Personal Attack Quotes

If you can't answer a man's arguments, all is not lost; you can still call him vile names.

Criticism is futile because it puts a person on the defensive and usually makes them strive to justify themselves. Criticism is dangerous, because it wounds a person's precious pride, hurts their sense of importance, and arouses resentment.

Insinuations that Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is my brother are absurd and offensive.

We all resort to the ad hominem from time to time: in human affairs, it is difficult to avoid it, and probably not desirable. After all, our opponents are human. The proper use of an ad hominem argument, however, still requires evidence to back it up.

I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.

You never win an argument until they attack your person.

The trouble with you, Eisenhower, is that you're too small minded.

As a rule I don't care a damn what any crooked newspaperman says about me, because they're mostly goddamn liars.

I don't mind being criticized. I enjoy being criticized personally, not by rumor.

[Describing his opponent:] ... a cross between a hyena and a mongrel ... begotten in a graveyard at midnight, suckled by a sow and educated by a fool.

Kerry's mental age doesn't exceed that of a 12-year-old.

If Meekmahan ever came to the Hardy compound, I would tell Meekmahan, face-to-face, 'You'll fade away and classify yourself as obsolete! Obsolete!'

Criticism can be devastating. When push comes to shove, we are all very sensitive.

Someone once claimed I was not really a Yorkshireman!

Alexander Hamilton is a man devoid of every moral principle.

If a man's character is to be abused there's nobody like a relative to do the business.

Nobody has a right to call me or the prime minister a thief and a liar.

It's a sad indication of where Washington has come, where policy differences almost necessarily become questions of integrity. I came to Washington in the late '70s, and people had the ability in the past to have intense policy differences but didn't feel the need to question the other person's character.

It was the worst day of my life. Khrushchev savaged me.

How can I wage political battle against a widow who does not mean anyone any harm except only the president himself?

Every man who attacks my belief, diminishes in some degree my confidence in it, and therefore makes me uneasy; and I am angry with him who makes me uneasy.

It's clear that Planned Parenthood went out of its way to paint me as some sort of a zealot - a Trojan-horse zealot who came into Komen and within 10 to 11 months had completely turned the place upside down. That's clearly not who I am, and it's not what happened.

An attack is always a smear when it is directed against you.

I've been personally attacked for respectfully expressing my take on women's empowerment.