"Cutting off the nose to spite the face" is an expression used to describe a needlessly self-destructive over-reaction to a problem: "Don't cut off your nose to spite your face" is a warning against acting out of pique, or against pursuing revenge in a way that would damage oneself more than the object of one's anger.
Read more about Cutting Off The Nose To Spite The Face: Origins, Historical Examples
Famous quotes containing the words cutting off the, cutting off, cutting, nose, spite and/or face:
“Post-modernism has cut off the present from all futures. The daily media add to this by cutting off the past. Which means that critical opinion is often orphaned in the present.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)
“Post-modernism has cut off the present from all futures. The daily media add to this by cutting off the past. Which means that critical opinion is often orphaned in the present.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)
“The cutting of heads is become so much a la mode, that one is apt to feel of a morning whether their own is on their shoulders.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“Had Cleopatra’s nose been shorter, the whole face of the world would have changed.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)
“All nature is but art unknown to thee;
All chance, direction which thou canst not see;
All discord, harmony not understood;
All partial evil, universal good;
And, spite of pride, in erring reason’s spite,
One truth is clear, “Whatever IS, is RIGHT.””
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744)
“If those little sweethearts won’t face German bullets, they’ll face French ones.”
—Stanley Kubrick (b. 1928)