When you have no basis for an argument, abuse the plaintiff. — Marcus Tullius Cicero
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
Too often character assassination has replaced debate in principle here in Washington. Destroy someone's reputation, and you don't have to talk about what he stands for. — Ronald Reagan
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. — Margaret Thatcher
Using insult instead of argument is the sign of a small mind. — Laurie R. King
Many a spoken word is more piercing than an attack. — Ali ibn Abi Talib
Insults are pouring down on me as thick as hail. — Edouard Manet
Anyone who willfully and maliciously attacks another without sufficient cause jeopardize the lives of others. — Jeff Cooper
When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser. — Socrates
Attacking People With Disabilities is the Lowest Display of Power I Can Think Of — Morgan Freeman
When you are verbally assaulted, do not counterattack. Instead, disarm your counterpart by asking a calibrated question. — Chris Voss
Now that I have called you on your false accusation, you are using additional smear tactics. — George Soros
Call it a character flaw -- when under attack, I counter attack. Always. — Richard Marcinko
Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.
Character Attack Quotes
For someone's character to grow, it has to be free from internal attack. Falling down never stopped children from developing. But getting yelled at, criticized, and put down can stop them for life. — Henry Cloud
Grover Cleveland declined to participate in character attacks on Blaine . When presented with papers which purported to be extremely damaging to Blaine, he grabbed them, tore them up, flung the shreds into the fire, and decreed, "The other side can have a monopoly of all the dirt in this campaign. — Grover Cleveland
Surely the United States Senate is big enough to take self-criticism and self-appraisal. Surely we should be able to take the same kind of character attacks that we "dish out" to outsiders. — Margaret Chase Smith
To love a person is to see all of their magic, and to remind them of it when they have forgotten.
So much of my work is as Yara, not as a character. If you're attacking my work as a philanthropist or activist, you're attacking Yara. But because of "Black-ish" and this national audience we have, I get to have a larger or louder voice. — Yara Shahidi
Nor does the idea of a moral order asserting itself against attack or want of conformity answer in full to our feelings regarding the tragic character. — Andrew Coyle Bradley
I thought some of Mrs. White's material was prophetic. I felt some of her insights were extremely helpful and I regarded her as a sister in the Lord. I wasn't out to attack Ellen White's character. — Walter Martin
Intelligent people tend to have less friends than the average person. The smarter you are, the more selevtive you become.
As a writer, I have to admit, there is something darkly compelling about Alzheimer's because it attacks the two things most central to a writer's craft - language and memory, which together make up an individual's identity. Alzheimer's makes a new character out of a familiar person. — Charlie Pierce
The elements which determine the make of any particular sermon are three; the preacher, the material, and the audience; just as the character of any battle is determined by three elements; the gun (including the gunner), the ammunition, and the fortress against which the attack is made. — Phillips Brooks
I would not want to be a politician... Let me tell you this: If I was campaigning, and I go against my opponent and he started attacking my character, and I leap over the table and choke him unconscious, would that help my campaign? — Chuck Norris
People were confused by me, and at first I was auditioning a lot for the crazy characters or the victim, someone who'd been attacked. Which is great, because usually those are the best acting roles. — Jessica Chastain
Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are a good person is a little like expecting the bull not to attack you because you are a vegetarian. — Dennis Wholey
When you look at a person, any person, everyone has a story. Everyone has gone through something that has changed their life. Anxiety, depression and panic attacks are not signs of weakness. They are signs of trying to remain strong for way too long. — Deepika Padukone
Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae. — Kurt Vonnegut
Most attackers are looking for easy victims. They're not looking for a fight, not even a verbal one. Saying No makes you a less attractive target. Submitting and being nice to attackers in the hope that they will be nice to you in return is not the safest strategy. — William Ury
The United States spends over $87 billion conducting a war in Iraq while the United Nations estimates that for less than half that amount we could provide clean water, adequate diets, sanitations services and basic education to every person on the planet. And we wonder why terrorists attack us. — John Perkins
Don't confuse my personality with my attitude... My personality is who I am, my attitude depends on who you are...
I don’t think you have a right not to be offended. You have a right not to be physically attacked. I suppose under civil law you have a right not to be slandered and smeared and libelled. I mean, the offence is an entirely subjective thing. You could say something completely innocuous and a person will interpret it as offensive. So no, you don’t have a right not to be offended. — Konstantin Kisin
Keep the other person's well being in mind when you feel an attack of soul-purging truth coming on. — Betty White
In short, I have spent much of my career working on vaccine development. I have also had extensive experience in drug repurposing for infectious disease outbreaks. My contributions to science and industry are outstanding. I am proud of my contributions. My friendships and connections with professional colleagues have persisted for years. So, when I am defamed by the New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, or others, I know that there is more driving their character assassination attempts than efforts to report actual truth. These attacks are not about me personally, but rather about me speaking outside of the approved government and WHO/WEF narrative concerning COVID-19 policies. — Robert W. Malone
We are fully justified in valuing the life and person of an intended victim more highly than the life of a pernicious assailant. The attacker must be stopped. At once and completely. — Jeff Cooper
"I can't forget things, or ignore them-bad things that happen," I said. "I'm a lay-it-all-out person, a dwell-on-it person, an obsess-about-it person. If I hold things in and try to forget or pretend, I become a madman and have panic attacks. I have to talk. — E. Lockhart
In any field, it's a plus if you view criticism as potentially helpful advice rather than as a personal attack. — Chris Hadfield
When you're the first person whose beliefs are different from what everyone else believes, you're basically saying, "I'm right, and everyone else is wrong." That's a very unpleasant position to be in. It's at once exhilarating and at the same time an invitation to be attacked. — Larry Ellison
If someone offers you a gift, and you decline to accept it, the other person still owns that gift. The same is true of insults and verbal attacks. — Steve Pavlina
There is an almost universal tendency, perhaps an inborn tendency, to suspect the good faith of a man who holds opinions that differ from our own opinions. It obviously endangers the freedom and the objectivity of our discussion if we attack a person instead of attacking an opinion or, more precisely, a theory. — Karl Popper
I am a terrible and lazy Christian. I do not believe that the Bible is the literal word of God. I just skip about a third of it. I love the parts I love so much, but I find a lot of it just appalling. When a right-wing person quotes a passage in order to attack and stigmatize another person--or group of people--I just roll my eyes. — Anne Lamott
Personally, I'd have welcomed a dementor attack. A deadly struggle for my soul would have broken the monotony nicely. — J. K. Rowling
With the risk of being accused of quoting the wrong person I can say that [Adolf] Hitler wrote that "the more the press attacks a person the closer he is to us". — Varg Vikernes
When governments and other vested interests attack me personally I usually regard it as a vindication, otherwise they would use facts. That's why I believe in the wonderful Claud Cockburn dictum, 'Never believe anything until it is officially denied.' It has certainly been my experience. — John Pilger
You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do. — David Foster Wallace
The heart that is constantly overflowing with gratitude will be safe from those attacks of resentfulness and gloom that bother so many persons. — Aiden Wilson Tozer
An ad hominem attack against an individual, not against an idea, is highly flattering. It indicates that the person does not have anything intelligent to say about your message. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb
In recent years personal injury attorneys and trial lawyers have attacked the food industry with numerous lawsuits alleging that these businesses should pay monetary damages to those who, of their own accord, consume too much of a legal, safe product. — Bob Ney
To me, every interview, even if you love the artist, needs to be somewhat adversarial. Which doesn't mean you need to attack the person, but you do need to look at it like you're trying to get information that has not been written about before. — Chuck Klosterman
You cannot simply read the Quran,not if you take it seriously.You either have surrendered to it already or you fight it.
It attacks tenaciously,directly,personally; it debates,criticizes,shames and challenges.
From the outset it draws the line of battle, and I was on other side. — Jeffrey Lang
Today, much of journalism and politics are in a kind of collusion to oversimplify and personalize issues. No room for ambivalence. Plenty of room for the personal attack. — Ellen Goodman
What should a wise person do when given a blow? Same as Cato when he was attacked; not fire up or revenge the insult., or even return the blow, but simply ignore it. — Seneca The Elder
It will always hurt to be laughed at, snubbed, ignored or attacked by others. But I would remind you that the human personality grows through adversity, provided it is not crushed in the process. — James Dobson
What should a wise person do when given a blow? Same as Cato when he was attacked; not fire up or revenge the insult., or even return the blow, but simply ignore it. — Seneca
The DEFENSE of anything is UNTENABLE. The only way to defend anything is to ATTACK, and if you ever forget that, then you will lose every battle you are ever engaged in, whether it is in terms of personal conversation, public debate, or a court of law. NEVER BE INTERESTED IN CHARGES. DO, yourself, much MORE CHARGING, and you will WIN. — L. Ron Hubbard
So much of modern politics is focused not on honest differences of policy but on personal attacks. — William J. Clinton
I get more gratification out of getting some obese person who had a heart attack running around and enjoying life within a year. I get more gratification from that than putting a person in the Olympic Games. The Olympic athlete probably doesn't appreciate what you've done, but the other guy does. I think it's really rewarding. — Arthur Lydiard
And from the moment that we realized it was a terrorist attack, there isn't an agent or a support person in the FBI that wasn't committed to bringing to justice those who were responsible for this. — Robert Mueller
I realize more and more how instinctively pessimistic I am of all human kindness -- since I am always so bowled over by it -- and am never surprised by injustice, malice or personal attack. — Dawn Powell
What helps most is remembering that such a cry or attack or sly blow is a reflection of that other person’s inner state; it is not an omniscient summary of you. Your reaction reflects your own inner state, and that can tell you which aspects of your own inner world are needy of attention. p.291 — Stephanie Dowrick
There is no limit to childishness, if a person starts attacking the other one, they just strike back. Your weak point? Secret? They won't avoid it, and instead try to hurt you with it. So the reason you're fighting is totally lost. They'll just start thinking about how to hurt the other person most, so much that they'll cry out in pain. — Sun Yang
As long as a person is involved with warfare, trying to defend or attack, then his action is not sacred; it is mundane, dualistic, a battlefield situation. — Chogyam Trungpa
When you suveil a person abroad, you don't have to have a warrant to do so. That has never been so they don't have the fourth amendment protection. On occasion, that person might call somebody in the United States, and if they're a terrorist, you really want to know who they are talking to. Maybe they're plotting an attack on the United States. — Jeff Sessions
Effective leaders do not fear passion. They welcome it. But from time to time passionate discussions digress into personal attacks, and real people get really hurt. In my view, leaders must head that off before it happens. — Bill Hybels
Every Victim requires a Persecutor. But the Persecutor isn't always necessarily a person. The Persecutor could also be a condition or a circumstance. A persecuting condition might be a disease or a heart attack, or an injury. A persecuting circumstance could be a natural disaster, like a hurricane or an earthquake or a house burning down. — David Emerald Womeldorff
It's fascinating watching the debates [of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump], with the search for the new president. It's like a car crash, unfolding in front of your eyes. The level of personal attacks! — Gordon Ramsay
Stoichkov is a great person and an exceptional player... Only if we had him at Napoli... can you imagine the Stoichkov-Maradona attacking duo? — Diego Maradona
Other Republican candidates may retort to personal attacks and negative ads. — George W. Bush
America, 5 years after this brutal attack, is testament that a Nation conceived in liberty and equality will endure. It is a triumph of millions of Americans but it is also the triumph of an idea larger than any one person, larger than any one nation. — Nick Rahall
Weak people always attack strong people - it's safer. It's weak people who are dangerous, who lash out uncontrollably and hurt you back. Stong people can walk away - no repercussions, you see, if you attack a stong person. — Sophie Hannah
In Conclusion
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