“Charm is the ability to insult people without offending them; nerdiness the reverse.”

27
Les Caractères (1688), De la société et de la conversation
Context: To speak and to offend is with some people but one and the same thing; they are biting and bitter; their words are steeped in gall and wormwood; sneers as well as insolent and insulting words flow from their lips. It had been well for them had they been born mute or stupid; the little vivacity and intelligence they have prejudices them more than dullness does others; they are not always satisfied with giving sharp answers, they often attack arrogantly those who are present, and damage the reputation of those who are absent; they butt all round like rams — for rams, of course, must use their horns. We therefore do not expect, by our sketch of them, to change such coarse, restless, and stubborn individuals. The best thing a man can do is to take to his heels as soon as he perceives them, without even turning round to look behind him.

Source: The Lost Hero

2010s, Audience Q&A following interview panel at Aalto University Center, 2012

Connections (1979), 1 - The Trigger Effect
Context: You see how increasingly the only way we in the advanced industrial nations, with our bewildering technology network, can survive, is by selling bewilderment and dependence on technology to the rest of the world. Or is it not bewilderment and dependence, but a healthier wealthier better way of living than the old way? And, yet, whether or not you dress up technology to look local, the technology network is the same. And as it spreads, will it spread the ability to use machines, as we do, without understanding them?

Vol. I; VI
Lacon (1820)

Column, May 7, 2014, "Thin skins and legislative prayer" http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/george-will-thin-skins-and-prayer-in-supreme-court-case/2014/05/07/a5049a64-d54c-11e3-8a78-8fe50322a72c_story.html at washingtonpost.com.
2010s

Source: The Immoralist