer, Essayist
Shocking writing is like murder: the questions the jury must decide are the questions of motive and intent.
—E. B. White (1985–99) American Essayist, Humorist
Profaneness is a brutal vice.—He who indulges in it is no gentleman.—I care not what his stamp may be in society, or what clothes he wears, or what culture he boasts.—Despite all his refinement, the light and habitual taking of God’s name in vain, betrays a coarse and brutal will.
—Edwin Hubbell Chapin (1814–80) American Preacher, Poet
Grant me some wild expressions, Heavens, or I shall burst.
—George Farquhar (1677–1707) Irish Dramatist
A thing is not vulgar merely because it is common
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
My English text is chaste, and all licentious passages are left in the obscurity of a learned language.
—Edward Gibbon (1737–94) English Historian, Politician
To endeavor to work upon the vulgar with fine sense is like attempting to hew blocks with a razor.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
Think with the wise, but talk with the vulgar.
—Greek Proverb
Obscenity is a cleansing process, whereas pornography only adds to the murk.
—Henry Miller (1891–1980) American Novelist
The higher a man stands, the more the word “vulgar” becomes unintelligible to him.
—John Ruskin (1819–1900) English Writer, Art Critic
It comes to pass oft that a terrible oath, with a swaggering accent sharply twanged off, gives manhood more approbation than ever proof itself would have earned him.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
The sign of a Philistine age is the cry of immorality against art.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Here is the piece. If you can’t say fornicate can you say copulate or if not that can you say co-habit?. If not that would have to say consummate I suppose. Use your own good taste and judgment.
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American Author, Journalist, Short Story Writer
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