Perversity Quotes

29 quotes by 27 authors

Perversity is the muse of modern literature. — Susan Sontag
Prior to Valentinus, those who follow Valentinus had no existence. Nor did those from Marcion exist before Marcion. Nor, in short, did any of those… — Irenaeus of Lyons
There is a diabolical streak in me, a troublesome and inexplicable perversity. — Octave Mirbeau
Could that have been what happened to the human race - a willing perversity that set at naught all human values which had been so… — Clifford D. Simak
Being generous is inborn; being altruistic is a learned perversity. No resemblance -- — Robert A. Heinlein
I am a conservative. Quite possibly I am on the losing side; often I think so. Yet, out of a curious perversity I had rather… — Russell Kirk
To offer the complexities of life as an excuse for not addressing oneself to the simpler, more manageable (trivial) aspects of daily existence is a… — Barbara Grizzuti Harrison
Sobriety diminishes, discriminates, and says no; drunkenness expands, unites, and says yes. Not through mere perversity do men run after it. — William James
Misgovernment is of four kinds, often in combination. They are: 1) tyranny or oppression, of which history provides so many well-known examples that they do… — Barbara Tuchman
Out of sheer perversity, I followed beauty where it lead, into the silence. — Dave Hickey
I could be mistaken, but I believe the majority of artists are perverts, and that inspiration springs from the seat of perversity; that smooth stretch… — James Jean
Life is extraordinarily suave and sweet with certain natural, witty, affectionate people who have unusual distinction and are capable of every vice, but who make… — Marcel Proust
The heart prefers to move against the grain of circumstance; perversity is the souls very life. — John Updike
They who do not understand that a man may be brought to hope that which of all things is the most grievous to him, have… — Anthony Trollope
Drawing is one of those things which sit on the uneasy bending line between instinct and instruction, where seeming perversity eventually trumps pleasure as the… — Adam Gopnik
My mother was convinced, and on this head I have retained her firm belief, that to kill animals for the purpose of feeding on their… — Alphonse de Lamartine
It [will-making] is the latest opportunity we have of exercising the natural perversity of the disposition ... This last act of our lives seldom belies… — William Hazlitt
In the sphere of thought, absurdity and perversity remain the masters of the world, and their dominion is suspended only for brief periods. — Arthur Schopenhauer
National character is only another name for the particular form which the littleness, perversity and baseness of mankind take in every country. Every nation mocks… — Arthur Schopenhauer
The appearance in nineteenth-century psychiatry, jurisprudence, and literature of a whole series of discourses on the species and subspecies of homosexuality, inversion, pederasty, and "psychic… — Michel Foucault

Who Wrote These Perversity Quotes

27 authors contributed a total of 29 Perversity Quotes, led by these top contributors: