The gentle art of making enemies
as pleasingly exemplified in many instances, wherein the serious ones of this earth, carefully exasperated, have been prettily spurred on to unseemliness and indiscretion, while overcome by an undue sense of right.
by James McNeill Whistler · first published 1890
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"Art" used ironically, or perhaps whimsically, is fairly common in English. "The art of being well deceived" appears in both Swift and Pope. Whistler wrote The Gentle Art of Making Enemies.
on “Tsundoku: The art of buying books and never reading them” ↗…but was awarded only one farthing (1/1000th of a pound) in damages. Whistler went bankrupt, and remained embittered against Ruskin, publishing acidic pamphlets against art critics and a book called The Gentle Art of Making Enemies[2] which contained a retelling of this case. Ruskin, whose mental health was already in decline (so much so that the trial had been delayed a year because of it, and who couldn't be present at the trial…
on “John Ruskin: A Prophet for Our Troubled Times” ↗…but was awarded only one farthing (1/1000th of a pound) in damages. Whistler went bankrupt, and remained embittered against Ruskin, publishing acidic pamphlets against art critics and a book called The Gentle Art of Making Enemies[2] which contained a retelling of this case. Ruskin, whose mental health was already in decline (so much so that the trial had been delayed a year because of it, and who couldn't be present at the trial…
on “Prophet of the Human-Built World: An Introduction to John Ruskin” ↗