Insulting Quotes - Page 2

... where the Greeks had modesty, we have cant; where they had poetry, we have cant; where they had patriotism, we have cant; where they had anything that exalts, delights, or adorns humanity, we have nothing but cant, cant, cant.

Sometimes the poor are praised for being thrifty. But to recommend thrift to the poor is both grotesque and insulting. It is like advising a man who is starving to eat less.

Think twice before you speak, and then you may be able to say something more insulting than if you spoke right out at once.

Self-censorship is insulting to the self. Timidity is a hopeless way forward.

Brains aren't everything. In fact in your case they're nothing.

A family with the wrong members in control; that, perhaps, is as near as one can come to describing England in a phrase.

In Germany democracy died by the headman's axe. In Britain it can be by pernicious anaemia.

Freedom of discussion is in England little else than the right to write or say anything which a jury of twelve shopkeepers think it expedient should be said or written.

When I was a boy, I was taught never to use insulting expressions like, 'I've been gypped,' or, 'He welshed on the deal.'

About one thing the Englishman has a particularly strict code. If a bird says Cluk bik bik bik bik and caw you may kill it, eat it or ask Fortnums to pickle it in Napoleon brandy with wild strawberries. If it says tweet it is a dear and precious friend and you'd better lay off it if you want to remain a member of Boodles.

The English have an extraordinary ability for flying into a great calm.

Television bosses should stop insulting the public's intelligence by assuming we are all idiots.

Atheists are often charged with blasphemy, but it is a crime they cannot commit... When the Atheist examines, denounces, or satirises the gods, he is not dealing with persons but with ideas. He is incapable of insulting God, for he does not admit the existence of any such being... We attack not a person but a belief, not a binge but an idea, not a fact but a fancy.

It pays in England to be a revolutionary and a bible-smacker most of one's life, and then come round.

All Englishmen talk as if they've got a bushel of plums stuck in their throats, and then after swallowing them get constipated from the pips.

Thirty millions, mostly fools.

The English public takes no interest in a work of art until it is told that the work in question is immoral.

I found it hugely insulting that people believed I'd go so far out of my way - living with Playmates, vacationing with actresses, showing up at nightclubs - to act out a lifestyle that would amount to a charade. If I was gay, I'd be gay all the way.

I'm healthy as an ox. And you?" "To compare myself with a bovine would be both ridiculous and insulting, but I'm fit as ever, if that is what you are asking.

The pedestal is immobilizing and subtly insulting whether or not some women yet realize it. We must move up from the pedestal.

You will find out that Charity is a heavy burden to carry, heavier than the kettle of soup and the full basket. But you will keep your gentleness and your smile. It is not enough to give soup and bread. This the rich can do. You are the servant of the poor, always smiling and good-humored. They are your masters, terribly sensitive and exacting master you will see. And the uglier and the dirtier they will be, the more unjust and insulting, the more love you must give them. It is only for your love alone that the poor will forgive you the bread you give to them.

Honesty has come to mean the privilege of insulting you to your face without expecting redress.

The two sides of industry have traditionally always regarded each other in Britain with the greatest possible loathing, mistrust and contempt. They are both absolutely right.

If you can speak about what you care about to a person you disagree with without denigrating them or insulting them, then you may actually be heard.

The American has no language, he has a dialect, slang, provincialism, accent and so forth