Contempt

"Men despise what they do not understand."

"CONTEMPT, n. The feeling of a prudent man for an enemy who is too formidable safely to be opposed."

"Contempt is not a thing to be despised."

"Go—let thy less than woman's hand Assume the distaff—not the brand."

"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."

"Contempt leaves a deeper scar than anger."

"The spirit of contempt is the true spirit of Antichrist; for no other is more directly opposed to Christ."

"When they talk'd of their Raphaels, Correggios, and stuff, He shifted his trumpet, and only took snuff."

"How could man have such utter contempt for man? Because he had reached the point of contempt for God."

"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."

"Nothing is so contemptible as habitual contempt. It is impossible to remain long under its control without being dwarfed by its influence."

"There is no room in the universe for the least contempt or pride; but only for a gentle and a reverent heart."

"The infidelity of the Gentile world, and that more especially of men of rank and learning in it, is resolved into a principle which, in my judgment, will account for the inefficacy of any argument, or any evidence whatever, viz. contempt prior to investigation."

"Grown all to all, from no one vice exempt, And most contemptible to shun contempt."

"Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, yet you cannot play upon me."

"I had rather chop this hand off at a blow, And with the other fling it at thy face, Than bear so low a sail, to strike to thee."

"The weakness of the attack lies in its lack of discrimination. It is possible that psychic surgery is a hoax, that plants cannot really read our minds, that Kirlian photography (photographing the "life-aura" of living creatures) may depend on some simple electrical phenomenon. But to lump all of these together as if they were all on the same level of improbability shows a certain lack of discernment. The same applies to the list of "hoaxes." Rhine's careful research into extrasensory perception at Duke University is generally conceded to be serious and sincere, even by people who think his test conditions were too loose. The famous fairy photographs are quite probably a hoax, but no one has ever produced an atom of proof either way, and until someone does, no one can be quite as confident as the editors of Time seem to be. And Ted Serios has never at any time been exposed as a fraud — although obviously he might be. We see here a phenomena that we shall encounter again in relation to Geller: that when a scientist or a "rationalist" sets himself up as the defender of reason, he often treats logic with a disrespect that makes one wonder what side he is on."

"Sympathy [often] makes up part of the feeling of contempt.… Most people are generous enough to feel some pity for the dog with some touch of the cur and mongrel in it, which finds itself in the pure-bred and often snobbish society of a dog-show."

"There is always some contempt in pity. One pities poor old Oedipus, but one doesn't pity Job."