impertinent QUOTES

1 " That is the essence of science: ask an impertinent question, and you are on the way to the pertinent answer. "

2 " The natural effort of every individual to better his own condition, when suffered to exert itself with freedom and security, is so powerful a principle, that it is alone, and without any assistance, not only capable of carrying on the society to wealth and prosperity, but of surmounting a hundred impertinent obstructions with which the folly of human laws too often encumbers its operations "

― Adam Smith , An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations

3 " She had been to her Great-Aunt Willoughby’s before, and she knew exactly what to expect. She would be asked about her lessons, and how many marks she had, and whether she had been a good girl. I can’t think why grownup people don’t see how impertinent these questions are. Suppose you were to answer:
“I’m the top of my class, auntie, thank you, and I am very good. And now let us have a little talk about you, aunt, dear. How much money have you got, and have you been scolding the servants again, or have you tried to be good and patient, as a properly brought up aunt should be, eh, dear?”
Try this method with one of your aunts next time she begins asking you questions, and write and tell me what she says. "

― E. Nesbit

4 " In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows. Nature says, -- he is my creature, and maugre all his impertinent griefs, he shall be glad with me "

― Ralph Waldo Emerson , Nature

5 " Is is difficult to be angry with a gentleman who pays you compliments, even impertinent compliments. Especially impertinent compliments. "

― Elizabeth Peters , The Hippopotamus Pool (Amelia Peabody, #8)

6 " The story concerns the reason why we love to fall in love. Beauty spins and the mind moves. To catch beauty would be to understand how the impertinent stability in vertigo is possible. But no, delight need not reach so far. To be running breathlessly, but not yet arrived, is itself delightful, a suspended moment of living hope. "

― Anne Carson

7 " What do you want, Mary Foxe? My husband?" “I believe in him," she said slowly. I wondered if she’d ever told him that, and if so, what he had to say about it. Someone you made up turns around and tells you they believe in you— what response could you possibly make? The scenario is just plain weird. And really kind of impertinent on her part, too. If it happened to me I think I’d be speechless for the rest of my life. "

8 " It seemed as though he had a fundamental belief that the merit of his argument depended on the strength of his feelings about the matter, and since he always felt uncontrollably passionate about everything, then clearly he was always right. This irrational claptrap, coming as it did from a swarthy, excitable, plump Celtic demi-dwarf, struck me not just as thoroughly impertinent but also as a noisy and ignorant attempt to undermine the most basic principles of the Enlightenment. "

― John Cleese , So, Anyway...

9 " Science tells us what we can know, but what we can know is little, and if we forget how much we cannot know we become insensitive to many things of very great importance. Theology, on the other hand, induces a dogmatic belief that we have knowledge where in fact we have ignorance, and by doing so generates a kind of impertinent insolence towards the universe. Uncertainty, in the presence of vivid hopes and fears, is painful, but must be endured if we wish to live without the support of comforting fairy tales. "

― Bertrand Russell

10 " I ask people impertinent questions. Hopefully turning up pertinent answers. "

― Jim Butcher , Small Favor (The Dresden Files, #10)

11 " There are impertinent inquiries made; your rule is, to leave the inquirer uninformed on the matter; not, if you can help it, misinformed, but precisely as dark as he was! "

― Thomas Carlyle , On Heroes, Hero Worship and the Heroic in History

12 " In some situations, if you say nothing, you are called dull; if you talk, you are thought impertinent and arrogant. It is hard to know what to do in this case. The question seems to be, whether your vanity or your prudence predominates. "

― William Hazlitt , Selected Essays, 1778-1830

13 " ...it is indeed a street of so impertinent a nature, so unfortunately connected with the great London and Oxford roads, and the principal inn of the city, that a day never passes in which parties of ladies, however important their business, whether in quest of pastry, millinery, or even (as in the present case) of young men, are not detained on one side or other by carriages, horsemen, or carts. This evil had been felt and lamented, at least three times a day, by Isabella since her residence in Bath... "

― Jane Austen , Northanger Abbey

14 " Public opinion: a vulgar impertinent anonymous tyrant who deliberately makes life unpleasant for any one of us who is not content to be the average man. "

15 " Public opinion a vulgar impertinent anonymous tyrant who deliberately makes life unpleasant for anyone who is not content to be the average man. "

16 " I like texting as much as the next kidult - and embrace it as yet more evidence, along with email, that we live now in the post-aural age, when an unsolicited phone call is, thankfully, becoming more and more understood to be an unspeakable social solecism, tantamount to an impertinent invasion of privacy. "

17 " One must not make oneself cheap here - that is a cardinal point - or else one is done. Whoever is most impertinent has the best chance. "