Best Sneer Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

Source: A Court of Thorns and Roses

“As I sat at the Cafe I said to myself, They may talk as they please about what they call pelf, They may sneer as they like about eating and drinking, But help it I cannot, I cannot help thinking How pleasant it is to have money, heigh-ho! How pleasant it is to have money!”

Thinking May Said Helping Money Please Eating Drinking Sat Pleasant Cafes Sneer Eating And Drinking

Book:Poems

Source: Poems

“Do not reject anything because it is new or strange, and do not sneer nor jeer at what comes from the Lord, for if we do, we endanger our salvation.”

Ifs Lord Strange Salvation Rejects Sneer

Book:Journal of Discourses

Source: Journal of Discourses

“It is a fallacy to think that carping is the strongest form of criticism: the important work begins after the artist's mistakes have been pointed out, and the reviewer can't put it off indefinitely with sneers, although some neophytes might be tempted to try: "When in doubt, stick out your tongue" is a safe rule that never cost one any readers. But there's nothing strong about it, and it has nothing to do with the real business of criticism, which is to do justice to the best work of one's time, so that nothing gets lost.”

“An Irishman's imagination never lets him alone, never convinces him, never satisfies him; but it makes him that he can't face reality nor deal with it nor handle it nor conquer it: he can only sneer at them that do, and be 'agreeable to strangers', like a good-for-nothing woman on the streets.”

Reality Faces Imagination Deals Streets Stranger Handle Conquer Convince Sneer Irishmen

Author:George Bernard Shaw

“The sophist sneers: Fool, take Thy pleasure, right or wrong! The pious wail: Forsake A world these sophists throng! Be neither saint nor sophist-led, but be a man.”

Men World Pleasure Fool Saint Be A Man Pious Forsake Sneer

Book:Delphi Complete Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold (Illustrated)

“That I grow sour, who only lack delight; That I descend to sneer, who only grieve: That from my depth I should contemn your height; That with my blame my mockery you receive; Huntress and splendour of the woodland night, Diana of this world, do not believe.”

World Should Believe Night Grows This World Blame Depth Delight Height Grieving Mockery Sour Diana Sneer Splendour Woodland Huntress

Book:Complete verse [of] H. Belloc: including Sonnets and verse, Cautionary verses, The modern traveller, etc

Source: Complete verse [of] H. Belloc: including Sonnets and verse, Cautionary verses, The modern traveller, etc

“A sneer is the weapon of the weak. Like other devil's weapons, it is always cunningly ready to our hand, and there is more poison in the handle than in the point.”

Hands Ready Weapons Devil Weak Handle Poison Sneer

Book:Conversations on Some of the Old Poets

Source: Conversations on Some of the Old Poets

“The Anarchists' uncompromising rejection of the State, the subject of Marxian sneers for its "absolutist" and "Utopian" character, makes much better sense in the present era than the Marxist relativist and historical approach. The pacifists also seem to be more realistic than the Marxist both in their understanding of modern war and also in their attempts to do something about it.”

Source: Root is man: progressivism vrs. radicalism

“As anyone who has the slightest knowledge of my work knows, I have little in common with Larkin, who was tall, taciturn and thin-on-top, and unlike him I laugh, nay, sneer, in the face of death. I will concede one point: we are both lesbian poets.”

Knows Littles Faces Common Laughing Poet Tall Sneer Taciturn

Author:Carol Ann Duffy

“Pop music has progressed. The singing voice has changed dramatically in pop music, and people now just sing the way they want to, in their speaking voice, instead of putting on some great transatlantic rock and roll sneer.”

People Way Want Voice Rocks Changed Singing Pops Rock And Roll Pop Music Sneer

Author:Steven Morrissey

“The poorest way to face life is to face it with a sneer.”

Way Faces Life Is Cynicism Poorest Sneer

Author:Theodore Roosevelt

“Have charity; have patience; have mercy. Never bring a human being, however silly, ignorant, or weak--above all, any little child--to shame and confusion of face. Never by petulance, by suspicion, by ridicule, even by selfish and silly haste--never, above all, by indulging in the devilish pleasure of a sneer--crush what is finest and rouse up what is coarsest in the heart of any fellow-creature.”

Source: Daily Thoughts (EasyRead Super Large 18pt Edition)

“The press frequently sneers at the hype devoted to a superstar, but the press itself is responsible for all the hype.”

Fame Responsible Presses Devoted Hype Superstar Sneer

Author:Beverly Sills

“... some veil between childhood and the present is necessary. If the veil is withdrawn, the artistic imagination sickens and dies, the prophet looks in the mirror with a disillusioned and cynical sneer, the scientist goes fishing.”

Ifs Looks Dies Imagination Childhood Scientist Mirrors Artistic Prophet Fishing Cynical Veils Disillusioned Sneer

Book:Male and female: a study of the sexes in a changing world

Source: Male and female: a study of the sexes in a changing world

“the pyramids were built for pharaohs on the happy theory that they could take their stuff with them. Versailles was built for kings on the theory that they should live surrounded by the finest stuff. The Mall of America is built on the premise that we should all be able to afford this stuff. It may be a shallow culture, but it's by-God democratic. Sneer if you dare; this is something new in world history.”

Source: You Got to Dance with Them What Brung You

“Thanksgiving Day - Let all give humble, hearty, and sincere thanks, now, but the turkeys. In the island of Fiji they do not use turkeys, they use plumbers. It does not become you and me to sneer at Fiji.”

Giving Doe Use Food Cooking Humble Thanks Islands Culinary Sincere Turkeys Thanksgiving Day Plumber Sneer Hearty Fiji

Author:Mark Twain

“I think I'll always be linked to comedy. There is something about it that's such a beautiful thing. The world of drama sneers at it because people assume that it's easy but it's not at all; it's incredibly difficult.”

People Thinking World Beautiful Easy Difficult Comedy Drama Assuming Beautiful Things Linked Sneer

Author:Doc Brown

“A sneer is like a flame; it may occasionally be curative because it cauterizes, but it leaves a bitter scar.”

May Positive Bitter Flames Scar Superiority Sneer

Book:The Awakening of Helena Richie

Source: The Awakening of Helena Richie

“the most common type of pessimism is neither philosophical nor religious: it is the pessimism of thwarted desire. ... It is the cynical sneer of the man who, seeking roses, finds only ashes.”

Men Desire Religious Common He Man Type Philosophical Rose Seeking Pessimism Cynical Ashes Sneer

Author:Georgia Harkness

“A horse, if he happens to have a contemptuous disposition, can sneer very effectively.”

Ifs Happens Horse Disposition Sneer Contemptuous

Book:A Woman Talking

Source: A Woman Talking

“So I turn once more to those who sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them: Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.”

Giving Shows Turns Strong Cities Alive Proud Singing Show Me Cunning Coarse Sneer

Author:Carl Sandburg

“Giving thanks is that: making the canyon of pain into a megaphone to proclaim the ultimate goodness of God when Satan and all the world would sneer at us to recant.”

World Giving Pain Goodness Ultimate Thanks Satan Canyons Sneer Goodness Of God

Book:One Thousand Gifts Devotional: Reflections on Finding Everyday Graces

Source: One Thousand Gifts Devotional: Reflections on Finding Everyday Graces

“Goethe's devil is a cultivated personage and acquainted with the modern sciences; sneers at witchcraft and the black art even while employing them, and doubts most things, nay, half disbelieves even his own existence.”

Art Black Existence Half Doubt Modern Devil Witchcraft Modern Science Employing Sneer Black Art

Book:Miscellanies

Source: Miscellanies

“Let us not sneer at the values of the World's conscience, whose indignation has already forced Hitler's fascism to retrreat.”

World Values Conscience Fascism Indignation Sneer

Author:Leon Blum

“I sometimes feel a great ennui, profound emptiness, doubts which sneer in my face in the midst of the most spontaneous satisfactions. Well, I would not exchange all that for anything, because it seems to me, in my conscience, that I am doing my duty, that I am obeying a superior fatality, that I am following the Good and that I am in the Right.”

Feels Wells Sometimes Seems Faces Work Doubt Duty Conscience Profound Satisfaction Following Superiors Emptiness Midst Spontaneous Obeying Ennui Sneer Fatality

Author:Gustave Flaubert

“Perhaps the most embarrassing experience is being caught at a lie by a simpleton who sneers at our asinine cleverness.”

Lying Caught Embarrassing Embarrassment Cleverness Sneer Simpletons

Author:Franz Grillparzer

“I have often thought how strange it is that men can at once and the same moment cheerfully consign our sex to lives either of narrowest toil or senseless luxury and vanity, and then sneer at the smallness of our aims, the pettiness of our thoughts, the puerility of our conversation!”

Men Moments Sex Strange Conversation Aim Luxury Vanity Our Thoughts Toil Sneer Smallness Pettiness

Book:The Duties of Women: A Course of Lectures

Source: The Duties of Women: A Course of Lectures

“I've an irritating chuckle, I've a celebrated sneer, I've an entertaining snigger, I've a fascinating leer; To everybody's prejudice I know a thing or two; I can tell a woman's age in half a minute--and I do”

Knows I Can Two Age Half Minutes Prejudice Manners Fascinating Entertaining Irritating Sneer Chuckles

Author:W. S. Gilbert

“A sneer is often the sign of heartless malignity.”

Heartless Sneer

Author:Johann Kaspar Lavater

“The most insignificant people are the most apt to sneer at others. They are safe from reprisals. And have no hope of rising in their own self esteem but by lowering their neighbors.”

People Self Hope Self Esteem Safe Neighbor Esteem Rising Insignificant No Hope Sneer Reprisal

Author:William Hazlitt

“Curse thee, Life, I will live with thee no more! Thou hast mocked me, starved me, beat my body sore! And all for a pledge that was not pledged by me, I have kissed thy crust and eaten sparingly That I might eat again, and met thy sneers With deprecations, and thy blows with tears.”

Body Might Sadness Tears Mets Sad Beats Blow Thee Curse Pledge Sneer

Book:The Selected Poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay

Source: The Selected Poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay

“Physicians mend or end us, Secundum artem; but although we sneer - In health - when ill we call them to attend us, Without the least propensity to jeer”

Ends Medicine Ill Physicians Propensity Sneer

Book:DON JUAN

Source: DON JUAN

“She is not old, she is not young, The Woman with the Serpent's Tongue. The haggard cheek, the hungering eye, The poisoned words that wildly fly, The famished face, the fevered hand, Who slights the worthiest in the land, Sneers at the just, contemns the brave, And blackens goodness in its grave.”

Hands Eye Faces Young Land Goodness Anger Brave Tongue Graves Cheeks Serpent Sneer Haggard

Book:New poems

Source: New poems

“The present is no more exempt from the sneer of the future than the past has been.”

Has Beens Past Sneer

Book:Mole Philosophy & Other Essays

Source: Mole Philosophy & Other Essays

“It is remarkable by how much a pinch of malice enhances the penetrating power of an idea or an opinion. Our ears, it seems, are wonderfully attuned to sneers and evil reports about our fellow men.”

Men Ideas Seems Evil Opinion Ears Fellows Reports Remarkable Fellow Man Malice Sneer

Book:The passionate state of mind, and other aphorisms

Source: The passionate state of mind, and other aphorisms

“The trouble is. . .that everybody sneers at restrictions and demands freedom, till something annoying happens; then they demand angrily what has become of the discipline.”

Happens Trouble Discipline Demand Annoying Restriction Sneer

Author:Dorothy L. Sayers

“Sooner or later, the ones who told you that this isn't the way it's done, the ones who found time to sneer, they will find someone else to hassle. Sooner or later, they stop pointing out how much hubris you've got, how you're not entitled to make a new thing, how you will certainly come to regret your choices. Sooner or later, your work speaks for itself. Outlasting the critics feels like it will take a very long time, but you're more patient than they are.”

Way Feels Long Done Choices Found Speak Regret Long Time Critics Patient New Things Sooner Or Later Entitled Pointing Hubris Sneer Hassle Outlasting

Author:Seth Godin

“I, with other Americans, have perhaps unduly resented the stream of criticism of American life... more particularly have I resented the sneers at Main Street. For I have known that in the cottages that lay behind the street rested the strength of our national character.”

Character Behinds Known Streets Criticism Lays Streams American Life Cottages Sneer Main Street

Book:The New Day: Campaign Speeches of Herbert Hoover, 1928

Source: The New Day: Campaign Speeches of Herbert Hoover, 1928

“It is said that ridicule is the test of truth; but it is never applied except when we wish to deceive ourselves - when if we cannot exclude the light, we would fain draw the curtain before it. The sneer springs out of the wish to deny; and wretched must that state of mind be, that wishes to take refuge in doubt.”

Ifs Mind Said States Light Wish Doubt Spring Draws Tests Deny State Of Mind Deceiving Refuge Curtains Ridicule Wretched Sneer

Author:Letitia Elizabeth Landon

“It's one thing to be a high achiever; it's quite another to privately sneer at your girlfriend's friends after feigning friendliness because they have the "misfortune" to drive a bus for a living.”

One Thing Girlfriend Misfortunes Bus Friendliness Achiever Sneer Your Girlfriend Feigning

Author:Mallory Ortberg

“What looks like enjoyment is the sneer of contempt. That's not a smile.”

Looks Smile Enjoyment Contempt Sneer

Author:Jack Kevorkian

“The world goes up and the world goes down, the sunshine follows the rain; and yesterday's sneer and yesterday's frown can never come over again.”

World Reality Nature Change Travel Rain Yesterday Sunshine Sneer Happy Sunshine

Book:Andromeda and Other Poems: Easyread Super Large 18pt Edition

Source: Andromeda and Other Poems: Easyread Super Large 18pt Edition

“It's funny how sometimes historians sneer at journalists, yet they depend on us in the future for the material that they mine. You realize that some of the stories wouldn't have been told if you hadn't gotten to them. There is that sense of capturing a moment that was just about to go over the horizon.”

Sometimes Moments Realizing Journalist Historian Sneer

Author:Lawrence Wright

“Anti-religious sneers are a hallmark of perpetual adolescents.”

Religious Perpetual Hallmark Anti Religious Sneer

Author:Camille Paglia

“A sneer is the weapon of the weak.”

Weapons Criticism Weak Critics Sneer

Book:Conversations on Some of the Old Poets

Source: Conversations on Some of the Old Poets

“If art is not to be life-enhancing, what is it to be? Half the world is feminine - why is there resentment at a female-oriented art? Nobody asks The Tale of Genji to be masculine! Women certainly learn a lot from books oriented toward a masculine world. Why is not the reverse also true? Or are men really so afraid of women's creativity?”

Ifs Men World Children Art Book Asks Half Creativity Creation Bears Genius Art Is Female Rage Tales Feminine Resentment Reverse Irrelevant Masculine Evoke Sneer

Author:May Sarton

“The most durable thing in writing is style, and style is the single most valuable investment a writer can make with his time.”

Writing Style Investment Valuable Sneer

Book:Raymond Chandler Speaking

Source: Raymond Chandler Speaking

“Most men unconsciously judge the world from themselves, and it will be very generally found that those who sneer habitually at human nature, and affect to despise it, are among its worst and least pleasant samples.”

Men World Humans Found Worst Human Nature Judging Pleasant Despise Sample Sneer

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Charles Dickens (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Charles Dickens (Illustrated)

“No friend had I made there, but I wasn't with this group to make friends, and besides, he sneered too much. I've found that people who sneer are almost always sneering at me.”

People Made Found Too Much Groups No Friends Sneer

Book:World of the Queen's Thief Collection: The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, The King of Attolia, A Conspiracy of Kings, Thick as Thieves

Source: World of the Queen's Thief Collection: The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, The King of Attolia, A Conspiracy of Kings, Thick as Thieves

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