Word: contemptibility
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...slight in themselves, but the effects which they often produce are out of all proportion to their own importance. Who has not been driven from his books by the advent of the daily hag, more ugly than the witches in Macbeth, showing in her own person an utter contempt for cleanliness, and secretly wondering at the foolishness of a man who cares to have his carpet swept and his table dusted? Yet how can the unfortunate goody be expected to know how to take proper care of a room? Possibly in her early years she was in service with some...
...make him a gentleman. His smattering of real knowledge, say of art, enables him to despise bourgeois ignorance of it. His superior cleverness makes him writhe under the conventionality which keeps the others on a level of stupidity and complacency. Reaction against particular points of a system naturally produces contempt for the whole, and this rule applies, of course, more strongly to the "volatile" French than to other nations; so the genuine artiste despises bourgeois virtues as much as their narrow-mindedness...
...practice of reading a good translation to their classes, if a good one has been made, or of translating the lesson themselves, if it is at all obscure; they take pains to refer us to other books which oppose or support the author's opinions, - does that indicate contempt for the literary aspect of Greek literature...
...Harvard. Notwithstanding the present satisfactory state of things, we all hope and look for a still better one in the future. The great bane of our College, its indifference and coldness, is not yet entirely done away with. We must get more warmth and enthusiasm into our lives. Contempt for work, and silly admiration of and reliance on unused abilities and aimless talents, however brilliant, are fatal. This sort of spirit it is which prevents the meeting of students and instructors under any circumstances but those of necessity. Blame undoubtedly attaches to both parties, perhaps even more on the side...
...regard to the furnishing and temperature of the room, a man is not constantly liable to be interrupted in whatever he may be doing, by petty arguments with his chum about the meaning of a word or on some one's character, - arguments productive only of a mutual contempt of the other's opinion. If a man is so unfortunately constituted that he cannot endure his own society for more than fifteen consecutive minutes, he would better find some one to share the burden with...