Ingratitude

Ingratitude is the lack of gratidute, thanklessness for the things for which one should be thankful.

Sourced

• 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.
  • John Dryden, Alexander's Feast (1697), Stanza 4.

• A man is very apt to complain of the ingratitude of those who have risen far above him.
  • Samuel Johnson, reported in James Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson (1776).

• 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.
  • William Shakespeare, As You Like It (c.1599-1600), Act II, scene 7, line 174.

• Ingratitude is monstrous; and for the multitude to be ingrateful, were to make a monster of the multitude.
  • William Shakespeare, Coriolanus (c. 1607-08), Act II, scene 3, line 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.
  • William Shakespeare, Julius Cæsar (1599), Act III, scene 2, line 187.

• Ingratitude! thou marble-hearted fiend,
  More hideous, when thou show'st thee in a child,
  Than the sea-monster!
  • William Shakespeare, King Lear (1608), Act I, scene 4, line 28.

• All the stor'd vengeances of heaven fall
  On her ungrateful top.
  • William Shakespeare, King Lear (1608), Act II, scene 4, line 164.

• What, would'st thou have a serpent sting thee twice?
  • William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice (late 1590s), Act IV, scene 1, line 69.

• I hate ingratitude more in a man,
  Than lying, vainness, babbling, drunkenness,
  Or any taint of vice.
  • William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night (c. 1601-02), Act III, scene 4, line 388.

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 393-94.

• Nil homine terra pejus ingrato creat.
  • Earth produces nothing worse than an ungrateful man.
  • Ausonius, Epigrams, CXL. 1.

• Ingratitude's a weed of every clime,
  It thrives too fast at first, but fades in time.
  • Samuel Garth, Epistle to the Earl of Godolphin, line 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.

• 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.

• 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.
  • Edward Young, Busiris.