To belong is a vital need based in the spiritual nature of the human being. Contempt spits on this pathetically deep need. And, like anger, contempt does not have to be acted out in special ways to be evil. It is inherently poisonous. Just by being what it is, it is withering to the human soul.

But when expressed in the contemptuous phrase–in its thousands of forms–or in the equally powerful gesture or look, it stabs the soul to its core and deflates its powers of life.

It can hurt so badly and destroy so deeply that murder would almost be a mercy. Its power is also seen in the intensity of the resentment and rage it always evokes.

from The Divine Conspiracy