Baseness Quotes

“Base words are uttered only by the base
And can for such at once be understood;
But noble platitudes — ah, there's a case
Where the most careful scrutiny is needed
To tell a voice that's genuinely good
From one that's base but merely has succeeded.”
― W.H. Auden, Collected Poems

“8 April 1891
The obscenity of nostrils and mouths; the ignominious cupidity of smiles and women encountered in the street; the shifty baseness on every side, as of hyenas and wild beasts ready to bite: tradesmen in their shops and strollers on their pavements. How long must I suffer this? I have suffered it before, as a child, when, descending by chance to the servant's quarters, I overheard in astonishment their vile gossip, tearing up my own kind with their lovely teeth.

This hostility to the entire race, this muted detestation of lynxes in human form, I must have rediscovered it later while at school. I had a repugnance and horror for all base instincts, but am I not myself instinctively violent and lewd, murderous and sensual? Am I any different, in essence, from the members of the riotous and murderous mob of a hundred years ago, who hurled the town sergeants into the Seine and cried, 'String up the aristos!' just as they shout 'Down with the army!' or 'Death to the Jews!”
― Jean Lorrain, Monsieur de Phocas

“What worries me is that out of so much hatred for the military, out of fighting them so much and thinking about them so much, you've ended up as bad as they are. And no ideal in life is worth that much baseness.”
― Gabriel García Márquez

“Almost two years had passed once again since his father's death. Hugo remained in the city, pure and strong as a virgin; for the man who harbours a god in his breast will remain untouched by the baseness which the world holds in store.”
― Adalbert Stifter, Tales of Old Vienna and Other Prose

“I am greatness broken to baseness. And if I gather sufficient courage to actually hear the message of the Gospel, I will embrace my baseness so that God might restore my greatness.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough