Famous Ridicule Quotes

'Twas the saying of an ancient sage that humour was the only test of gravity, and gravity of humour. For a subject which would not bear raillery was suspicious; and a jest which would not bear a serious examination was certainly false wit. - Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury,
-- Anthony Ashley Cooper

And took for truth the test of ridicule.
-- George Crabbe

Generally the ridiculous touches the sublime.
-- Jean Francois Marmontel

How comes it to pass, then, that we appear such cowards in reasoning, and are so afraid to stand the test of ridicule? - Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury,
-- Anthony Ashley Cooper

I believe they talked of me, for they laughed consumedly.
-- George Farquhar

I distrust those sentiments that are too far removed from nature, and whose sublimity is blended with ridicule; which two are as near one another as extreme wisdom and folly.
-- Andre Francois Deslandes

I have always made one prayer to God, a very short one. Here it is: "My God, make our enemies very ridiculous!" God has granted it to me.
-- Voltaire

I know that there are things that never have been funny, and never will be. And I know that ridicule may be a shield, but it is not a weapon.
-- Dorothy Parker

It frequently happens that where the second line is sublime, the third, in which he meant to rise still higher, is perfectly bombast.
-- Hugh Blair

Jane borrow'd maxims from a doubting school, And took for truth the test of ridicule; Lucy saw no such virtue in a jest, Truth was with her of ridicule the test.
-- George Crabbe

Man learns more readily and remembers more willingly what excites his ridicule than what deserves esteem and respect.
-- Horace

Man learns more readily and remembers more willingly what excites his ridicule than what deserves esteem and respect.
-- Horace

Mockery is the weapon of those who have no other.
-- Hubert Pierlot

One does not lash what lies at a distance. The foibles that we ridicule must at least be a little bit our own. Only then will the work be a part of our own flesh. The garden must be weeded.
-- Paul Klee

Resort is had to ridicule only when reason is against us.
-- Thomas Jefferson

Ridicule is the first and last argument of fools.
-- Charles Simmons

Ridicule is the language of the devil.
-- Thomas Carlyle

Ridicule more often settles things more thoroughly and better than acrimony.
-- Horace

Scoff not at the natural defects of any which are not in their power to amend. It is cruel to beat a cripple with his own crutches!
-- Thomas Fuller

That passage is what I call the sublime dashed to pieces by cutting too close with the fiery four-in-hand round the corner of nonsense.
-- Samuel Taylor Coleridge