C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917.
Contempt
Contempt leaves a deeper scar than anger.
Contempt is frequently regulated by fashion.
Those only are despicable who fear to be despised.
An Englishman fears contempt more than death.
O, what a deal of scorn looks beautiful in the contempt and anger of his lip!
None but the contemptible are apprehensive of contempt.
Who can refute a sneer?
Contempt is the only way to triumph over calumny.
I find my familiarity with thee has bred contempt.
Contemptuous people are sure to be contemptible.
Nothing, says Longinus, can be great, the contempt of which is great.
You may not despise any man, nor spurn anything.
Nothing so contemptible as habitual contempt.
Contempt putteth an edge upon anger more than the hurt itself.
Contempt is a kind of gangrene which, if it seizes one part of a character, corrupts all the rest by degrees.
No man can fall into contempt but those who deserve it.
There is no room in the universe for the least contempt or pride; but only for a gentle and a reverent heart.
The spirit of contempt is the true spirit of Antichrist; for no other is more directly opposed to Christ.
Christ saw much in this world to weep over, and much to pray over; but He saw nothing in it to look upon with contempt.
I have unlearned contempt; it is a sin that is engendered earliest in the soul, and doth beset it like a poison worm feeding on all its beauty.
It is often more necessary to conceal contempt than resentment; the former is never forgiven, but the latter is sometimes forgotten.
Speak with contempt of no man. Every one hath a tender sense of reputation. And every man hath a sting, which he may, if provoked too far, dart out at one time or other.
He who feels contempt for any living thing hath faculties that he hath never used, and thought with him is in its infancy.
If there be no great love in the beginning, yet heaven may decrease it upon better acquaintance, when we are married and have more occasion to know one another; I hope, upon familiarity will grow more contempt.
What valor were it, when a cur doth grin, for one to thrust his hand between his teeth, when he might spurn him with his foot away?
Contempt is not a thing to be despised. It may be borne with a calm and equal mind, but no man, by lifting his head high, can pretend that he does not perceive the scorns that are poured down on him from above.
There is no action in the behavior of one man toward another of which human nature is more impatient than of contempt, it being the undervaluing of a man upon a belief of his utter uselessness and inability.
Ah, there is nothing more beautiful than the difference between the thought about sinful creatures which is natural to a holy being, and the thought about sinful creatures which is natural to a self-righteous being. The one is all contempt; the other, all pity.
Wrongs are often forgiven, but contempt never is. Our pride remembers it forever. It implies a discovery of weaknesses, which we are much more careful to conceal than crimes. Many a man will confess his crimes to a common friend, but I never knew a man who would tell his silly weaknesses to his most intimate one.
Men are much more unwilling to have their weaknesses and their imperfections known than their crimes; and if you hint to a man that you think him silly, ignorant, or even ill-bred or awkward, he will hate you more and longer than if you tell him plainly that you think him a rogue.
Contempt of others is the truest symptom of a base and bad heart,—while it suggests itself to the mean and the vile, and tickles their little fancy on every occasion, it never enters the great and good mind but on the strongest motives; nor is it then a welcome guest,—affording only an uneasy sensation, and bringing always with it a mixture of concern and compassion.
Contempt naturally implies a man’s esteeming of himself greater than the person whom he contemns; he therefore that slights, that contemns an affront is properly superior to it; and he conquers an injury who conquers his resentments of it. Socrates, being kicked by an ass, did not think it a revenge proper for Socrates to kick the ass again.