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meanness quotes

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“Wealth, I said, and poverty; the one is the parent of luxury and indolence, and the other of meanness and viciousness, and both of discontent.” Plato, The Republic
“our worst weaknesses and meannesses are usually committed for the sake of the people whom we most despise.” Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
“nobody's very big in the first place, and it looks to me like everybody spends their whole life tearing everybody else down.” Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
“We have not seen great things done in our time except by those who have been considered mean; the rest have failed.” Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince
“When they will not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out ten to see a dead Indian.” William Shakespeare, The Tempest
“where a faith has been trodden out, we may look for a mean and narrow population.” Robert Louis Stevenson, Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes
“Because they are mean is no reason why I should be. I hate such things, and though I think I've a right to be hurt, I don't intend to show it.” Louisa May Alcott, Little Women
“Every time you mention some guy that's strictly a bastard—very mean, or very conceited and all—and when you mention it to the girl, she'll tell you he has an inferiority complex. Maybe he has, but that still doesn't keep him from being a...” J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
“To the mean eye all things are trivial, as certainly as to the jaundiced they are yellow.” Thomas Carlyle, On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and The Heroic in History
“For there is none of you so mean and base, that hath not noble lustre in your eyes.” William Shakespeare, Henry V
“Never . . . be mean in anything; never be false; never be cruel. Avoid those three vices . . . and I can always be hopeful of you.” Charles Dickens, David Copperfield

Related topics

despise pain poverty wealth greatness faith weakness failure eyes cruelty importance hurt discontent falsity view inferiority unfairness shallowness indolence narrowness

Related authors

William Shakespeare (2)
Charles Dickens (2)
Plato (1)
J. D. Salinger (1)
Louisa May Alcott (1)
Thomas Carlyle (1)
Robert Louis Stevenson (1)
Ken Kesey (1)
Niccolò Machiavelli (1)

Related sources

The Republic (1)
The Catcher in the Rye (1)
Little Women (1)
Great Expectations (1)
The Tempest (1)
David Copperfield (1)
The Prince (1)
Henry V (1)
On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and The Heroic in History (1)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1)
Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes (1)