Sarcasm is the last refuge of the imaginatively bankrupt.

The line frames sarcasm not as wit but as a defensive substitute for genuine creativity. Calling it a “last refuge” suggests a fallback tactic used when someone cannot offer original insight, empathy, or constructive argument. The phrase “imaginatively bankrupt” intensifies the critique: sarcasm becomes evidence of depleted inner resources rather than intellectual sharpness. Read this way, the quote warns that habitual snark can mask insecurity and shut down meaningful exchange, because it scores points without building anything. It also implicitly distinguishes between playful irony (which can be inventive) and corrosive sarcasm used to belittle—condemning the latter as a failure of imagination and generosity.