She was nothing more than a mere good-tempered, civil and obliging young woman; as such we could scarcely dislike heröshe was onlyan Object of Contempt.

-Austen,Jane
  Love and Freindship,'Letter the13th'.

For it isa true Rulethat Love is ever rewarded, either with the reciproque, or with an inward and secret contempt.

-Bacon, Francis,Viscount St Albans
  Essays, no.10,'Of Love'.

No wonder the really powerful men in our society, whether politicians or scientists, hold writers in contempt.Theydoit becausetheyget no evidence from modern literature that anybody is thinking about any significant question.

-Bellow, Saul
  Interview in The Paris Review, no.37, winter issue.

This only grant me, that my means may lie Too low for envy, for contempt too high.

-Cowley, Abraham
  Essays, in Verse and Prose,'Of Myself'.

Great art is the contempt of a great man for small art.

-Fitzgerald, F(rancis) Scott Key
Note Books, L, in Edmund Wilson (ed)  The Crack-Up (1945).

   I have always had the greatest contempt for novels written with a purpose. Fiction should render, not draw morals. But†I sinned against my gods to the extent of saying that I was goingöto the level of the light vouchsafed meöto write a work that should have for its purpose the obviating of all future wars.

-Ford, Ford Madox originally Ford Hermann Hueffer
  On Parade's End.

Welfare is hated by those who administer it; mistrusted by those who pay for it; and held in contempt by those who receive it.

-Goldmark, Peter Carl,Jr
  In the NewYork Times, 24 May.

To these compositions is required neither genius nor knowledge, neither industry nor spriteliness, but contempt of shame, and indifference to truth are absolutely necessary.

-Johnson, Samuel known as Dr Johnson
  Of journalistic reporting. In The Idler, no.31,11 Nov.

As Ihavejust come frommaking my Easterconfessionon Good Fridayand have forgiven all those who trespass against me, I cannot harbour any thoughts of revenge, only contempt for an arrant shit who is bursting with pride, although he is simply being taken for a ride by his women.

-Joseph II
  Of the senior dignitary of the Holy Roman Empire, the Elector- Archbishop of Mainz. Letter to Trauttmansdorff (his representative at Mainz),14  Apr. Quoted in T C  W Blanning Joseph II (1994), p.148.

Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail Or knock the breast, no weakness, no contempt, Dispraise, or blame, nothing but well and fair, And what may quiet us in a death so noble.

-Milton,John
Of Samson's heroic death. Samson  Agonistes, l.1721^4.

It is increasingly rare for many of us†to believe that people can be poor, but honest, poor but deserving of respect. Poverty is no longer blamed on anyone but the poor themselves.Contempt for the poor has become a virtue.

-O'Connor, Cardinal JohnJoseph
  In Catholic NewYork, quoted in the NewYork Times, 24 Nov.

Boys do now cry 'Kiss my Parliament!' instead of 'Kiss myarse!'so great and general a contempt is the Rump come to among all men, good and bad.

-Pepys, Samuel
  Diary entry,7 Feb.The Rump Parliament was that which persisted after the fall of Richard Cromwell, and before the restoration of Charles II.

Pantagrue¤  lisme†est certaine gaiete¤   d'esprit confite en me¤  pris des choses fortuites. Pantagruelism is a certain liveliness of mind made in contempt of chance happenings.

-Rabelais, Fran c° ois
  Quart Livre, Prologue de l'auteur.

In the relations of a weak Government and a rebellious people there comes a time when everyact of the authorities exasperates the masses, and every refusal to act excites their contempt.

-Reed,John
  Ten DaysThat Shook theWorld, ch.3.

As every teacher, like every drill-sergeant or animal trainer, knows in his practice, teaching and training have virtually not yet begun, so long as the pupil istoo young, too stupid, too scared or too sulky to respondöand to respond is not just to yield.Where there is a modicum of alacrity, interest or anyhow docility in the pupil, where he tries, however faintheartedly, to get things right rather than awkward, where, even, he registers even a slight contempt for the poor performances of others, of chagrin at his own, pleasure at his own successes and envy of those of others, then he is, in however slight a degree, co-operating and so self-moving.

-Ryle, Gilbert
Quoted in R S Peters (ed) The Concept of Education (1966), ch.7.

I am proud of your contempt for my character and opinions, sir.

-Shaw, George Bernard
  Roebuck Ramsden toJohnTanner. Man and Superman, act1.

Familiarity breeds contemptöand children.

-Twain, Mark pseudonym of  Samuel Langhorne Clemens
c.1894  Quoted in Albert Bigelow Paine (ed) MarkTwain's Notebook (1935).

   When I survey the wondrous cross On which the prince of glory died, My richest gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride.

-Watts, Isaac
  Hymns and Spiritual Songs,'Crucifixion to theWorld, by the Cross of Christ'.

Have you not learn'd great lessons fromthose who reject you, and brace themselves against you? or who treat you with contempt, or dispute the passage with you?

-Whitman,Walt(er)
  Leaves of Grass,'Sands at Seventy','Stronger Lessons'.

Harold Ross†had a contempt for anything he didn't understand, which was practically everything.

-Woollcott, Alexander Humphreys
Quoted inJamesThurber TheYearsWith Ross (1959), ch.15.