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There will be a competition among critics for the best Paris Hilton insult. Here's my first: Her attention span is so short that she can't even maintain her concentration while running away from a psycho... Maybe the ultimate insult is that she makes her co-star Elisha Cuthbert seem, by comparison, the sexiest and most interesting actress in modern cinema.
David EdelsteinShe'd tell me how she'd handle the backhanded compliment by smiling and pretending she was receiving a genuine compliment all the while ignoring their attempt to be insulting. After all, it's the way an insult is received that makes it an insult. You can't really give offense unless someone takes it.
Portia de RossiIf a witch needs something, another witch will give it to her. If there is war to be fought, we don't consider cost one of the factors in deciding whether or not it is right to fight. Nor do we have any notion of honor. An insult to a bear is a deadly thing. To us...inconceivable. How could you insult a witch? What would it matter if you did?
Philip PullmanThe causes of the China Incident were the exclusion and insult of Japan throughout China, the exclusion of Japanese goods, the persecution of Japanese residents in China, and the illegal violation of Japanese rights
Hideki TojoWear a gun to someone else's house, you're saying, 'I'll defend this home as if it were my own.' When your guests see you carry a weapon, you're telling them, 'I'll defend you as if you were my own family.' And anyone who objects levels the deadliest insult possible: 'I don't trust you unless you're rendered harmless'!
L. Neil SmithSunshine can burn you, food can poison you, words can condemn you, pictures can insult you; music cannot punish - only bless.
Artur SchnabelOh, are we at the insult part of the breakup?" she says. "Because I got in a lot of practice after what happened with Will. I have several choice things to say about her nose.
Veronica RothIn the political jargon of those days, the word "intellectual" was an insult. It indicated someone who did not understand life and was cut off from the people. All the Communists who were hanged at the time by other Communists were awarded such abuse. Unlike those who had their feet solidly on the ground, they were said to float in the air. So it was fair, in a way, that as punishment the ground was permanently pulled out from under their feet, that they remained suspended a little above the floor.
Milan KunderaThe days when the words Hollywood actor framed Ronald Reagan like bunny fingers as an ID tag and an implied insult seem far-off and quaint: nearly everybody in politics - candidate, consultant, pundit, and Tea Party crowd extra alike - is an actor now, a shameless ham in a hoked-up reality series that never stops.
James WolcottMost portraits are lies. People are rarely what they appear to be, especially in front of a camera. You might know me your entire lifetime and never reveal yourself to me. To interpret wrinkles as character is insult not insight.
Duane MichalsREPARTEE, n. Prudent insult in retort. Practiced by gentlemen with a constitutional aversion to violence, but a strong disposition to offend. In a war of words, the tactics of the North American Indian.
Ambrose BierceI have no objection to any person's religion, be it what it may, so long as that person does not kill or insult any other person, because that other person don't believe it also. But when a man's religion becomes really frantic; when it is a positive torment to him; and, in fine, makes this earth of ours an uncomfortable inn to lodge in; then I think it high time to take that individual aside and argue the point with him.
Herman Melvilleโฆbecause nerds like us are allowed to be unironically enthusiastic about stuffโฆ Nerds are allowed to love stuff, like jump-up-and-down-in-the-chair-canโt-control-yourself love it. Hank, when people call people nerds, mostly what theyโre saying is โyou like stuff.โ Which is just not a good insult at all. Like, โyou are too enthusiastic about the miracle of human consciousnessโ.
John GreenHe who parades his virtues seldom leads the parade. He who puts up with insult invites injury. Health requires this relaxation, this aimless life. This life in the present.
Henry David ThoreauFearing no insult, asking for no crown, receive with indifference both flattery and slander, and do not argue with a fool.
Alexander PushkinWhen I was a kid, it was a huge insult to be a geek. Now it's a point of pride in a weird way.
J. J. AbramsA joke is a joke. There's an expression - I don't know if you have it - that's 'adding insult to injury.'
Jon StewartFor God to prove himself on demand, physically, would be a grave disappointment, and the strongest Christians should be considerably grateful that he chooses not to do so. The skeptic endlessly demands proof, yet God refuses to insult the true intelligence of man, the '6th sense', the chief quality, the acumen which distinguishes man from the rest of creation, faith.
Criss JamiWhat gives me concern in so much of the comment is the implication that the people of Hong Kong have to be given a reward, like children, for being good last year, and bribed, like children, into being good next year. I myself repudiate this paternalistic, indeed colonialist, attitude as a gross insult to our people.
John James CowperthwaitePerpetual aiming at wit is a very bad part of conversation. It is done to support a character: it generally fails; it is a sort of insult on the company, and a restraint upon the speaker.
Jonathan SwiftI'm not sure why we want each other," she grumbled. "Nor am I, but the fact remains that we do want each other." "Maybe I'm just shallow. You're quite pretty." "For now, that will do." Infuriating man. Couldn't take an insult the way she intended. -Annabelle and Zacharel
Gena ShowalterGoat face is a horrible insult. My face is practically perfect in every way. In fact, from now on I demand to be called Beautiful Bryan.
Daniel BryanThe writer is the duelist who never fights at the stated hour, who gathers up an insult, like another curious object, a collector's item, spreads it out on his desk later, and then engages in a duel with it verbally. Some people call it weakness. I call it postponement. What is weakness in the man becomes a quality in the writer. For he preserves, collects what will explode later in his work. That is why the writer is the loneliest man in the world; because he lives, fights, dies, is reborn always alone; all his roles are played behind a curtain. In life he is an incongruous figure.
Anais NinIf we empower ourselves with responsibility over our actions, responsibility over our destinies and responsibility for directing and maintaining and creating our own ethical and moral frameworks, which is the most important thing really isnโt it because perhaps the greatest insult to humanism is this idea that mankind needs a god in order to have a moral framework.
Stephen FryThe Republican front-runner, has made a name for himself in the last months by trafficking prejudice and paranoia. His latest insult is his call to stop all Muslims from entering the United States.
Rachel MaddowAnd as for you Agent Pallas โ man-to-man, if you ever insult my girl on national television again, Iโllโฆโ he stopped. Everyone in the room waited, hanging. Jack raised an eyebrow. โYes?โ Collin turned to Cameron with a look of astonishment. โIโve got nothing. I had this whole exit speech going and I was gonna end with some big macho threat but when I got there, it was like โ bleh โ nothing. Thatโs a pisser.โ He appeared disgusted with himself, then shrugged it off. โOh well. Catch you guys later.โ He strode out without a second glance.
Julie JamesAnyone who has the temerity to write about Jane Austen is aware of [two] facts: first, that of all great writers she is the most difficult to catch in the act of greatness; second, that there are twenty-five elderly gentlemen living in the neighbourhood of London who resent any slight upon her genius as if it were an insult to the chastity of their aunts.
Virginia WoolfI haven't ever found any great writing on that wonderful and often unappreciated art form, the insult.
Dick CavettFree expression is the base of human rights, the root of human nature and the mother of truth. To kill free speech is to insult human rights, to stifle human nature and to suppress truth.
Liu XiaoboAn eye can threaten like a loaded and levelled gun, or it can insult like hissing or kicking; or, in its altered mood, by beams of kindness, it can make the heart dance for joy. ... One of the most wonderful things in nature is a glance of the eye; it transcends speech; it is the bodily symbol of identity.
Ralph Waldo EmersonThis is not a book in the ordinary sense of the word. No, this is a prolonged insult, a gob of spit in the face of art, a kick in the pants to God, Man, Destiny, Time, Love, Beauty... what you will.
Henry MillerI would rather a romantic relationship turn into contempt than turn into apathy. The passion in the extremities make it appear as though it once meant something. We grow from hot or cold, but lukewarm is the biggest insult.
Criss JamiHowever baby man may brag of his science and skill, and however much, in a flattering future, that science and skill may augment; yet for ever and for ever, to the crack of doom, the sea will insult and murder him, and pulverize the stateliest, stiffest frigate he can make; nevertheless, by the continual repetition of these very impressions, man has lost that sense of the full awfulness of the sea which aboriginally belongs to it.
Herman MelvilleThere is no better test of a man's ultimate chivalry and integrity than how he behaves when he is wrong... A stiff apology is a second insult.
Gilbert K. ChestertonWe criticize, copy, patronize, idolize and insult but we never doubt that the U.S. has a unique position in the history of human hopes.
Ferdinand MountTo praise princes for virtues they do not possess is to insult them without fear of consequences.
Francois de La RochefoucauldI won't be protected. I will choose for myself what is ladylike and right. To shield me is an insult.
E. M. ForsterAnd that's the insult of it, how always it comes back to a woman being a "good" mother in the world's eyes or a "bad" mother, how everything in a woman's life is funneled through her body between her legs.
Joyce Carol Oates