Offense

Offense is an annoyance or resentment brought about by a perceived insult to or disregard for oneself or one's standards or principles.

Quotes on offense:

• [Referring to the caricatures of Muhammad] How poor is a culture that asserts itself by claiming the freedom to offend. (Manuel Castells)
• Usually the offended person repays with the same coin. (Phaedrus)
• And every offense is certainly forgiven, | but it always remains in the memory, | and so one counterbalances the other. (Luigi Pulci)
• Perhaps it is only my offense that I love, and not him! (Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov)
• Men offend either out of fear or hatred. (Niccolo Machiavelli)
• The offense now burdens the offended party with the future of the relationship: the future will depend on his initiative. (Jean Laffitte)
• The fool immediately shows his anger, | the shrewd conceals the offense. (Book of Proverbs)
• It is better to be offended than to offend. (Aldo Capitini)
• Nor is there anything more like God | who show themselves pious against offenders." (Luigi Alamanni)
• There are no offenses easier to forget than those suffered by others, especially if we were the ones who committed them. (Antonio Muñoz Molina)
• It's almost never worth being offensive. It's never worth being half-offensive. (Norman Douglas)
• If anyone offends you either by words or deeds, remember that he acts or speaks in that way, considering that doing or speaking in this way belongs to him and is fine. [...] So if it seems false to him, he suffers the damage and not others, that is to say, the damage belongs to the one who is deceived. (Epictetus)
• Replying offense with offense is washing mud with mud. (Juan Luis Vives)
• A tree groans if it is cut down, a dog whines if it is beaten, a man grows if it is offended. (José Saramago)

• “Are you calling me a liar?” For a moment, I thought lightning was going to strike me and burn me up. Then he grinned sheepishly. “Sorry,” he said, “force of habit. I always made a point of taking offence at pretty much everything. It made people scared of me, you see. Seemed like a good idea at the time.”
  • K. J. Parker, Heaven Thunders the Truth (2014), reprinted in Rich Horton (ed.) The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2015 (p. 87)

Marcus Aurelius:

• What does not make a man worse could not make his life worse, either externally or internally.
• Do not consider things as the person who offends you judges them, or as he would like them to be judged; but see them as they really are.
• Remove the opinion, the I'm offended will be removed; once the I'm offended is removed, the damage will be removed.

Italian proverbs:

• Whoever tries to offend others offends himself.
• Whoever does it, forgets it.
• Whoever offends a friend does not spare his brother.
• Whoever offends must not forget.
• He who offends writes in sand, he who is offended in marble.
• Whoever offends forgets it.
• He who sows thorns must not go without shoes.
• Whoever goes to give should take two bags with him.
• It is easier to make wounds than to heal them.
• Faith, eye, honor, do not tolerate offense.
• The dog that bites forgets easily, but the dog that is bitten ties it to his finger.
• The remedy for the offenses done to us is to consider those that were done to God.
• The offense returns to the detriment of the offender.
• He does not receive offense except those who believe they are offended.
• You cannot offend the dog without being bitten.
• Do not trust those who have offended you.
• There is no greater strength than to endure insults.
• Offense causes offence.
• When you love yourself, you don't get offended.
• Forget the insults, but not the benefits.
• A faithful heart does not want to be offended.
• A painful offense must not gnaw at the heart.

Bibliography:

• Annarosa Selene, Dizionario dei proverbs, Pan libri, C.E.2004. ISBN 8872171903

Related entries:

• Slander
• Insulting
• Insult