Daily Inspiration Quote by Samuel Richardson

Dislike isn’t a reaction to someone’s actions as much as a lens that distorts them. Richardson’s line is ruthless because it flips the usual moral arithmetic: we tell ourselves we judge people by what they do, but once antipathy sets in, evidence stops mattering. The disliked person can behave impeccably and still trigger irritation, suspicion, even contempt. Pleasing us becomes structurally impossible, not because they’ve failed, but because we’ve pre-written their failure.

Coming from an 18th-century novelist obsessed with manners, reputation, and the theater of virtue, the intent feels diagnostic. Richardson’s worlds (and his readers’ society) run on interpretation: politeness can be weaponized, sincerity can be doubted, a “good” act can be recast as manipulation. The subtext is less “be kinder” than “notice how your emotions rig the courtroom.” Once someone is filed under enemy, every gesture becomes prosecutable: generosity is showy, silence is sulking, humor is cruelty.

It also carries a quiet warning about power. If dislike immunizes us against being pleased, it also licenses us to be unfair. The line exposes how social groups maintain hierarchies: disfavored people are denied the ability to win legitimacy, because the gatekeepers have made themselves unpleasable. In modern terms, it’s the algorithm of contempt: confirmation bias with manners. Richardson isn’t offering a comforting proverb; he’s pointing at the comfort we take in our own certainty, and how quickly that certainty becomes an alibi.