We all know the saying. If you can’t say anything nice then don’t say anything at all. It was drummed into many of us as kids. But although we’d like to say that we maintain this mantra, unfortunately we love nothing more than a particular cutting quip or insult.
Our excuse for such verbal volleys? If it’s good enough for literature then it’s good enough for us. In this list you'll find our top picks of the best literary insults, from the early days of Shakespeare to some of our modern favourites.
Have we missed off your most tantalising literary putdown? Make sure you add it below.
Best literary insults
1. As You Like It, William Shakespeare
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2. Timequake, Kurt Vonnegut
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3. The Importance Of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde
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4. Murder On The Orient Express, Agatha Christie
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5. The Life And Adventures Of Martin Chuzzlewit, Charles Dickens
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6. The Long Goodbye, Raymond Chandler
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7. The Lion And The Unicorn, George Orwell
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8. The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
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9. The Dying Animal, Philip Roth
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10. The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
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11. A Scandal In Bohemia, Arthur Conan Doyle
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12. A Happy Death, Albert Camus
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13. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
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14. A Feast For Crows, George R.R. Martin
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15. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
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16. Breakfast At Tiffany’s, Truman Capote
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17. The Catcher In The Rye, J.D. Salinger
Buy now from Amazon Buy now from Amazon Buy now from Amazon Buy now from Amazon Buy now from Amazon“I told him he didn’t even care if a girl kept all her kings in the back row or not, and the reason he didn’t care was because he was a goddam stupid moron. He hated it when you called him a moron. All morons hate it when you call them a moron.”
18. King Lear, William Shakespeare
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19. Pride & Prejudice, Jane Austen
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20. Norwegian Wood, Haruki Murakami
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21. Macbeth, William Shakespeare
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22. Another Country, James Baldwin
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23. Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf, Edward Albee
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24. Skippy Dies, Paul Murray
Buy now from Amazon Buy now from Amazon Buy now from Amazon Buy now from Amazon Buy now from Amazon“As Jesus said to me once, Greg, what's your secret? And I said, Jesus--study your notes! Get to class! Shave that beard! You show up to your first day on the job dressed like a hippie, of course they're going to crucify you, I don't care whose son you are . . ."
25. Gone With The Wind, Margaret Mitchell
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26. Matilda, Roald Dahl
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27. The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer
Buy now from Amazon Buy now from Amazon Buy now from Amazon Buy now from Amazon Buy now from Amazon“Thou woldest make me kisse thyn old breech, And swere it were a relyk of a saint, Though it were with thy fundement depeint!… I wolde I hadde thy coillons in myn hond… Lat kutte hem of”
(“You’d have me kiss your old trousers and swear they were the relic of a saint, even though they’re stained with your s—… I wish I had your balls in my hand… I’d cut them off.
28. The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
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29. A Pair Of Blue Eyes, Thomas Hardy
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30. The Stand, Stephen King
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31. Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, JK Rowling
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32. The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand
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33. Lucky Jim, Kingsley Amis
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34. Loss Of Breath, Edgar Allan Poe
Buy now from Amazon Buy now from Amazon Buy now from Amazon Buy now from Amazon Buy now from Amazon"Thou wretch! - thou vixen! - thou shrew!" said I to my wife on the morning after our wedding, "thou witch! - thou hag! - thou whipper-snapper! - thou sink of iniquity - thou fiery-faced quintessence of all that is abominable! - thou - thou-"
35. The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
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36. Alice In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
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37. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
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38. Waiting For Godot, Samuel Beckett
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39. Kim, Rudyard Kipling
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40. The Rules Of Attraction, Bret Easton Ellis
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41. Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
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42. The Ginger Man, J.P. Donleavy
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43. A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess
Buy now from Amazon Buy now from Amazon Buy now from Amazon Buy now from Amazon Buy now from Amazon“Well, well, well, well. If it isn’t fat, stinking billygoat Billy-Boy in poison. How art thou, thy globby bottle of cheap, stinking chip-oil? Come and get one in the yarbles, if you have any yarbles, you eunuch jelly thou.”
44. Ulysses, James Joyce
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Tell him he may
See you in tea
Tell him from me.”
45. Platform, Michel Houellebecq
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46. After Claude, Iris Owens
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47. The Collector, John Fowles
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48. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
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49. Janet's Repentance (Taken From Scenes Of Clerical Life), George Eliot
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50. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
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51. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
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52. Engleby, Sebastian Faulks
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53. A Confederacy Of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
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54. No Country For Old Men, Cormac McCarthy
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55. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
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- Literature's greatest opening paragraphs - the best opening lines in novels