Jeremy Paxman Quotes

In order to feel contempt, you generally need to cherish some kind of feelings.

If the laughter of the audience was malicious we wouldn't show it.

It is horrid to smirk.

Contempt is a dangerous emotion, luring us into believing that we understand more than we do. Contempt causes us to jeer rather than speak, to poke at rather than touch.

What looks like enjoyment is the sneer of contempt. That's not a smile.

Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.

A little disdain is not amiss; a little scorn is alluring.

Man learns more readily and remembers more willingly what excites his ridicule than what deserves his esteem and respect.

Contempt, thought Tyrion, the universal tongue.

Contempt is the emotion we feel for an opponent whose arguments are too formidable to refute.

And as they pass, turn back and laugh at me.

Who can refute a sneer?

The idea of having Australians upset at me is just awful.

Between flattery and admiration there often flows a river of contempt.

Facetiousness is allowable when it is the most proper instrument of exposing things apparently base and vile to due contempt.

A solitary laugh is often a laugh of superiority.

You are a daft race. Begone!

As for the calumnies, the insults, the angry cries outside, let them go on building up—no matter what height they reach, it will still fall short of my contempt.

Weak! Weak! Weak!

I've done pretty well as a professional fed-up. The tools of my trade so far have been irony, tongue-in-cheek mockery, and supercilious contempt, but these are highly civilized weapons designed for 18th-century French salons.

Disgust is often more deeply buried than envy and anger, but it compounds and intensifies the other negative emotions.

I scorn you, scurvy companion.

Peeta smiles at me, sad and mocking. "Okay. Thanks for the tip, sweetheart.

Scorn, at first, makes after-love the more.

There was that half-smirk again, playing around his lips, as if he was deciding whether the situation was amusing enough to warrant a full smile.