Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Ingratitude
Nil homine terra pejus ingrato creat.
Earth produces nothing worse than an ungrateful man.
Ausonius—Epigrams. CXL. 1.
Deserted, at his utmost need,
By those his former bounty fed;
On the bare earth exposed he lies,
With not a friend to close his eyes.
Dryden—Alexander’s Feast. St. 4.
Ingratitude’s a weed of every clime,
It thrives too fast at first, but fades in time.
Sam’l Garth—Epistle to the Earl of Godolphin. L. 27.
That man may last, but never lives,
Who much receives, but nothing gives;
Whom none can love, whom none can thank,
Creation’s blot, creation’s blank.
Thomas Gibbons—When Jesus Dwelt.
A man is very apt to complain of the ingratitude of those who have risen far above him.
Samuel Johnson—Boswell’s Life of Johnson. 1776.
Nihil amas, cum ingratum amas.
You love a nothing when you love an ingrate.
Plautus—Persa. II. 2. 46.
Ingratus est, qui beneficium accepisse se negat, quod accepit: ingratus est, qui dissimulat; ingratus, qui non reddit; ingratissimus omnium, qui oblitus est.
He is ungrateful who denies that he has received a kindness which has been bestowed upon him; he is ungrateful who conceals it; he is ungrateful who makes no return for it; most ungrateful of all is he who forgets it.
Seneca—De Beneficiis. III. 1.
Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind
As man’s ingratitude:
Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.
As You Like It. Act II. Sc. 7. L. 174.
Ingratitude is monstrous; and for the multitude to be ingrateful, were to make a monster of the multitude.
Coriolanus. Act II. Sc. 3. L. 8.
This was the most unkindest cut of all;
For when the noble Cæsar saw him stab,
Ingratitude, more strong than traitor’s arms,
Quite vanquish’d him; then burst his mighty heart;
And, in his mantle muffling, up his face,
Even at the base of Pompey’s statue,
Which all the while ran blood, great Cæsar fell.
Julius Cæsar. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 187.
Ingratitude! thou marble-hearted fiend,
More hideous, when thou show’st thee in a child,
Than the sea-monster!
King Lear. Act I. Sc. 4. L. 28.
All the stor’d vengeances of heaven fall
On her ungrateful top.
King Lear. Act II. Sc. 4. L. 164.
What, would’st thou have a serpent sting thee twice?
Merchant of Venice. Act IV. Sc. 1. L. 69.
I hate ingratitude more in a man,
Than lying, vainness, babbling, drunkenness,
Or any taint of vice.
Twelfth Night. Act III. Sc. 4. L. 388.
Ingratus unus miseris omnibus nocet.
One ungrateful man does an injury to all who are in suffering.
Syrus—Maxims.
He that’s ungrateful, has no guilt but one;
All other crimes may pass for virtues in him.
Young—Busiris.