Quotes & Sayings About Not Taking Offense

We got to stop people. We go ahead and we score 100 points every night, but we give up more. Our whole thing was, we know we can score, and we have to start having some kind of fun on the defensive end. Everybody want to play offense. Not too many people want to play defense. Defense is ego, pride, and that's the way we've been coming out, just taking the challenge. Man-on-man first, and having each other's back when a guy gets beat. — Allen Iverson

The very gnarliest and hardest of hearts has some musical strings in it; but they are tuned differently in every one of us. — James Russell Lowell

People who wish to be offended will always find some occasion for taking offense. — John Wesley

It's like living in a retirement home! Clarence is taking a nap right now, and he eats at five. It's so boring."
"You've only been here for two days."
"And that's been more than enough. The only thing keeping me alive is that he keeps a hefty supply of liquor on hand. But at the rate I'm going, that'll be gone by the weekend. Jesus Christ, I'm climbing the walls." His eyes fell on the cross at my neck. "Oh. Sorry. No offense to Jesus. — Richelle Mead

We shouldn't have left." Keeley paced the kitchen, stopping at the windows on each pass. Why weren't they back?
"Darling, you're shaking. Come on now, sit and drink your tea."
"I can't.What's wrong with men? They'd have beaten that idiot to a pulp.I'm not that surprised at Brian,I suppose, but I expected more restraint from Dad."
Genuinely surprised, Adelia glanced over. "Why?"
As worry ate through her she raked her hands through her hair. "He's contained. Now you,I could see you taking a few swings ... " SHe winced. "No offense," she said, then saw that her mother was grinning.
"None taken.My temper might be a bit, we'll say, more colorful than your father's. His tends to be cold and deliberate when it's called for.And it was.The man hurt and frightened his little girl."
"His little girl was about to attempt to gut the man with a hoof pick." Keeley blew out a breath. "I've never seen Dad hit anyone, or look like he wanted to keep right on with it. — Nora Roberts

When people lost hope, they looked in the last place they remembered having it, and it was always in the past. Maybe someday they'd stop looking to the past to find their hope and start looking at one another, where hope really lived. — Tiffany Reisz

Of crimes injurious to the persons of private subjects, the most principal and important is the offense of taking away that life, which is the immediate gift of the great creator; and which therefore no man can be entitled to deprive himself or another of, but in some manner either expressly commanded in, or evidently deducible from, those laws which the creator has given us; the divine laws, I mean, of either nature or revelation. — William Blackstone

For nearly 2,000 years of Christian civilization, taking the life of an unborn child was regarded as a vile and heinous moral offense which degraded humanity ... Abortions to avoid illegitimate births, or otherwise for convenience, were performed with a secrecy that was as much the mark of the shame attaching to the deed as a consequence of its illegality. — Ronald Butt

I believe all life has value, from conception to natural death. And I believe the intentional taking of human life, except to save lives, should be a capital offense, as it is in most states in America today. — Tom Coburn

The Irish are hearty, the Scotch plausible, the French polite, the Germans good-natured, the Italians courtly, the Spaniards reserved and decorous - the English alone seem to exist in taking and giving offense. — William Hazlitt

Look at him! That's life, according to the medical profession. Isn't life wonderful? — Kurt Vonnegut

I think what's so great about TV is I don't know if all these things were planned at first, or if they see the fans' reactions to things. They really do listen to what the fans want, and feel strongly about, and push for, so all these things are happening organically. — Charlotte Ross

Anyone observing U.S. politics in recent years could easily conclude that lying about having sex is a serious offense worthy of impeachment, while lying about taking the country to war is hardly worth mentioning. — Linda McQuaig

In any offense you put me in, when things break down, I'm going to get outside the pocket and move ... West Coast, East Coast. It doesn't matter. I'm taking off if I have to, to make things happen. — Michael Vick

When it comes to seeking a change of heart, our starting place must include our present situation, with the people we live with right here and now. It is with these very people that we must learn to forgo all taking of offense. — C. Terry Warner

I wanted to be on the stage, doing very important emotional roles. — Gloria Stuart

I hear you have a birthday today."
Sally laughed. "I don't know where you could have possibly heard that."
"It might have been from a certain blonde running around the mansion reminding everyone of the party of the century taking place in honor of, and I quote, 'the most bad ass gypsy healer known to man', which was followed up with a, 'no offense to Rachel, but fact is fact. — Quinn Loftis

Never take offense. Even if someone is robbing you blind, it's usually nothing personal. Survival is a funny thing, and we all react differently to it. Some react to fear and forget to be human and humane, but that doesn't mean they have malicious intentions. People have different boundaries, and I promise to respect yours, hon. — J.D. Brewer

I'm a tough coach, but on the other side of that is me telling them to go all out, "because you're great, because I don't want you to fail, because you were born to do this and you have a dream." — Laurieann Gibson

We don't live in a shared reality, we each live in a reality of our own, and causing upset is often the price of trying to reach each other. It's always easier to dismiss other people than to go through the awkward and time consuming process of understanding them. We have given 'taking offense' a social status it doesn't deserve: it's not much more than a way of avoiding difficult conversations. — Frankie Boyle

Enough research will tend to support your conclusions. — Arthur Bloch

If the grass is greener in the other fellow's yard- let him worry about cutting it. — Fred Allen

Will picked a single blossom from a gorse bush beside him; it shone bright yellow on his grubby hand. "People are very complicated," he said sadly.
"So they are," John Rowlands said. His voice deepened a little, louder and clearer than it had been. "But when the battles between you and your adversaries are done, Will Stanton, in the end the fate of all the world will depend on just those people, and on how many of them are good or bad, stupid or wise. And indeed it is all so complicated that I would not dare foretell what they will do with their world. Our world. — Susan Cooper

A good defense was steadfast and strong and straightforward, dominating in a physical and merciless way. Offense could be messy and tricky, full of mistakes that made the ball tumble to and fro, taking the coach's stomach for a ride along with it. For Noll, like Brown before him, football's greatness appeared in the finest details, the inches won in the trenches, not the bundles of yards gained by the fleetest feet or the strongest arms. But mostly, to play great defense was practical, and there is logic and beauty in pragmatism. Logic was Noll's muse. — Chad Millman

I don't know exactly what covetous is, but in my experience it is not so much desiring someone else's virtue or happiness as rejecting it, taking offense at the beauty of it. — Marilynne Robinson

["F]or it's not possible," [Socrates] said, "for anybody to experience a greater evil than hating arguments. Hatred of arguments and hatred of human beings come about in the same way. For hatred of human beings arises from artlessly trusting somebody to excess, and believing that human being to be in every way true and sound and trustworthy, and then a little later discovering that this person is wicked and untrustworthy - and then having this experience again with another. And whenever somebody experiences this many times, and especially at the hands of just those he might regard as his most intimate friends and comrades, he then ends up taking offense all the time and hates all human beings and believes there's nothing at all sound in anybody. — Plato

The fact is that all of us have only one personality, and we wring it out like a dishtowel. You are what you are. — S.J Perelman

Money is behind every war," Au-nak continued. "Religion is but an excuse. Or perhaps a justification." "There's a difference?" the ardent said, obviously taking offense at Au-nak's tone. "Of course," Au-nak said. "An excuse is what you make after the deed is done, while a justification is what you offer before." "I would say an excuse is something you claim, but do not believe, Nak-ali." Hatham was using the high form of Au-nak's name. "While a justification is something you actually believe. — Brandon Sanderson

Compliments and criticism are all ultimately based on some form of projection. — Billy Corgan

All of us take offense to anyone who reaps the rewards of living in America without taking on the responsibilities of living in America. And undocumented immigrants who desperately want to embrace those responsibilities see little option but to remain in the shadows, or risk their families being torn apart. — Barack Obama

This is the time to speak the word of appreciation. — Grenville Kleiser

We, the public, are easily, lethally offended. We have come to think of taking offence as a fundamental right. We value very little more highly than our rage, which gives us, in our opinion, the moral high ground. From this high ground we can shoot down at our enemies and inflict heavy fatalities. We take pride in our short fuses. Our anger elevates, transcends. — Salman Rushdie

I think that to stop an offense, you must go to the heart of that offense. If it is a particular move, a screen, the break, an outstanding scorer, whatever it is that they like to do and rely on, you have to work in your plans on taking that completely or as much as possible away from them. — Bobby Knight

No one's ever successfully insulted him, because he refuses to be insulted. People do their best, but Yung won't even acknowledge the attempt of an affront. — Trish Mercer

Since Bush has been in office, African-American women have fallen behind in terms of income and wages. — Donna Brazile

[Creationists have] lost in the courts of law; they've long ago lost in the halls of science; and they continue to lose with every new piece of evidence in support of evolution. Taking offense is all they've got left. — Richard Dawkins

There will be a time when loud-mouthed, incompetent people seem to be getting the best of you. When that happens, you only have to be patient and wait for them to self-destruct. It never fails. — Richard Rybolt

Taking offense has become America's national pastime; being theatrically offended supposedly signifies the exquisitely refined moral delicacy of people who feel entitled to pass through life without encountering ideas or practices that annoy them. — George Will