C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917.
Sarcasm
Sarcasm poisons reproof.
Sarcasm, I now see to be, in general, the language of the devil.
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.
At the best, sarcasms, bitter irony, scathing wit, are a sort of sword-play of the mind. You pink your adversary, and he is forthwith dead; and then you deserve to be hung for it.
He that cometh to seek after knowledge with a mind to scorn and censure shall be sure to find matter for his humor, but none for his instruction.
He who rests satisfied in merely defending himself against sarcasm and abuse is always a loser.
A true sarcasm is like a sword-stick; it appears, at first sight, to be much more innocent than it really is, till, all of a sudden, there leaps something out of it—sharp and deadly and incisive—which makes you tremble and recoil.