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contemptible
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  • ...we have become as contemptible and petty as the rest.   (source)
  • ...there was nearly half as much of the entertaining as of the contemptible about the man,   (source)
  • They're contemptible.†   (source)
  • Mariam heard the answer in his laugh: that in the eyes of the Taliban, being a communist and the leader of the dreaded KHAD made Najibullah only slightly more contemptible than a woman.†   (source)
  • In addition to these, the camerlegno had found the Illuminati Collection-all the secrets the church had uncovered after banishing the group from Rome …. their contemptible Path of Illumination …. the cunning deceit of the Vatican's head artist, Bernini ….†   (source)
  • See how safe I play it, how contemptible I am?†   (source)
  • Is it true that the Modegan nobility regard haggling as a contemptible activity for those of any highborn station?†   (source)
  • He rejected her from his life, because he could not conceive of anything more contemptible than paying for love: he had never done it.†   (source)
  • I am sorry you have had to witness this contemptible act, Eragon.†   (source)
  • Although the CIA has been responsible for many contemptible activities in its support of American imperialism, I cannot lay my capture at their door.†   (source)
  • " 'Contemptible brute!' said El-ahrairah, as they scurried back to the warren with nothing to show for all their trouble.†   (source)
  • Vengeance, blind and sterile and contemptible.†   (source)
  • One day I would grudgingly thank Hema for making us copy in the round and ornate styles: Knowledge shall be promoted by frequent exercise Art polishes and improves nature Fortune is a fair but fickle mistrefs Yesterday misspent can't be recall'd Vanity makes beauty contemptible Wisdom is more valuable than riches.†   (source)
  • That's a contemptible lie," I said.†   (source)
  • Indeed, in a letter to Congress written that same day, Washington portrayed much of the army as plainly "contemptible."†   (source)
  • Half a dozen times he has tried to marry me to toothless greybeards, each more contemptible than the last.†   (source)
  • I am not committing the contemptible act of asking you to take me on faith.†   (source)
  • I am a member-in-good-standingof that contemptible race and I cannot help it.†   (source)
  • 'Woman, you are contemptible] I came to you pleading with you to keep honour to your husband, with the cause!†   (source)
  • Then, "I believe their indifference to the damage caused by running only the one story is more contemptible even than actual malice," she finally said.†   (source)
  • Earl was black, and black people were contemptible to Simmons but still preferable to me.†   (source)
  • He studied the paper unhappily, sharply remembering his younger son's face, arrogant and sullen, handsome as his mother's face (except for those ears, long as an elephant's ears, and red)--quick to sneer, quick to smile, as hers was, a face as delicate as his own was blunt: his own, or Will's, or his daughter Mary Lou's--the face of Luke Hodge in whom all that was subtly wrong, for obscure reasons contemptible, in W. B. Hodge, Attorney at Law, came into enigmatic focus.†   (source)
  • I thought I had gotten hold of a great dog but found a contemptible whining puppy.†   (source)
  • The man who lets himself be bored is even more contemptible than the bore.   (source)
    contemptible = bad (deserving no respect)
  • The fear and despair they had felt a moment earlier were drowned in their rage against this vile, contemptible act.   (source)
    contemptible = very bad
  • They could not understand, they said, how even animals could bring themselves to sing such contemptible rubbish.   (source)
    contemptible = very bad (deserving no respect)
  • Nothing would have been more nonsensical and, above all, more pointless and contemptible.   (source)
    contemptible = deserving no respect (worthless or of bad quality)
  • Immediately he realized that of all the ... contemptible ways of announcing an engagement this was the worst.   (source)
  • Perhaps you've already heard how Dr. Huld talks about the petty lawyers, he probably made them sound very contemptible to you, and he's right, they are contemptible.   (source)
  • And he imagined the most laughable scene possible as an example of this, if this contemptible student, this inflated child, this knock-kneed redbeard, if he were kneeling at Elsa's bed wringing his hands and begging for forgiveness.   (source)
  • If all the junior officers were contemptible why would the whip-man, whose position was the most inhumane of all, be any exception, and K. had noticed very clearly how his eyes had lit up when he saw the banknotes, he had obviously only seemed serious about the flogging to raise the level of the bribe a little.   (source)
  • And in Port Ticonderoga, nobody thought the family buttons were funny or contemptible.†   (source)
  • There, he thought, was the most contemptible representative of the species.†   (source)
  • They actually consider me a contemptible bigot, Mr. McLean.†   (source)
  • It's no use pretending about it, we all know it-and I think it's contemptible.†   (source)
  • I don't think you're a contemptible bigot, sir.†   (source)
  • As I waited in the marsh grass, the other plebes seemed repugnant to me, odious and contemptible.†   (source)
  • I did it-in the name of pity for the most contemptible woman I know.†   (source)
  • If such things were done for so many immoral, even contemptible reasons, Florentino Ariza could not see why it would not be legitimate to do them for love.†   (source)
  • Old, fat, and contented, she had arrived in the company of her oldest son who, like his father, had been a colonel in the army but had been repudiated by him because of his contemptible behavior during the massacre of the banana workers in San Juan de la Cienaga.†   (source)
  • Stripped of their jewels and their fringed tokars, they were contemptible; a herd of old men with shriveled balls and spotted skin and young men with ridiculous hair Their women were either soft and fleshy or as dry as old sticks, their face paint streaked by tears.†   (source)
  • If we look into history, we shall find some nations rising from contemptible beginnings and spreading their influence, until the whole globe is subjected to their ways.†   (source)
  • I finished by telling him that he was a contemptible man without honor, and that if he ever repeated those same words I would not hold myself back as I had that day.†   (source)
  • And while it had been "the fashion in this army to treat them in the most contemptible light, they are now become a formidable enemy.†   (source)
  • To Federalist war hawks he was contemptible, since he had presumed to conduct his own peace mission to France.†   (source)
  • Washington had concluded his general orders for September 2 with a call for steadfastness and valor in the defense of New York: "Now is the time for every man to exert himself and make our country glorious or become contemptible."†   (source)
  • The contemptible essays made by you-know-whom will only tend to their own confusion…… Say as little about it as I do.†   (source)
  • Such unsoldierly conduct must grieve every good officer, and give the enemy a mean opinion of the army, as nothing shows the brave and good soldier more than in case of alarms, coolly and calmly repairing to his post, and there waiting his orders; whereas a weak curiosity at such a time makes a man look mean and contemptible.†   (source)
  • I only wish Cromwell had been less lenient and humane in his dealings with these pitiful, contemptible brutes.†   (source)
  • To me-the foulest man on earth, more contemptible than a criminal, is the employer who rejects men for being too good.†   (source)
  • Even from within that unstated, unnamed, undefined muck which represented his code of values, he was able to realize which one of them was the more dependent on the other and the more contemptible.†   (source)
  • You, of course, could not help the accident that selected you as a member of this contemptible race, but you must understand the significance of the fact and you must try to comprehend how the cards are stacked against you.†   (source)
  • Until men learn that of all human symbols, Robin Hood is the most immoral and the most contemptible, there will be no justice on earth and no way for mankind to survive.†   (source)
  • If there are degrees of evil, it is hard to say who is the more contemptible: the brute who assumes the right to force the mind of others or the moral degenerate who grants to others the right to force his mind.†   (source)
  • You're the man who would know that just as an idea unexpressed in physical action is contemptible hypocrisy, so is platonic love-and just as physical action unguided by an idea is a fool's self-fraud, so is sex when cut off from one's code of values.†   (source)
  • …and I were asked to immolate myself for the sake of creatures who wanted to survive at the price of my blood, if I were asked to serve the interests of society apart from, above and against my own-I would refuse, I would reject it as the most contemptible evil, I would fight it with every, power I possess, I would fight the whole of mankind, if one minute were all I could last before I were murdered, I would fight in the full confidence of the justice of my battle and of a living…†   (source)
  • The office of Governor of Texas, Confederate States of America, was declared to be officially vacant; and Lieutenant Governor Edward Clark, "an insignificant creature, contemptible, spry and pert," stepped up to take the oath.†   (source)
  • And the President also let loose a blast, still frequently quoted today, against "a little group of willful men, representing no opinion but their own, that rendered the great government of the United States helpless and contemptible."†   (source)
  • Style is but the faintly contemptible vessel in which the bitter liquid is recommended to the world.†   (source)
  • The Banner is a contemptible paper, isn't it?†   (source)
  • Always we shall have the heretic here at our mercy, screaming with pain, broken up, contemptible — and in the end utterly penitent, saved from himself, crawling to our feet of his own accord.†   (source)
  • How contemptible he had been!†   (source)
  • Stella: What — contemptible — lies!†   (source)
  • I Could then despise the men who thought me most contemptible, The raw nobility, whose manners matched their fingernails.†   (source)
  • For it would have been a thing of trifling and contemptible ease for Perfection to create mere perfection.†   (source)
  • Lancelot saw one soul alone, a condemned and innocent child, holding her indefensible position with the contemptible arms of hair dye and orange silk, with which she had—with what fears?†   (source)
  • The kindliness was so great that it made their love seem small and mean, because only something contemptible could evoke such immensity of compassion.†   (source)
  • The boss you work for may have ideals, but he has to beg money and take orders from many contemptible people.†   (source)
  • "I'm ashamed of you, Mitch," Toohey repeated sternly, "for comparing yourself to a man as contemptible as Gail Wynand."†   (source)
  • Wynand stood in the middle of the room, saying: "All right, it was contemptible—the whole career of the Banner.†   (source)
  • It would be much more interesting if you said that the Wynand papers are a contemptible dump heap of yellow journalism and all their writers put together aren't worth two bits.†   (source)
  • He realized that it could mean one of two things: either Wynand had surrendered respectfully to the prestige of his name—or Wynand considered him too contemptible to be worth restraining.†   (source)
  • —once, a doctor put the ends of his stethoscope into my ears and let me hear my own heartbeats—it sounded just like this—he said I was a healthy animal and good for many years—for many…years… "I have foisted upon my readers a contemptible blackguard whose spiritual stature is my only excuse.†   (source)
  • DIEU! has anyone ever seen such a contemptible climate?†   (source)
  • But is that essentially right, and proper, and honourable, or is it contemptibly mean and selfish?†   (source)
  • He felt that if he could be convicted of a contemptible action he would die.†   (source)
  • Unless she is absolutely worthless and contemptible.†   (source)
  • Seen dispassionately, it seemed contemptible.†   (source)
  • Harriet's claims to marry well are not so contemptible as you represent them.†   (source)
  • Might, could, would—they are contemptible auxiliaries.†   (source)
  • At this moment hope makes me despise their riches, which seem to me contemptible.†   (source)
  • I thought our life here was contemptible.†   (source)
  • I cannot be made unhappy by the fact that a contemptible woman has committed a crime.†   (source)
  • Burglars are getting to be so contemptible nowadays!†   (source)
  • There is one expression in the letter, one slander about me, and rather a contemptible one.†   (source)
  • I am not your relative and never have been, you contemptible man!†   (source)
  • —Treacherous, contemptible spirit, and thou hast concealed it from me!†   (source)
  • For weak people the effort not to be contemptible must be great.†   (source)
  • And even more contemptible than that is my making this remark now.†   (source)
  • I should be very contemptible to indulge in such a thought.†   (source)
  • "O, come, Augustine! as if we hadn't had enough of that abominable, contemptible Hayti!†   (source)
  • Oh, I knew I was contemptible when I stood looking at the Neva at daybreak to-day!†   (source)
  • All that's base in me, all that's mean and contemptible.†   (source)
  • "By being contemptible we set men's minds, to the tune of contempt.†   (source)
  • "And Pyotr Petrovitch is a contemptible slanderer," Dounia snapped out, suddenly.†   (source)
  • He is a contemptible Bernard and opportunist, and he doesn't believe in God; he took the bishop in!"†   (source)
  • And yet you are right--it really is vulgar and contemptible.†   (source)
  • I am a beggarly contemptible wretch, contemptible!†   (source)
  • Listen, you miserable, contemptible creature!†   (source)
  • And most contemptible of all it is that now I am attempting to justify myself to you.†   (source)
  • A contemptible person, but ready to face suffering!†   (source)
  • They are worrying and persecuting you through a stupid and contemptible suspicion….†   (source)
  • There's only one thing I can't understand: what made him risk such a contemptible action.†   (source)
  • These young men are contemptible on that point.†   (source)
  • I couldn't carry out even the first step, because I am contemptible, that's what's the matter!†   (source)
  • He felt that he was fit for something better than to add up accounts, and it was humiliating that he did so ill something which seemed contemptible.†   (source)
  • Distinction does not consist in the facile use of a contemptible set of conventions, but in being numbered among those who are true, and honest, and just, and pure, and lovely, and of good report—as you are, my Tess.†   (source)
  • Those qualities for which he had suffered, his moodiness, his tendency to pose, his laziness, and his love of playing the fool, were now taken as a matter of course, recognized eccentricities in a star quarter-back, a clever actor, and the editor of the St. Regis Tattler: it puzzled him to see impressionable small boys imitating the very vanities that had not long ago been contemptible weaknesses.†   (source)
  • The tumult and the menace of wind and sea now appeared very contemptible to Jim, increasing the regret of his awe at their inefficient menace.†   (source)
  • There was something rather "doggy", rather smart, rather 'cute and shrewd, and something warm, and something slightly contemptible about him.†   (source)
  • 'tis well known, a big nose is indicative Of a soul affable, and kind, and courteous, Liberal, brave, just like myself, and such As you can never dare to dream yourself, Rascal contemptible!†   (source)
  • Sometimes he was contemptibly childish.†   (source)
  • She is a contemptible old thing, but she is able to twist people round her little finger, and I admire that in her, at all events!†   (source)
  • She imagined some half dozen women in love with him and thought he must lean dangerously toward an indefinite one, whom she pictured with great charms of person, but with an altogether contemptible disposition.†   (source)
  • It was too late, now, to retire, and since she must know all, so as not to seem too contemptible, too jealous and inquisitive, he called out in a careless, hearty, welcoming tone: "Please don't bother; I just happened to be passing, and saw the light.†   (source)
  • He despised Griffiths for his apologies, he had no patience with his prickings of conscience: one could do a dastardly thing if one chose, but it was contemptible to regret it afterwards.†   (source)
  • The point was in his being a gifted creature, and that of all his gifts the one that stood out pre-eminently, that carried with it a sense of real presence, was his ability to talk, his words—the gift of expression, the bewildering, the illuminating, the most exalted and the most contemptible, the pulsating stream of light, or the deceitful flow from the heart of an impenetrable darkness.†   (source)
  • But to suppose that she went to bad houses, that she abandoned herself to orgies with other women, that she led the crapulous existence of the most abject, the most contemptible of mortals—would be an insane wandering of the mind, for the realisation of which, thank heaven, the chrysanthemums that he could imagine, the daily cups of tea, the virtuous indignation left neither time nor place.†   (source)
  • You are amused because I talk in this fashion and you know that I am poor and live in an attic with a vulgar trollop who deceives me with hair-dressers and garcons de cafe; I translate wretched books for the British public, and write articles upon contemptible pictures which deserve not even to be abused.†   (source)
  • Kiss me, oh kiss me lots of times, and say I am not a coward and a contemptible humbug—I can't bear it!"†   (source)
  • …of all the unknown element in her life into which I would fain have plunged headlong, have undergone reincarnation, discarding my own separate existence as a thing that no longer mattered, I thought now, as of an inestimable advantage, that of this, my own, my too familiar, my contemptible existence Gilberte might one day become the humble servant, the kindly, the comforting collaborator, who in the evenings, helping me in my work, would collate for me the texts of rare pamphlets.†   (source)
  • Alfred scolds me, every time we meet; and he has the better of me, I grant,—for he really does something; his life is a logical result of his opinions and mine is a contemptible non sequitur.†   (source)
  • "But won't that mar the charming effect of my consistent shabbiness?" said Maggie, seating herself submissively, while Lucy knelt again and unfastened the contemptible butterfly.†   (source)
  • For, I cannot adequately express what pain it gave me to think that Estella should show any favor to a contemptible, clumsy, sulky booby, so very far below the average.†   (source)
  • Miss Ward's match, indeed, when it came to the point, was not contemptible: Sir Thomas being happily able to give his friend an income in the living of Mansfield; and Mr. and Mrs. Norris began their career of conjugal felicity with very little less than a thousand a year.†   (source)
  • If we compare land animals in respect to magnitude, with those that take up their abode in the deep, we shall find they will appear contemptible in the comparison.†   (source)
  • It had been seen, already, that his skill was far from being contemptible, and he now resolved to put forth its nicest qualities.†   (source)
  • Great goodnature, a very tolerable share of skill in his profession, and, considering the circumstances, no contemptible degree of honesty, were the principal ingredients in the character of this man, who was known to the settlers as Squire Van der School, and sometimes by the flattering though anomalous title of the "Dutch" or "honest lawyer."†   (source)
  • Giles followed as well as he could; and Oliver followed too; and in the course of a minute or two, Mr. Losberne, who had been out walking, and just then returned, tumbled over the hedge after them, and picking himself up with more agility than he could have been supposed to possess, struck into the same course at no contemptible speed, shouting all the while, most prodigiously, to know what was the matter.†   (source)
  • I've a very good mind to shake you severely, for your contemptible treachery, and your imbecile conceit.'†   (source)
  • The cardinal, however contemptible might be the triumph gained over so vulgar a being as Bonacieux, did not the less enjoy it for an instant; then, almost immediately, as if a fresh thought has occurred, a smile played upon his lips, and he said, offering his hand to the mercer, "Rise, my friend, you are a worthy man."†   (source)
  • So we shake off these griefs in a way which perhaps the sentimentalists of other times would think contemptible and unheroic, but which we think necessary and manlike.†   (source)
  • "Yes, I never thought of it, but I have led a contemptible and profligate life, though I did not like it and did not want to," thought Pierre.†   (source)
  • But when all that is explained and worked out on paper (which is perfectly possible, for it is contemptible and senseless to suppose that some laws of nature man will never understand), then certainly so-called desires will no longer exist.†   (source)
  • But some indistinct allusions to a 'puss,' and a 'minx,' and a 'contemptible creature,' escaped her; and this, together with a severe biting of the lips, great difficulty in swallowing, and very frequent comings and goings of breath, seemed to imply that feelings were swelling in Miss Squeers's bosom too great for utterance.†   (source)
  • You have no self-respect, you have no becoming pride, just as you allow yourself to be followed about by a contemptible little Chivery of a thing,' with the scornfullest emphasis, 'you would let your family be trodden on, and never turn.'†   (source)
  • They are but dim ill-defined pictures that her narrow bit of an imagination can make of the future; but of every picture she is the central figure in fine clothes; Captain Donnithorne is very close to her, putting his arm round her, perhaps kissing her, and everybody else is admiring and envying her—especially Mary Burge, whose new print dress looks very contemptible by the side of Hetty's resplendent toilette.†   (source)
  • They think themselves generous if they give our children a five-pound note, and us contemptible if we are without one.†   (source)
  • I grant you, that any of them but Charles would be a very shocking match for Henrietta, and indeed it could not be; he is the only one that could be possible; but he is a very good-natured, good sort of a fellow; and whenever Winthrop comes into his hands, he will make a different sort of place of it, and live in a very different sort of way; and with that property, he will never be a contemptible man—good, freehold property.†   (source)
  • The disturbance was as the first floating weed to Columbus—the contemptibly little suggesting possibilities of the infinitely great.†   (source)
  • He had not only a dislike, but a sort of moral mistrust, of uncomfortable thoughts, and it was both uncomfortable and slightly contemptible to feel obliged to square one's self with a standard.†   (source)
  • ]] In the United States, where the public officers have no interests to promote connected with their caste, the general and constant influence of the Government is beneficial, although the individuals who conduct it are frequently unskilful and sometimes contemptible.†   (source)
  • Under the old French monarchy, to denote by a single expression a low-spirited contemptible fellow, it was usual to say that he had the "soul of a lackey"; the term was enough to convey all that was intended.†   (source)
  • As to you," Joe pursued with a countenance expressive of seeing something very nasty indeed, "if you could have been aware how small and flabby and mean you was, dear me, you'd have formed the most contemptible opinion of yourself!"†   (source)
  • Dr. Kenn, having a conscience void of offence in the matter, was still inclined to persevere,—was still averse to give way before a public sentiment that was odious and contemptible; but he was finally wrought upon by the consideration of the peculiar responsibility attached to his office, of avoiding the appearance of evil,—an "appearance" that is always dependent on the average quality of surrounding minds.†   (source)
  • Oh! most contemptible and worthy of all scorn; with slouched hat and guilty eye, skulking from his God; prowling among the shipping like a vile burglar hastening to cross the seas.†   (source)
  • Uncas had cast his body back against the wall of the hut and closed his eyes, as if willing to exclude so contemptible and disagreeable an object from his sight.†   (source)
  • Yet perchance to-morrow deception will so act on me, that I shall, on compulsion, consider such a contemptible possession as the utmost happiness.†   (source)
  • Never mind, Harriet, I shall not be a poor old maid; and it is poverty only which makes celibacy contemptible to a generous public!†   (source)
  • This great effort of genius, which is still in the possession of George's mother, is as follows: On Selfishness—Of all the vices which degrade the human character, Selfishness is the most odious and contemptible.†   (source)
  • "Listen, Felton," resumed Milady, "for by the side of base and contemptible men there are often found great and generous natures.†   (source)
  • He regarded all these occupations as hindrances to life, and considered that they were all contemptible because their aim was the welfare of himself and his family.†   (source)
  • He made me feel more and more resentful, and more and more contemptible, by always presenting to me everything that surrounded me with some new hateful light upon it, while he pretended to exhibit it in its best aspect for my admiration and his own.†   (source)
  • ' "But then," I continued, holding myself ready to flee, "if poor Catherine had trusted you, and assumed the ridiculous, contemptible, degrading title of Mrs. Heathcliff, she would soon have presented a similar picture!†   (source)
  • This did not mean, as it may be imagined at the present day, that these people were contemptible; but simply that their actions were not to be judged by the same rules which were applied to the actions of the aristocracy.†   (source)
  • As the ground was steep and slippery in every direction around the place, and Benjamin appeared behind the works on one side, and Natty on the other, the arrangement was by no means contemptible, especially as the front was sufficiently guarded by the difficulty of the approach.†   (source)
  • It did appear—there was no concealing it—exactly like the pretence of being in love with her, instead of Harriet; an inconstancy, if real, the most contemptible and abominable! and she had difficulty in behaving with temper.†   (source)
  • Nor is it to be doubted that as such a procedure can do no harm, it may possibly be of no contemptible advantage; considering that oil and water are hostile; that oil is a sliding thing, and that the object in view is to make the boat slide bravely.†   (source)
  • Why had he not stayed among the crowd of whom she asked nothing—but only prayed that they might be less contemptible?†   (source)
  • The ceremony was effective up to a certain point, and would have been wholly so throughout, if Miss Rugg, as she raised her glass to her lips in completion of it, had not happened to look at Young John; when she was again so overcome by the contemptible comicality of his disinterestedness as to splutter some ambrosial drops of rum and water around, and withdraw in confusion.†   (source)
  • To Bolkonski so many people appeared contemptible and insignificant creatures, and he so longed to find in someone the living ideal of that perfection toward which he strove, that he readily believed that in Speranski he had found this ideal of a perfectly rational and virtuous man.†   (source)
  • Bathsheba demurely regarded a contemptible straw lying upon the ground, in a way which suggested less ovine criticism than womanly embarrassment.†   (source)
  • This is true in one sense, for indeed no one thinks that he is not better than his neighbor, or consents to obey his superior: but it is extremely false in another; for the same man who cannot endure subordination or equality, has so contemptible an opinion of himself that he thinks he is only born to indulge in vulgar pleasures.†   (source)
  • But as these pig-fish are a noisy, contemptible set, mostly lurking in the mouths of rivers, and feeding on wet hay, and especially as they do not spout, I deny their credentials as whales; and have presented them with their passports to quit the Kingdom of Cetology.†   (source)
  • He liked saying "Bathsheba" as a private enjoyment instead of whistling; turned over his taste to black hair, though he had sworn by brown ever since he was a boy, isolated himself till the space he filled in the public eye was contemptibly small.†   (source)
  • If he were now to leave Moscow like everyone else, his flight from home, the peasant coat, the pistol, and his announcement to the Rostovs that he would remain in Moscow would all become not merely meaningless but contemptible and ridiculous, and to this Pierre was very sensitive.†   (source)
  • His being a clergyman would be only for gentility's sake, and I think there is nothing more contemptible than such imbecile gentility.†   (source)
  • It did not make humanity or kindness its law, but it extolled generosity; it set more store on liberality than on benevolence; it allowed men to enrich themselves by gambling or by war, but not by labor; it preferred great crimes to small earnings; cupidity was less distasteful to it than avarice; violence it often sanctioned, but cunning and treachery it invariably reprobated as contemptible.†   (source)
  • Much might be ruminated here, concerning the essential dignity of this regal process, because in common life we esteem but meanly and contemptibly a fellow who anoints his hair, and palpably smells of that anointing.†   (source)
  • But that's enough, or there will be no end to it; each step will be more contemptible than the last….†   (source)
  • "Is it possible that a miserable, contemptible creature like that can worry me so much?" he wondered, with insufferable irritation.†   (source)
  • Lemarrois had just arrived at a gallop with Bonaparte's stern letter, and Murat, humiliated and anxious to expiate his fault, had at once moved his forces to attack the center and outflank both the Russian wings, hoping before evening and before the arrival of the Emperor to crush the contemptible detachment that stood before him.†   (source)
  • How can you bear to be so contemptible, when others are working and striving, and there are so many things to be done—how can you bear to be fit for nothing in the world that is useful?†   (source)
  • "A new man, or a Bernard who'll decide a la Bernard, for I believe I'm a contemptible Bernard myself," said Mitya, with a bitter grin.†   (source)
  • You will say that it is vulgar and contemptible to drag all this into public after all the tears and transports which I have myself confessed.†   (source)
  • …the possibility of bringing about the welfare of his peoples—at the time when Napoleon in exile was drawing up childish and mendacious plans of how he would have made mankind happy had he retained power—Alexander I, having fulfilled his mission and feeling the hand of God upon him, suddenly recognizes the insignificance of that supposed power, turns away from it, and gives it into the hands of contemptible men whom he despises, saying only: "Not unto us, not unto us, but unto Thy Name!†   (source)
  • …him to carry out his own ideas of professional work and public benefit—he had so constantly in their personal intercourse had his pride sustained by the sense that he was making a good social use of this predominating banker, whose opinions he thought contemptible and whose motives often seemed to him an absurd mixture of contradictory impressions—that he had been creating for himself strong ideal obstacles to the proffering of any considerable request to him on his own account.†   (source)
  • He hated me at that time, because he had behaved contemptibly and was running after that creature …. and because he owed me that three thousand….†   (source)
  • But why is it contemptible?†   (source)
  • But against his taking this step, which he still felt to be a contemptible relinquishment of present work, a guilty turning aside from what was a real and might be a widening channel for worthy activity, to start again without any justified destination, there was this obstacle, that the purchaser, if procurable at all, might not be quickly forthcoming.†   (source)
  • I am a contemptible person, Dounia.†   (source)
  • It's simply because I am contemptible and have nothing in me that I have decided to, perhaps too for my advantage, as that….†   (source)
  • Probably "taking his cue" from Luzhin, "that contemptible wretch Lebeziatnikov had not turned up either.†   (source)
  • He at once wrote a note to my mother and informed her that I had given away all my money, not to Katerina Ivanovna but to Sofya Semyonovna, and referred in a most contemptible way to the…. character of Sofya Semyonovna, that is, hinted at the character of my attitude to Sofya Semyonovna.†   (source)
  • Katerina Ivanovna rose from her chair, and with a stern and apparently calm voice (though she was pale and her chest was heaving) observed that "if she dared for one moment to set her contemptible wretch of a father on a level with her papa, she, Katerina Ivanovna, would tear her cap off her head and trample it under foot."†   (source)
  • It is very probable, too, that Katerina Ivanovna longed on this occasion, at the moment when she seemed to be abandoned by everyone, to show those "wretched contemptible lodgers" that she knew "how to do things, how to entertain" and that she had been brought up "in a genteel, she might almost say aristocratic colonel's family" and had not been meant for sweeping floors and washing the children's rags at night.†   (source)
  • CHAPTER XIX — THAT ONE SHOULD AVOID BEING DESPISED AND HATED Now, concerning the characteristics of which mention is made above, I have spoken of the more important ones, the others I wish to discuss briefly under this generality, that the prince must consider, as has been in part said before, how to avoid those things which will make him hated or contemptible; and as often as he shall have succeeded he will have fulfilled his part, and he need not fear any danger in other reproaches.†   (source)
  • How contemptible!†   (source)
  • Not from the metre, not from the language, not from the order of the words; but the matter expressed in Dr. Johnson's stanza is contemptible.†   (source)
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