83 Indefensible Quotes
Following is our list of indefensible quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about inexcusable.
Quick Jump To
Famous Indefensible Quotes
The unarmed man is not just defenseless - he is also contemptible. — Niccolo Machiavelli
There is no such thing as a successful defense. — George S. Patton
In trying to defend everything he defended nothing. — Frederick the Great
The worst thing that can happen to a good cause is not to be skillfully attacked, but to be ineptly defended. — Frederic Bastiat
Their is no defense against criticism except obscurity. — Joseph Addison
There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men. — Lord Acton
For there is no defense for a man who, in the excess of his wealth, has kicked the great altar of Justice out of sight. — Aeschylus
All logical arguments can be defeated by the simple refusal to reason logically — Steven Weinberg
It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument. — William Gibbs McAdoo
The most perfidious way of harming a cause consists of defending it deliberately with faulty arguments. — Friedrich Nietzsche
To be forced to defend oneself is an inherently undesirable position to be in. The focus shifts from ideas to the person conveying them. — Maajid Nawaz
Any formal attack on ignorance is bound to fail because the masses are always ready to defend their most precious possession - their ignorance. — Hendrik Willem Van Loon
A defence in the Inquisition is of little use to the prisoner, for a suspicion only is deemed sufficient cause of condemnation, and the greater his wealth the greater his danger. — John Foxe
Defense is superior to opulence. — Adam Smith
Arguments out of a pretty mouth are unanswerable. — Joseph Addison
Short Indefensible Quotes
- God forbid that any book should be banned. The practice is as indefensible as infanticide. — Rebecca West
- In our time political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible. — George Orwell
- Political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible. — George Orwell
- I made a big mistake. It is indefensible and I am sorry. — William J. Clinton
- You can't defend the indefensible - anything you say sounds self-serving and hypocritical. — Diane Abbott
- Public school system status quo is indefensible. — Barack Obama
- Property in land is as indefensible as property in man. — Henry George
- War is indefensible on every grounds, military and economic and diplomatic and also on moral. — Eugene McCarthy
Indefinable Quotes
There is no secret to success except hard work and getting something indefinable which we call 'the breaks. — Countee Cullen
Color which, like music, is a matter of vibrations, reaches what is most general and therefore most indefinable in nature: its inner power. — Paul Gauguin
What is courage? Let me tell you what I think it is. An indefinable quality that makes a man put out that extra something, when it seems there is nothing else to give. I dare you to be better than you are. I dare you to be a thoroughbred. — Herb Brooks
The world is full of musicians who can play great, and you wouldn't cross the road to see them. It's people who have this indefinable attitude that are the good ones. — Nick Lowe
There is something in the Olympics, indefinable, springing from the soul, that must be preserved. — Chris Brasher
We are free when our actions emanate from our total personality, when they express it, when they resemble it in the indefinable way a work of art sometimes does the artist. — Henri Bergson
Christy Mathewson brought something to baseball no one else had ever given the game. He handed the game a certain touch of class, an indefinable lift in culture, brains, and personality. — Grantland Rice
Conviction brings a silent, indefinable beauty into faces made of the commonest human clay; the devout worshiper at any shrine reflects something of its golden glow, even as the glory of a noble love shines like a sort of light from a woman's face. — Honore de Balzac
Poetry is the power of defining the indefinable in terms of the unforgettable. — Louis Untermeyer
There is more or less of pathos in all true beauty. The delight it awakens has an indefinable, and, as it were, luxurious sadness, which is perhaps one element of its might. — Henry Theodore Tuckerman
Inexcusable Quotes
To play without passion is inexcusable! — Ludwig van Beethoven
We are all meant to be naturalists, each in his own degree, and it is inexcusable to live in a world so full of the marvels of plant and animal life and to care for none of these things. — Charlotte Mason
To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you. — C. S. Lewis
It is inexcusable for scientists to torture animals; let them make their experiments on journalists and politicians. — Henrik Ibsen
Carelessness is inexcusable, and merits the inevitable sequence. — James Anthony Froude
When so many are lonely as seem to be lonely, it would be inexcusably selfish to be lonely alone. — Tennessee Williams
When so many are lonely as seem to be lonely, it would be inexcusably selfish to be lonely alone. — Tennessee (Thomas Lanier) Williams
One has to speak out and stand up for one's convictions. Inaction at a time of conflagration is inexcusable. — Mahatma Gandhi
To excuse what can really produce good excuses is not Christian charity; it is only fairness. To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable in you. — C. S. Lewis
A political leader who desires to be useful to the revolutionary proletariat must be able to distinguish concrete cases of compromises that are inexcusable and are an expression of opportunism and treachery. — Vladimir Lenin
People Writing About Indefensible
| Name | Quotes | Likes |
|---|---|---|
 Joseph Addison |
571 | 3742 |
 George Orwell |
738 | 9239 |
 Niccolo Machiavelli |
374 | 6168 |
 George S. Patton |
246 | 7467 |
 Frederick the Great |
63 | 1784 |
 Frederic Bastiat |
106 | 1785 |
More Indefensible Quotes
In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible... Thus, political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging, and sheer cloudy vagueness... Political language [is] designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable. — George Orwell
I feel that the recent ruling of the United States Army and Navy regarding the refusal of colored blood donors is an indefensible one from any point of view. As you know, there is no scientific basis for the separation of the bloods of different races except on the basis of the individual blood types or groups. — Charles R. Drew
It would be a very serious mistake for the U.K. to vote to leave the European Union, and I think it would be democratically indefensible for Scotland, if we had voted to stay in, to face the prospect of being taken out. — Nicola Sturgeon
Early Russia, centered around Moscow in the 13th century, was indefensible. There were no mountains, no deserts, and few rivers. — Tim Marshall
Any nations right to a form of government and economic system of its own choosing is inalienable. Any nations attempt to dictate to other nations their form of government is indefensible. — Dwight D. Eisenhower
Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible. He is a kind of confidence man, preying on people's vanity, ignorance, or loneliness, gaining their trust and betraying them without remorse. — Janet Malcolm
I pledge impertinence to the flag waving, of the unindicted co-conspirators of America, and to the republicans for which I can't stand, one abomination, underhanded fraud, indefensible, with Liberty and Justice.. Forget it. — Matt Groening
To remain indifferent to the challenges we face is indefensible. If the goal is noble, whether or not it is realized within our lifetime is largely irrelevant. What we must do therefore is to strive and persevere and never give up. — Dalai Lama
American Jews are overwhelmingly liberal. By "liberal," I mean, basically, support for the rule of law, support for human rights, support for peace; and on all those counts - rule of law, human rights, peace - Israel's record has become indefensible. — Norman Finkelstein
Respecting other people's cultures is well and good, but I draw the line at where some branches of Islam, what they do to women. It's indefensible. — Jello Biafra
To subdivide this land into two unstable, insecure nations, to try to defend what is indefensible, is to invite disaster. Carving Judea and Samaria out of Israel means carving up Israel. — Benjamin Netanyahu
It is almost always the unhappiness of a victorious disputant to destroy his own authority by claiming too many consequences, or diffusing his proposition to an indefensible extent. — Samuel Johnson
Greyhound racing is a self-regulating gambling business that depends on the uncontrolled breeding and unaccountable disappearance of thousands of dogs every year. That is a situation that is unacceptable and indefensible — Annette Crosbie
The heartbreak of runaway corruption, abuse of power and indefensible criminality by our government and media should, must inspire all good we-the-people Americans to wake the hell up from the embarrassing self-inflicted curse of apathy and start demanding Constitutional accountability from our elected employees. — Ted Nugent
If an action must be taken that will benefit the majority at the cost of the minority, is it morally indefensible? If an action taken for the benefit of a majority occurs at the expense of a minority, is it moral action? — Garth Nix
I can't explain the lack of integrity among some of the leaders of our health care facilities. This is something I rarely encountered during 38 years in uniform. And so I will not defend it because it is indefensible. But I can take responsibility for it and I do. — Eric Shinseki
I have observed in my 30 years in Washington that when a President initiates a major policy speech on a controversial issue while Congress is in recess, it usually is because what he is advocating is indefensible and that he is seeking to minimize criticism. — Dana Rohrabacher
If any of us hopes to survive, s/he must meet the extremity of the American female condition with immediate and political response. The thoroughly destructive and indefensible subjugation of the majority of Americans cannot continue except at the peril of the entire body politic. — June Jordan
It is with great disappointment that I call on Representative Anthony Weiner to resign. The behavior he has exhibited is indefensible and Representative Weiner's continued service in Congress is untenable. — Debbie Wasserman Schultz
It is hard for a black man to just be himself. We spend so much time in defense of something that is indefensible because there is nothing to defend. — Kevin Eubanks
Although my doctors informed me that I suffered a cerebral concussion, as well as shock, I do not seek to escape responsibility for my actions by placing the blame either on the physical and emotional trauma brought on by the accident, or on anyone else. I regard as indefensible the fact that I did not report the accident to the police immediately. — Edward Kennedy
There are remuneration packages that will no longer be tolerated because they bear no relation to merit. That those who create jobs and wealth may earn a lot of money is not shocking. But that those who contribute to destroying jobs and wealth also earn a lot of money is morally indefensible. — Nicolas Sarkozy
An enormous amount of modern ingenuity is expended on finding defences for the indefensible conduct of the powerful. As I have said above, these defences generally exhibit themselves most emphatically in the form of appeals to physical science. And of all the forms in which science, or pseudo-science, has come to the rescue of the rich and stupid, there is none so singular as the singular invention of the theory of races. — Gilbert K. Chesterton
I am not a positivist. Positivism states that what cannot be observed does not exist. This conception is scientifically indefensible, for it is impossible to make valid affirmations of what people 'can' or 'cannot' observe. One would have to say 'only what we observe exists,' which is obviously false. — Albert Einstein
Darwinian evolution may be the most truthful and powerful idea ever generated by Western Science, but if we continue to illustrate our conviction with an indefensible, unsupported, entirely speculative, and basically rather silly story, then we are clothing a thing of beauty in rags - and we should be ashamed, "for the apparel oft proclaims the man. — Stephen Jay Gould
Today, journalists more than any other cohort of professionals, are responsible for the confusion that surrounds power and its criminality in contemporary society. As Janet Malcolm said in another context, 'Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible.' — Martin Walker
I must be absolutely clear about this. Britain cannot accept the present situation on the Budget. It is demonstrably unjust. It is politically indefensible: I cannot play Sister Bountiful to the Community while my own electorate are being asked to forego improvements in the fields of health, education, welfare and the rest. — Margaret Thatcher
Will we rise to the challenge and prove our capacity for genuine altruism by ending our ruthless exploitation of the species in our power, not because we are forced to do so by rebels or terrorists, but because we recognize that our position is morally indefensible? — Peter Singer
I don't hate humanity and I'm not interested in people who do. Although, it's funny, actually, some of my favorite writers really do. Like Martin Amis. My dirty secret. 'London Fields' is one of my favorite books ever. And it's indefensible! But he's so funny... I forgive him everything. — Elizabeth Gilbert
The lines we draw that make us who we are are potent by virtue of being non-negotiable, and even, at some level, indefensible. — Walter Kirn
I do not want and will not take a royalty on any record I record. I think paying a royalty to a producer or engineer is ethically indefensible. The band write the songs. The band play the music. It's the band's fans who buy the records. The band is responsible for whether it's a great record or a horrible record. Royalties belong to the band. I would like to be paid like a plumber. I do the job and you pay me what it's worth. — Steve Albini
Whole communities are growing up without fathers or male role models. Bringing up a family in the best of circumstances is not easy. To try to do it by placing the entire burden on women - 91% of single-parent families in Britain are headed by the mother, according to census data - is practically absurd and morally indefensible. — Jonathan Sacks
In Conclusion
Which quotation resonated with you best? Did you enjoy our collection of indefensible quotes? Or may be you have a slogan about indefensible to suggest. Let us know using our contact form.
Citation
Feel free to cite and use any of the quotes in this collection of indefensible quotations. For popular citation styles(APA, Chicago, MLA), please use this citation page.
Embed HTML Link
Copy and paste this HTML code in your webpage