familiarity breeds contempt

familiarity breeds contempt

1. The more acquainted one becomes with a person, the more one knows about his or her shortcomings and, hence, the easier it is to dislike that person.
   • 1673, Richard Baxter, chapter X, in A Christian Directory:

     “[S]uffer [your children] not to carry themselves unreverently or contemptuously towards you [parents]; but to keep their distance. For too much familiarity breedeth contempt, and imboldeneth to disobedience.”

   • 1822, William Hazlitt, chapter 1, in Table-Talk:

     “For a person to read his own works over with any great delight, he ought first to forget that he ever wrote them. Familiarity naturally breeds contempt.”

   • 1894, H. Rider Haggard, chapter 25, in The People Of The Mist:

     This was the beginning of evil, for if no man is a hero to his valet de chambre, much less can he remain a god for long in the eyes of a curious woman. Here, as in other matters, familiarity breeds contempt.