“I do not believe, from what I have been told about this people, that there is anything barbarous or savage about them, except that we all call barbarous anything that is contrary to our own habits.”
Source: The Complete Essays
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Michel De Montaigne 264
(1533-1592) French-Occitan author, humanistic philosopher, … 1533–1592Related quotes

Source: The Dangerous Summer (1985), Ch. 9

“Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.”
"Politics and the English Language" (1946)
Context: Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. Never use a long word where a short one will do. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. Never use the passive voice where you can use the active. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

2010s, 2016, November, New York Times Interview (November 23, 2016)

“Average people seldom talked about anything interesting and often hurt each other savagely.”
Source: Axis (2007), Chapter 8 (p. 107)