ABUSE

Related Subjects: Curse, Insult, Offense, Slander, Swearing, Threat

1. There is a time when the hoary head of inveterate abuse will neither draw reverence nor obtain protection.—Burke

2. Some have been beaten till they know
   What wood a cudgel's of by th' blow
   Some kick'd until they can feel whether
   A shoe be Spanish or neat's leather.—Samuel Butler, Hudibras

3. The weak resort of cowardice.—C. C. Colton

4. Remember that it is not he who gives abuse or blows who affronts, but the view we take of these things as insulting. When, therefore, anyone provokes you, be assured that it is your own opinion which provokes you.—Epictetus, Discourses

5. Abuse is the weapon of the vulgar.—S. G. Goodrich

6. Abuse is often of service. There is nothing so dangerous to an author as silence. His name, like a shuttle­cock, must be beat backward and forward, or it falls to the ground.—Samuel Johnson

7. It is better a man should be abused than forgotten.—Samuel Johnson

8. There are more people abusive to others than open to abuse themselves ; but the humor goes round and he that laughs at me today will have somebody to laugh at him tomorrow.—Seneca

9. The hardest knife ill-used doth lose his edge.—Shakespeare, Sonnet 95

10. Whipping and abuse are like laudanum : you have to double the dose as the sensibilities decline.—Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin