Contention Quotes, Quotations, and Sayings

21 Contention Quotes
[1-21] 
“And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren.”
Bible Quotes
Source: Genesis (ch. XIII, v. 8)
“Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them doth curse me.”
Bible Quotes
Source: Jeremiah (ch. XV, v. 10)
“And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.”
Bible Quotes
Source: Mark (ch. III, v. 25)
“A continual dropping in a very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike.”
Bible Quotes
Source: Proverbs (ch. XXVII, v. 15)
“'Tis a hydra's head contention; the more they strive the more they may: and as Praxiteles did by his glass, when he saw a scurvy face in it, brake it in pieces; but for that one he saw many more as bad in a moment.”
Robert Burton Quotes
Source: Anatomy of Melancholy (pt. II, sc. 3, mem. 7)
“He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.”
Robert Burton Quotes
Source: Reflections on the Revolution in France (vol. III, p. 195)
“And the combat ceased, for want of combatants. [Fr., Et le combat cessa, faute de combattants.]”
Pierre Corneille Quotes
Source: Le Cid (IV, 3)
“Great contest follows, and much learned dust Involves the combatants; each claiming truth, And truth disclaiming both.”
William Cowper Quotes
Source: Task (bk. III, l. 161)
“Did thrust (as now) in other's corn his sickle. - Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas,”
Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas Quotes
Source: Divine Weekes and Workes--Second Week, Second Day (pt. II)
“So when two dogs are fighting in the streets, When a third dog one of the two dogs meets: With angry teeth he bites him to the bone, And this dog smarts for what that dog has done.”
Henry Fielding Quotes
Source: Tom Thumb the Great (act I, sc. 5, l. 55)
“When individuals approach one another with deep purposes on both sides they seldom come at once to the matter which they have most at heart. They dread the electric shock of a too sudden contact with it.”
Nathaniel Hawthorne Quotes
Source: The Marble Faun (vol. II, ch. XXII)
“But curb thou the high spirit in thy breast, For gentle ways are best, and keep aloof From sharp contentions.”
Homer ("Smyrns of Chios") Quotes
Source: The Iliad (bk. IX, l. 317), (Bryant's translation)
“Not hate, but glory, made these chiefs contend; And each brave foe was in his soul a friend.”
Homer ("Smyrns of Chios") Quotes
Source: The Iliad (bk. VII, l. 364), (Pope's translation)
“Agreement exists in disagreement. [Lat., Mansit concordia discors.]”
Lucanus (Marcus Annaeus Lucan) Quotes
Source: Pharsalia (I, 98)
“The chiefs contend only for their place of burial. [Lat., Ducibus tantum de funere pugna est.]”
Lucanus (Marcus Annaeus Lucan) Quotes
Source: Pharsalia (VI, 811)
“You will stir up the hornets. [Lat., Irritabis crabones.]”
Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus) Quotes
Source: Amphitruo (act II, 2, 75)
“Stir up the hornets. [Fr., Irriter les freslons.]”
Francois Rabelais Quotes
Source: Pantagruel
“Contentions fierce, Ardent, and dire, spring from no petty cause.”
Sir Walter Scott Quotes
Source: Peveril of the Peak (ch. XL)
“The whole discord of this world consists in discords. [Lat., Tota hujus mundi concordia ex discordibus constat.]”
Seneca (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) Quotes
Source: Nat. Quoest (bk. VII, 27)
“Thus when a barber and collier fight, The barber beats the luckless collier--white; The dusty collier heaves his ponderous sack, And, big with vengeance, beats the barber--black. In comes the brick-dust man, with grime o'er spread, And beats the collier and the barber--red; Black, red, and white, in various clouds are toss'd, And in the dust they raise the combatants are lost.”
Christopher Smart Quotes
Source: A Trip to Cambridge, soliloquy of the Princess Periwinkle
“In excessive altercation, truth is lost. [Lat., Nimium altercando veritas amittitur.]”
Syrus (Publilius Syrus) Quotes
Source: Maxims