Disgust Quotes
More Disgust Quotes
Abject flattery and indiscriminate assentation degrade, as much as indiscriminate contradiction and noisy debate disgust. But a modest assertion of one’s own opinion, and a complaisant acquiescence in other people’s, preserve dignity.
stanhope, philip, 4th earl of chesterfield— August 10, 1749.
The passions, whether violent or not, should never be so expressed as to reach the point of causing disgust; and music, even in situations of the greatest horror, should never be painful to the ear but should flatter and charm it, and thereby always remain music.
wolfgang amadeus mozart— Letter by Mozart, as quoted in a journal entry (12 December 1856) The Journal of Eugene Delacroix as translated by Walter Pach (1937), p. 521
Our colleges ought to have lit up in us a lasting relish for the better kind of man, a loss of appetite for mediocrities, and a disgust for cheapjacks. We ought to smell, as it were, the difference of quality in men and their proposals when we enter the world of affairs about us.
william james— The Social Value of the College-Bred
Oh wasn't it naughty of Smudges? Oh, Mummy, I'm sick with disgust. She threw me in front of the Judges 84 And my silly old collarbone's bust.
— 1954 A Few Late Chrysanthemums,'Hunter Trails'.
I saw Hamlet Prince of Denmark played, but now the old plays begin to disgust this refined age.
john evelyn— 1661 Diary entry, 26 Nov.
Les amours meurent par le de go u" t, et l'oubli les enterre. Loves die from disgust, and forgetting buries them.
— 1688 Les Caracte' res ou les m½urs de ce sie' cle,'Du c½ur', no.32.
I saw Hamlet Pr: of Denmark played: but now the old playe began to disgust this refined age.
john evelyn— November 26, 1661.
Reading the Bible is the fast track to atheism. Reading the Bible means starting at "In the beginning..." and throwing it down with disgust at "...the grace of the lord Jesus be with all. Amen." I'm sure there are lots of religious people who've read the Bible from start to finish and kept their faith, but in my self-selected sample, all the people I know who have done that are atheists.
penn jillette— p. 42 (God, No!: Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales (2011))
The greatest talents have been frequently misapplied and have produced evil proportionate to the extent of their powers. Both reason and revelation seem to assure us that such minds will be condemned to eternal death, but while on earth, these vicious instruments performed their part in the great mass of impressions, by the disgust and abhorrence which they excited.
thomas malthus— Chapter XIX, paragraph 2, lines 1-6
We need some imaginative stimulus, some not impossible ideal such as may shape vague hope, and transform it into effective desire, to carry us year after year, without disgust, through the routine-work which is so large a part of life.
walter pater— Ch. 25 (Marius the Epicurean (1885))
We adore perfection because we can't have it; it would disgust us if we had it. Perfect is inhuman, because human is imperfect.
fernando pessoa— Original: Adoramos a perfeição, porque não a podemos ter; repugná-la-íamos, se a tivéssemos. O perfeito é o desumano, porque o humano é imperfeito.
— Ibid., p. 249
It's a movie barely fit for a cretin, much less a King. ... If you hear a door slam in the theater, you'll know that Elvis has left the building -- in disgust.
stephanie zacharek— Review of 3000 Miles to Graceland (2001)
It is good to be often reminded of the inconsistency of human nature, and to learn to look without wonder or disgust on the weaknesses which are found in the strongest minds.
— Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, Warren Hastings.
Baudelaire, to whom the sole pleasure in love was the knowledge of doing evil and who hoped to conquer solitude by inspiring universal horror and disgust.
Charles Baudelaire— W. H. Auden, "Tennyson," Introduction to A Selection from the Poems of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (New York, Doubleday, 1944); later printed in Forewords & Afterwords (Random House, 1974, ISBN 0-394-71887-9), p. 232
In the first manifesto that we launched on the 8th of March, 1910, from the stage of the Chiarella Theater in Turin,1 we expressed our deep-rooted disgust with, our proud contempt for, and our happy rebellion against vulgarity, mediocrity, the fanatical and snobbish worship of all that is old, attitudes which are suffocating Art in our Country.
Umberto Boccioni— In: Rainey et al. (eds.) Futurism: An Anthology, (2009), p. 64 : Lead paragraph
They, the conservatives, are the real outsides, they tell us, gazing with disgust upon the ludicrous manners of the high and mighty. Or, they tell us, they are rough-and-ready proles, laughing along with us at the efforts of our social "betters" to reform and improve us. That they are often, in fact, people of privilege doing their utmost to boost the fortunes of a political party that is the traditional tool of the privileged is a contradiction that does not trouble them.
thomas frank— Ibid. (p. 116)
This was the most difficult, the most extraordinary transition. Her body had been a source of shame and disgust; to engage in activities with no purpose at all except to revel in their sheer physicality had first nauseated, then terrified, and finally liberated her.
china miéville— p. 188 (Perdido Street Station (2000))
It is only by softening and disguising dead flesh by culinary preparation that it is rendered susceptible of mastication or digestion, and that the sight of its bloody juices and raw horror does not excite intolerable loathing and disgust.
Percy Bysshe Shelley— "A Vindication of Natural Diet" (1813)
It is only by softening and disguising dead flesh by culinary preparation, that it is rendered susceptible of mastication or digestion; and that the sight of its bloody juices and raw horror does not excite intolerable loathing and disgust.
Percy Bysshe Shelley— Notes.
There aren't enough swear-words in the English language, so now I'll have to call you perkeleen vittupää just to express my disgust and frustration with this crap.
linus torvalds— Torvalds, Linus (2013-07-13). Re: [GIT pull] x86 updates for 3.11. Retrieved on 2013-07-15.
At the bottom of at least popular Marxism there has always been a kind of disgust with humanity as it is and a perfect faith in humanity as it is to be.
Lionel Trilling— "Elements That Are Wanted," Partisan Review (September/October 1940)
That certain women were ready to sell themselves caused no excessive disgust in Isabelle. It was inevitable that a number of both men and women should compromise the institution of marriage by marrying for money, and once that happened there could be no question of impressing on the toughly logical female mind the unique vileness of prostitution. She had sometimes wondered, too, whether the contempt men felt for women who market their favors did not in part proceed from from the sense of grievance eternally felt by buyers against vendors.
rebecca west— Chapter VI (The Thinking Reed (1936))
When your intellect transcends the mire of delusion, then you will attain to disgust of what has been heard and what is yet to be heard. When, perplexed by what you have heard, you stand immovable in samadhi , with steady intellect, then you will attain yoga .
— Krishna; Chapter 2, verses 52–53; Jeaneane D. Fowler translation
We adore perfection because we can't have it; it would disgust us if we had it. Perfect is inhuman, because human is imperfect.
— Original: Adoramos a perfeição, porque não a podemos ter; repugná-la-íamos, se a tivéssemos. O perfeito é o desumano, porque o humano é imperfeito.
— Ibid., p. 249
There are, while human miseries abound, A thousand ways to waste superfluous wealth, Without one fool or flatterer at your board, Without one hour of sickness or disgust.
— Book II, line 195.
Love turns, with a little indulgence, to indifference or disgust ; hatred alone is immortal .
— William Hazlitt in: Bhimeswara Challa Man's Fate and God's Choice: An Agenda for Human Transformation, Trafford Publishing, 2011, p.140
Tell me I hate the bowl? Hate is a feeble word; I loathe, abhor my very soul and strong disgust is stirred Whene'er I see or hear or tell of the dark beverage of hell.
— Attributed to John B. Gough; denied by him.
I conceive disgust at these impertinent and misbecoming familiarities inscribed upon your ordinary tombstone.
— Charles Lamb; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 232.
Alice... you always said that I disgust you, but I... I love you.
— Who: Decus
— Note: Said to Alice, after having been sliced across the back by Emil while trying to protect her from him.
