Quotations about:
    provocation


Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.


Old Age is not so fiery as Youth; but when once provoked cannot be appeased.

Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs, #3704 (1732)
    (Source)
 
Added on 8-Dec-23 | Last updated 8-Dec-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Fuller, Thomas (1654)

When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system’s game. The establishment will irritate you — pull your beard, flick your face — to make you fight. Because once they’ve got you violent, then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don’t know how to handle is non-violence and humor.

John Lennon (1940-1980) English rock musician, singer, songwriter
Interview, Bed-Ins for Peace, Montreal, Canada (1 Jun 1969)
    (Source)
 
Added on 29-Dec-22 | Last updated 29-Dec-22
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Lennon, John

Let us shun extremes, not only because each extreme is in itself a positive evil, but also because each extreme necessarily engenders its opposite. If we love civil and religious freedom, let us in the day of danger uphold law and order. If we are zealous for law and order, let us prize, as the best safeguard of law and order, civil and religious freedom.

Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859) English writer and politician
Speech on re-election to Parliament, Edinburgh (2 Nov 1852)
    (Source)
 
Added on 21-Jan-20 | Last updated 21-Jan-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Macaulay, Thomas Babington

Spiritual strength and passion, when accompanied by bad manners, only provoke loathing.

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) German philosopher and poet
The Will to Power, Part 1, “Critique of Religion,” Sec. 175 [tr. Ludovici] (1888)
    (Source)
 
Added on 7-Jun-18 | Last updated 7-Jun-18
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Nietzsche, Friedrich

Bad temper is an indication of a man’s character; every man can be judged by the things which make him mad.

Fulton Sheen (1895-1979) American Catholic archbishop, preacher, televangelist
Love One Another (1944)
 
Added on 7-Nov-17 | Last updated 7-Nov-17
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , ,
More quotes by Sheen, Fulton

A thick skin is a gift from God.

Konrad Adenauer (1876-1967) German politician
New York Times (30 Dec 1959)
 
Added on 26-Jul-16 | Last updated 26-Jul-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Adenauer, Konrad

War is mankind’s most tragic and stupid folly; to seek or advise its deliberate provocation is a black crime against all men. Though you follow the trade of the warrior, you do so in the spirit of Washington — not of Genghis Khan. For Americans, only threat to our way of life justifies resort to conflict.

Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) American general, US President (1953-61)
Speech, Graduation Exercises, US Military Academy, West Point (3 Jun 1947)
 
Added on 8-Mar-16 | Last updated 8-Mar-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Eisenhower, Dwight David

To avoid dissensions we should ever be on our guard, more especially with those who drive us to argue with them, with those who vex and irritate us, and who say things likely to excite us to anger. When we find ourselves in company with quarrelsome, eccentric individuals, people who openly and unblushingly say the most shocking things, difficult to put up with, we should take refuge in silence, and the wisest plan is not to reply to people whose behavior is so preposterous.

Those who insult us and treat us contumeliously are anxious for a spiteful and sarcastic reply: the silence we then affect disheartens them, and they cannot avoid showing their vexation; they do all they can to provoke us and to elicit a reply, but the best way to baffle them is to say nothing, refuse to argue with them, and to leave them to chew the cud of their hasty anger. This method of bringing down their pride disarms them, and shows them plainly that we slight and despise them.

St Ambrose
Ambrose of Milan (339-397) Roman theologian, statesman, Christian prelate, saint, Doctor of the Church [Aurelius Ambrosius]
De Officiis Ministrorum, ch. 5
 
Added on 22-Feb-16 | Last updated 22-Feb-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Ambrose of Milan

I would permit no man, no matter what his colour might be, to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.

Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) American educator, writer
Up from Slavery, ch. 11 (1901)
    (Source)

This has been paraphrased in various ways, and is the source of Martin Luther King, Jr's quote he attributed to Washington: "Let no man pull you so low as to make you hate him" (e.g., Stride Toward Freedom, ch. 6 (1958)). King used this or variants of this paraphrase frequently in his speeches, though it was only in his early activism that he referenced Washington by name.
 
Added on 8-Dec-15 | Last updated 20-Jan-22
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Washington, Booker T.

It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds.

Samuel Adams (1722-1803) American revolutionary, statesman
(Spurious)

Frequently attributed to Samuel or John Adams, but not found before the 1990s. See here and here for more information.
 
Added on 23-Mar-15 | Last updated 23-Mar-15
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Adams, Samuel

“Never laugh at live dragons, Bilbo you fool!” he said to himself, and it became a favorite saying of his later, and passed into a proverb.

J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) English writer, fabulist, philologist, academic [John Ronald Reuel Tolkien]
The Hobbit, ch. 12 “Inside Information” (1937)
    (Source)
 
Added on 1-Mar-11 | Last updated 25-Aug-22
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , ,
More quotes by Tolkien, J.R.R.

Miss Manners’ meager arsenal consists only of the withering look, the insistent and repeated request, the cold voice, the report up the chain of command, and the tilted nose. Also the ability to dismiss inferior behavior from her mind as coming from inferior people. You will perhaps point out that she will never know the joy of delivering a well-deserved sock in the chops. True — but she will never inspire one either.

Judith Martin (b. 1938) American author, journalist, etiquette expert [a.k.a. Miss Manners]
“Miss Manners,” syndicated column (1980-05-08)
    (Source)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 9-May-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Martin, Judith