This book is dedicated to the proposition that "There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn." Chosen with reckless impartiality, the quotations that follow assiduously lay waste to art, automobiles, and astrology; besmirch the fair names of beauty, Beethoven, and James Bond; calumniate children, Christmas, and civilization...well, you get the idea. A vast abundance of diverse and widely scattered sources - literary and otherwise - was meticulously mined to produce this collection of invective and insult. It is a distillation of venom from the pens of great misanthropes throughout history and in our time. For those who are hostile, perverse, frustrated, disenchanted, or disillusioned, this book is offered as a purgative for pique, a cathartic celebration. The hopelessly optimistic, the incorrigibly romantic, and anyone who holds anything sacred are advised to proceed with caution through these spleen-filled pages. So let the reader, amply forewarned, revel in rancor and luxuriate in loathing.