A Quote by Ambrose Bierce

Contempt; the feeling of a prudent man for an enemy who is too formidable safely to be opposed.

Ambrose Bierce

Quote Topics

Contempt Enemy Feeling Formidable Man Opposed Prudent Safely Too

Quote Author

Ambrose Bierce
American - Journalist
June 24, 1842 - 1914

Contempt is the emotion we feel for an opponent whose arguments are too formidable to refute.

Ann Coulter

The evils that arise to us from the structure of the material universe are neither trivial nor few, yet the history of political society sufficiently shows that man is, of all other beings, the most formidable enemy to man.

William Godwin

Many things are formidable, and none more formidable than man.

Sophocles

The private life of one man shall be a more illustrious monarchy,--more formidable to its enemy, more sweet and serene in its influence to its friend, than any kingdom in history. For a man, rightly viewed, comprehendeth the particular natures of all men.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Churchill , he is a great man. He is, of course, our enemy and has always been the enemy of Communism, but he is an enemy one must respect, an enemy one likes to have.

Josip Broz Tito

When thou seest thine enemy in trouble, curl not thy whiskers in contempt; for in every bone there is marrow, and within every jacket there is a man.

Saadi

He who is prudent and lies in wait for an enemy who is not, will be victorious.

Sun Tzu

That enemy warrior appears to be a formidable opponent. I relish the challenge.

Zhao Yun

Man is more sensitive to the contempt of others than to self-contempt.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Every heroic act measures itself by its contempt of some external good. But it finds its own success at last, and then the prudent also extol.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The enemy of the black is not the white. The enemy of capitalist is not communist, the enemy of homosexual is not heterosexual, the enemy of Jew is not Arab, the enemy of youth is not the old, the enemy of hip is not redneck, the enemy of Chicano is not gringo and the enemy of women is not men. We all have the same enemy. The enemy is the tyranny of the dull mind. The enemy is every expert who practices technocratic manipulation, the enemy is every proponent of standardization and the enemy is every victim who is so dull and lazy and weak as to allow himself to be manipulated and standardized.

Tom Robbins

I have ever been opposed to banks, - opposed to internal improvements by the general government, - opposed to distribution of public lands among the states, - opposed to taking the power from the hands of the people, - opposed to special monopolies, - opposed to a protective tariff, - opposed to a latitudinal construction of the constitution, - opposed to slavery agitation and disunion. This is my democracy. Point to a single act of my public career not in keeping with these principles.

Sam Houston

In marrying, a man does not, to be sure, marry his wife's mother; and yet a prudent man, when he begins to think of the daughter, would look sharp at the mother; ay, and back to the grandmother too, and along the whole female line of ancestry.