quotations about ingratitude
A man is very apt to complain of the ingratitude of those who have risen far above him.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Life of Samuel Johnson
We fancy we suffer from ingratitude, while in reality we suffer from self-love.
EPICURUS
attributed, Day's Collacon
If we see gratitude as a moral duty, then ingratitude is a failure to live as duty requires. If, however, we see gratitude as a moral virtue, ingratitude reveals a flawed character. In either instance, ingratitude is a moral failure that we easily recognize and condemn. But although ingratitude is universally condemned, it is not the kind of moral failure that we usually punish. In fact, to punish a person for ingratitude would seem, in most cases, to be an overextension of law.
MARK T. MITCHELL
The Politics of Gratitude
We seldom do a kindness, which, if we consider it rightly, is not abundantly repaid; and we should hear little of ingratitude, unless we were so apt to exaggerate the worth of our better deeds, and to look for a return in proportion to our own exorbitant estimate.
A. W. HARE
attributed, Day's Collacon
Ingratitude is a crime so shameful that no one has ever yet been found who would acknowledge himself guilty of it.
GOOLD BROWN
The Institutes of English Grammar, Methodically Arranged
Ingratitude is so monstrous and so black a crime that none but devils ever practice it.
EDWARD PICKERING RICH
A Sermon Preach'd at Cheltenham Before a Polite Audience, August 5, 1750
Ingratitude is the abridgment of all baseness--a fault never found unattended with other viciousness.
THOMAS FULLER
The Church History of Britain
If someone's ungrateful and you tell him he's ungrateful, okay, you've called him a name. You haven't solved anything.
ROBERT M. PIRSIG
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
As the deepest hate may spring from the most violent love, so the greatest ingratitude may arise from the largest benefits.
J. BEAUMONT
attributed, Day's Collacon
Ingratitude calls forth reproaches, as gratitude brings fresh kindness.
MME. DE SEVIGNE
attributed, Day's Collacon
The greatest kindness will not bind the ungrateful.
AESOP
"The Farmer and the Snake", Aesop's Fables
If there be a crime of deeper dye than all the guilty train of human vices, it is ingratitude.
H. BROOKE
attributed, Day's Collacon
Ingratitude is always a kind of weakness. I have never known men of ability to be ungrateful.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe
It is better to expose ourselves to ingratitude than to neglect our duty to the distressed.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of the Affections", Les Caractères
Of all the dark spots on depraved human nature, of the vile acts of man toward man, none throw such a freezing chill over the whole body, and drive back the purple current on the aching heart, like base and damning ingratitude.
L. C. JUDSON
attributed, Day's Collacon
He that's ungrateful, has no guilt but one;
All other crimes may pass for virtues in him.
EDWARD YOUNG
Busiris