# Despise

Despise means to regard with contempt or scorn, to look down upon with disfavor; to contemn; to disdain; to have a low opinion or contemptuous dislike of.
Arranged alphabetically by author or source: A · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · J · K · L · M · N · O · P · Q · R · S · T · U · V · W · X · Y · Z · Anon · External links · See also · External links

## A

* Despise not death, but welcome it, for nature wills it like all else.
** Marcus Aurelius, in Lessons from Sedona: A Spiritual Pathway to Serenity and Contentment: Volume ..., p. 482.

## B

* What these thinkers despise in the man of study is precisely the man who lays no foundations, who does not conquer, who does not predicate the capture of its environment by the species, or who, if he does predicate it, as the scientist does by his discoveries...
** Julien Benda, in The Betrayal of the Intellectuals: (La Trahison Des Clercs), p. 118.
* God knows that we should not despise anything. We must do our best
** Georges Bernanos, La joie (Joy) p. 28 (1929).
* For centuries the leaders of Christian thought spoke of women as a necessary evil, and the greatest saints of the Church are those who despise women the most.
** Annie Besant, in The Freethinker's Text Book: Christianity: Its Evidences, Its Origin, Its ..., p. 262.
* I believe that to have interfered as I have done—as I have always freely admitted I have done—in behalf of His despised poor, was not wrong, but right.
** John Brown (abolitionist), in John Brown: The Oxford W. E. B. Du Bois, p. 156.

## C

* I despise the kind of existence that clings to the miserly trifles of comfort and self-interest. I think that a man should not live beyond the age when he begins to deteriorate, when the flame that lighted the brightest movement of his life has weakened.
** Fidel Castro, in The New Penguin Dictionary of Modern Quotations, p. 291.
* If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.
** Noam Chomsky, in What Liberals Believe: Thousands of Quotes on Why America Needs to Be ..., p. 26.
* Do not despise it when it is naked. Do not honor it in church with silk vestments while outside it is naked and numb with cold.
** John Chrysostom, in World Literature: Cultural Influences of Early to Contemporary Voices, p. 34.
* Great is the power of habit. It teaches us to bear fatigue and to despise wounds and pain.
** Marcus Tullius Cicero, in Dictionary of Latin Quotations Proverbs Maximus and Mottos, Classical and ..., p. 212
* All strange and terrible events are welcome, but comforts we despise.
** Cleopatra, in Shakespeare and Dickens: The Dynamics of Influence, p. 266.
* We often pretend to fear what we really despise, and more often despise what we really fear.
** Charles Caleb Colton, in Quotes about Fear, p. 8.
* Many speak the truth when they say that they despise riches, but they mean the riches possessed by others.
** Charles Caleb Colton, in Miss Tonks Turns to Crime, p. 22.
* If perchance there should be foolish speakers who, together with those ignorant of all mathematics, will take it upon themselves to decide concerning these things, and because of some place in the Scriptures wickedly distorted to their purpose, should dare to assail this my work, they are of no importance to me, to such an extent do I despise their judgment as rash.
** Nicolaus Copernicus, in The metaphysical foundations of modern physical science, p. 39.
* I find this only good, to love the Lord and his poor despised people, to do for them and to be ready to suffer with them.
** Oliver Cromwell, in The King and the Gentleman: Charles Stuart and Oliver Cromwell, 1599-1649, p. 364.
* Despise me not, For if I was swarthy once. Thou canst regard me now ; Since Thou hast regarded me, Grace and beauty hast Thou given me.
** Fr. John of the Cross, in The Complete Works of Saint John of the Goss of the Ordor of Our Lady of ..., quoted by Joan de la Creu p. 175.

## D

* I am often accused of expressing contempt and despising religious people. I don’t despise religious people, I despise what they stand for. I like, I like to quote the British journalist Johann Hari [?], who said, ‘I have no contempt for you,’ sorry, ‘I have so much respect for you, that I cannot respect your ridiculous ideas.
** Richard Dawkins, in The Hypocrisy of Richard Dawkins - Reasons for God
* Others sense their own laws within them; things are forbidden to them that every honorable man will do any day in the year and other things are allowed to them that are generally despised?
** Demian, in Some of My Best Friends are Books: Guiding Gifted Readers from Preschool to .., Judith Wynn Halsted, p. 262.
* We avenge intellect when we dupe a fool, and it is a victory not to be despised for a fool is covered with steel and it is often very hard to find his vulnerable part.
** Jacques Casanova De Seingalt, in Childhood, p. 49.
* Throughout life, our worst weaknesses and meannesses are usually committed for the sake of the people whom we most despise.
** Charles Dickens, in Faulks on Fiction (Includes 3 Vintage Classics): Great British Snobs and the .., p. 17.
* To supervise people, you must either surpass them in their accomplishments or despise them.
** Benjamin Disraeli, in Quotes about Management, p. 4.
* Because you love me I have much achieved, Had you despised me then I must have failed, But since I knew you trusted and believed, I could not disappoint you and so prevailed.
** Paul Laurence Dunbar, in The Collected Poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar, p. 238.

## F

* She laughs at everything you say. Why? Because she has fine teeth If what most men admire, they would despise, 'T would look as if mankind were growing [[wise. The Sun never repents of the good he does, nor does he ever demand a recompence. An old young man, will be a young old man.
** Benjamin Franklin, in Poor Richard's almanac for 1850-52

## G

* Wisdom stands at the turn in the road and calls upon us publicly, but we consider it false and despise its adherents.
** Khalil Gibran, in What Has Wisdom Got to Do with It? - 365 Daily Wisdom Confessions and ..., p. 85.

## H

* Others sense their own laws within them; things are forbidden to them that every honorable man will do any day in the year and other things are allowed to them that are generally despised?
** Hermann Hesse, in Some of My Best Friends are Books: Guiding Gifted Readers from Preschool to ... p. 462.
* When the Head and the members are despised, then the Whole Christ is despised, for the Whole Christ, Head and body, is that just man against whom deceitful lips speak.
** Saint Augustine of Hippo, in Experience Grace in Abundance: Ten Strategies for Your Spiritual Life, p. 124.
* This doctrine raises social life, inasmuch as it teaches us to hate no man, neither to despise, to deride, to envy, or to be angry with any.
** Glyn Lloyd-Hughes, in Essential Squashed Philosophers.

## I

* The prospects of a happier society are wrapped up in this despised and neglected truth, the very statement which will, at the present time (I well know) appear ridiculous to the accepted instructors of the people.
** David Icke, in It Doesn't Have to be Like this: Green Politics Explained, p. 126.
* They have created a people who do not know their own culture, but still are ready to despise it. They know nothing about Islam but say bad things about it. They cannot understand a simple poem but criticize it with.
** Islam, in The Light, Volumes 14-15, p. 11.

## J

* From the perspective of those who are entitled, the problems begin when those they despise do not go along with — and have the power and wherewithal to not go along with – the perceived entitlement.
** Derrick Jensen, in The Culture of Make Believe, p. 106.
* Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Mammon.
** Jesus (Luke: 16:13), in The Third Covenant of Jesus Christ, p. 421.
* I shall listen with great pleasure, for I too am not one to despise myths, and I am far from rejecting those that have the right tendency; indeed I am of the same opinion as you and your admired, or rather the universally admired, Plato.
** Julian (emperor), in The Works of the Emperor Julian, Volume 2, p. 345.

## K

* People like leaders who look like they are dominant, optimistic, friendly to their friends, and quick on the trigger when it comes to enemies. They like boldness and despise the appearance of timidity and protracted doubt.
** Daniel Kahneman, in A Gripe With Behavioral Economics

## L

* They despise the immediate as trivial; I know that it is trivial, but cherish rather than despise it — because everything, including infinity itself, is trivial.
** Howard Phillips Lovecraft, et al, in Essential Solitude: The Letters of H. P. Lovecraft and August Derleth, p. 288.
* In ordinary life, nothing is truly great which it is great to despise; wealth, honor, reputation, absolute power — anything in short which has a lot of external trappings.
** Longinus, in Classical and medieval literary criticism: translations and interpretations, p. 195.

## M

* The attempt to force human beings to despise themselves is what I call hell.
** André Malraux, in Charlie Kaufman: Confessions of an Original Mind, p. 49.
* Do you know what a soldier is, young man? He's the chap who makes it possible for civilised folk to despise war.
** Allan Massie, in A Question of Loyalties, p. 30.
* If I were dropped out of a plane into the ocean and told the nearest land was a thousand miles away, I'd still swim. And I'd despise the one who gave up.
** Abraham Maslow, in A History of Psychology: A Global Perspective, p. 431.
* You will never fulfill your destiny doing work you despise.
** John C. Maxwell, in The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth: Live Them and Reach Your Potential, p. 23.
* Legitimized love always despises its easygoing brother Like all women, being very fond of indigestible things Presence of a woman, that sovereign inspiration Spirit of order and arithmetic in the business house Subtleties of expression to describe the most improper things Thin veneer of modesty of every woman Thrill of furious and bestial anger which urges on a mob to massacre.
** Guy de Maupassant, in Quotes And Images From Maupassant.
* Of all our infirmities, the most savage is to despise our being.
** Michel de Montaigne, in The Valued Self: Five Steps to Healthy Self Esteem, p. 104.
* I knew other people who were at the time desperate and suicidal. They despised life and detested all other living people. In a way that made me feel a little bit secure. Because I thought, well, maybe I'm not so intense after all.
** Morrissey, in Morrissey in Conversation: The Essential Interviews, p. 84.

## N

* The revolutionary despises public opinion; he despises and hates the existing social ethic in all its demands and expressions.
** Sergey Nechayev, Bakunini in Terrorism: From Robespierre to the Weather Underground, p. 15.
* ...He suffered more pain than all men of salvation that ever were from the first beginning unto the last day might tell or fully think, having regard to the worthiness of the highest worshipful King and the shameful, despised, painful death. For He that is highest and worthiest was most fully made-nought and mostly utterly despised.
** Julian of Norwich, in Revelations of Divine Love, p. 85.
* Doubtless the Revivalists and Socialists despise each other, and perhaps both will despise us for imagining that they can be reconciled.
** John Humphrey Noyes, in History of American socialism, p. 27.

## O

* We despise toadies who suck up to their bosses; they are generally the same people who bully their subordinates.
** David Ogilvy, in The Unpublished David Ogilvy, p. 66.
* ...but I think 1 can sincerely declare that I cheerfully submit myself to every odious name for conscience sake; and from my soul I despise all those whose guilt, malice or folly has made them my foes — Let the consequences be what they will, I am determined to proceed.
** James Otis, in Niles' Weekly Register, Volume 14, p. 138.

## P

* We ought not to be angry at their knowing our faults and despising us; it is but right that they should know us for what we are contemptible.
** Blaise Pascal, in Pensees, p. 31.
* They only want you to hate the things you love and to love the things you despise.
** Boris Pasternak, in Never Let a Fool Kiss You or a Kiss Fool You, p. 112.
* If I be worthy, I live for my God to teach the heathen, even though they may despise me.
** Saint Patrick, in Things I Will Never Tell You, p. 229.
* ...such a one is agitated with a salutary astonishment; is affected with the highest and truest love; derides vehement affections and inferior loves, and despises the beauty which he once approved.
** Plotinus, in The Platonist, Volume 1, p. 166.

## R

* John Rawls's argument that all are equally worthy of self-esteem "is almost a parody of this tendency, writing hundreds of pages to persuade men, and proposing a scheme of government that would force them, not to despise anyone.
** John Rawls in “The Closing of the American Mind”, in Political Criticism, p. 95.
* We do not despise all those who have vices, but we do despise those that have no virtue.
** Francois de La Rochefoucauld,in Quotes by La Rochefoucauld Francois De, p. 23.
* We despise and abhor the bully, the brawler, the oppressor, whether in private or public life, but we despise no less the coward and the voluptuary.
** Theodore Roosevelt, in The Pursuit of Happiness in Times of War, p. 141.
* ...when I see animals born free and despising captivity break their heads against the bars of their prison; when I see multitudes of entirely naked savages scorn European voluptuousness and endure hunger.
** Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in On Anarchism, p. 61.
* He was not an ascetic, but he despised luxury and the pursuit of artificial pleasures of the senses.
** Bertrand Russell, in History of Western Philosophy, p. 222.

## S

* It is strong evidence of this that noble souls despise being for the sake of the good, when they face death for their country or friends or for the sake of virtue.
** Sallustius, in God and the Cosmos quoted by Timothy Jay Alexander, in A Beginner's Guide to Hellenismos, p. 89.
* His business is here; it is here that he is despised and vilified; it is here that he must carry out his undertaking.
** Quoted by Jean-Paul Sartre, in Saint Genet: Actor and Martyr, p. 55.
* It may be important to great thinkers to examine the world, to explain and despise it. But I think it is only important to love the world, not to despise it, not for us to hate each other, but to be able to regard the world and ourselves and all beings with love, admiration, and respect.
** Siddhartha, in Princeton Alumni Weekly, Volume 71, p. 29.
* I learned have, not to despise, What ever thing seemes small in common eyes.
** Edmund Spenser, in The Miscellaneous Documents of the Senate of the United States for the Third ..., p. 339.
* Nor am I of those who despise dreamers. For the world would be at the level of zero were it not for its dreamers - gone and of today.
** Louis Sullivan, in The Public Papers, p. 156.

## T

* Men naturally despise those who court them, but respect those who do not give way to them.
** Thucydides, in Greek and Roman Oratory, p. 37.
* Those that despise people will never get the best out of others and themselves.
** Alexis de Tocqueville, in Quotes by Tocqueville Alexis De, p. 4.
* The wicked leader is he who the people despise. The good leader is he who the people revere. The great leader is he who the people say, 'We did it ourselves.'
** Lao Tzu, in Quotes about Leaders and Leadership, p. 16.

## V

* I, then, will load my humble pack with this despised and rejected merchandise, the refuse of so many buyers; and will go about to distribute it, not indeed in great cities, but in the poorer towns, taking such a price as the wares I offer maybe worth.
** Leonardo da Vinci, in The Writings of Leonardo Da Vinci, p. 10.

## W

* ...and the best philosophy, to do one's duties, take the world as it comes, submit respectfully to one's lot, bless the goodness that has given us so much happiness with it, whatever it is, and despise affectation.
** Horace Walpole, in Prose Quotations from Socrates to Macaulay: With Indexes. Authors, 544 ..., p. 275.
* ...the rights of them the others are down upon, Of the deform'd, trivial, flat, foolish, despised, Fog in the air, beetles rolling balls of dung.
** Walt Whitman, Gilbert Achcar, in Leaves of Grass, a Textual Variorum of the Printed Poems: Poems, 1855-1856, p. 32.
* Allah says in the Qur'an not to despise one another. So the criterion in Islam is not color or social status. It's who is most righteous. If I go to a mosque - and I'm a basketball player with money and prestige - if I go to a mosque and see an imam, I feel inferior. He's better than me. It's about knowledge.
** Michael Wolfe, in Taking back Islam: American Muslims reclaim their faith, p. 230.

## Z

* Despise the enemy strategically, but take him seriously tactically.
** Mao Zedong, in Subconscious Demons and Conscious Delights, p. 34.

## Anonymous

* Contempt is also defined as the state of being despised or dishonored; disgrace, and an open disrespect or willful disobedience of the authority of a court of law or legislative body.
** In e-Study Guide for: Understanding Motivation and Emotion by Johnmarshall ..., p. 215.