Ridicule Quotes

• Ridicule is the tribute paid to the genius by the mediocrities.

  Oscar Wilde

  Genius, Mediocrity, Tribute

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• What people don't understand, they laugh at.

  Geraldine McCaughrean

  People, Laughing, Understanding

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  I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.

  Frederick Douglass

  Respect, Fear, Integrity

  Frederick Douglass (2013). “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave”, p.54, Simon and Schuster

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• Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religion, Atheism, Libertarian

  Thomas Jefferson (1939). “Democracy”

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• Ridicule is the first and last argument of a fool.

  Charles Simmons

  Lasts, Fool, Firsts

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  All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Inspirational, Witty, Truth

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2016). “101 Facts of life”, p.4, Publishdrive

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• ridicule may be a shield, but it is not a weapon.

  Dorothy Parker

  May, Weapons, Shields

  Dorothy Parker (2004). “Dorothy Parker in Her Own Words”, Taylor Trade Publishing

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• The most effective way of attacking vice is to expose it to public ridicule. People can put up with rebukes but they cannot bear being laughed at: they are prepared to be wicked but they dislike appearing ridiculous.

  Moliere

  People, Wicked, Vices

  "The Misanthrope and Other Plays". Book by Molière, p. 101, 1959.

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• The height of stupidity is most clearly demonstrated by the individual who ridicules something he knows nothing about.

  Albert Einstein

  Stupid, Height, Individual

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• Ridicule has always been the enemy of enthusiasm, and the only worthy opponent to ridicule is success.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Enemy, Opponents, Enthusiasm

  57 Copy quote

• Ridicule dishonours more than dishonour.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Dishonour

  6 Copy quote

• Mockery is often the result of a poverty of wit.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Poverty, Results, Wit

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• He who brings ridicule to bear against truth finds in his hand a blade without a hilt.

  Walter Savage Landor

  Hands, Bears, Blades

  Walter Savage Landor (2016). “Delphi Collected Poetical Works of Walter Savage Landor (Illustrated)”, Delphi Classics

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• Ridicule is a weak weapon when pointed at a strong mind; but common people are cowards and dread an empty laugh.

  Martin Farquhar Tupper

  Strong, Fear, People

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• Resort is had to ridicule only when reason is against us.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Political, Politics, Reason

  Thomas Jefferson (2004). “Light and Liberty: Reflections on the Pursuit of Happiness”, p.47, Modern Library

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• Ridicule more often settles things more thoroughly and better than acrimony.

  Horace

  Acrimony, Settling

  "Satires", Book I. 10. 14, as quoted in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations, p. 673-74, 1922.

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• Suburban houses and tin sheds are often the objects of ridicule.

  David Byrne

  House, Tin, Shed

  6 Copy quote

• No God and no religion can survive ridicule. No political church, no nobility, no royalty or other fraud, can face ridicule in a fair field, and live.

  Mark Twain

  God, Political, Religion

  6 Copy quote

• I believe they talked of me, for they laughed consumedly.

  George Farquhar

  Believe, Belief, Laughed

  'The Beaux' Stratagem' (1707) act 3, sc. 1

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• 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

  Cutting, Hands, Sublime

  'Table Talk' (1835) 20 January 1834

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• It is commonly said that ridicule is the best test of truth; for that it will not stick where it is not just. I deny it. A truth learned in a certain light, and attacked in certain words, by men of wit and humor, may, and often doth, become ridiculous, at least so far, that the truth is only remembered and repeated for the sake of the ridicule.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Men, Light, May

  Lord Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope Earl of Chesterfield (1855). “The Works of Lord Chesterfield: Including His Letters to His Son, Etc : to which is Prefixed, an Original Life of the Author”, p.440

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• 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, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury

  Coward, Tests, Reasoning

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• 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.

  Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury

  Sage, Examination, Tests

  "Characteristics", Letter Concerning Enthusiasm, Part I. Sect. V, as quoted in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations, p. 673-74, 1922.

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• I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail, not to scorn human actions, but to understand them.

  Baruch Spinoza

  Wisdom, Philosophical, Effort

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

  Horace

  Men, Remember, Esteem

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