When you say, "I really hate that guy", or "man, I just hate being around people" you don't really mean that you HATE them. That's why it's funny, and not horrifying, when comedian Dylan Moran says to his wife, "Oh, I hate you so much it gives me ENERGY!"
You might strongly dislike someone, even loathe them, but hard-boiled, marrow deep, tried-and-true hatred is another thing. Enter misanthropy: "the general hatred, mistrust or disdain of the human species or human nature." Usually self-proclaimed and always sour, these folks really DO hate that guy, and DO hate people as a whole. There have been many such grumps throughout history, including philosophers, poets, comedians, and novelists, but in the internet age, cats get the last word.
Click through for 14 famous misanthropes (and one cat) who hate you!
“I believe that there is an equality to all humanity. We all suck.”
“I'm tired of this back-slapping, isn't humanity neat bullshit. We're a virus with shoes.”
― Bill Hicks
"Since I no longer expect anything from mankind except madness, meanness, and mendacity; egotism, cowardice, and self-delusion, I have stopped being a misanthrope."
--Irving Layton
“By four o'clock, I've discounted suicide in favor of killing everyone else in the entire world instead.”
― Warren Ellis, Transmetropolitan, Vol. 3: Year of the Bastard
“You call me a misanthrope because I avoid society. You err; I love society. Yet in order not to hate people, I must avoid their company.”
― Caspar David Friedrich
"Human existence must be a kind of error...it may be said of it, it is bad today and every day it will get worse, until the worst of all happens."
--Arthur Schopenhauer
