Ridicule Quotes

• 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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• I have endured a great deal of ridicule without much malice; and have received a great deal of kindness, not quite free from ridicule. I am used to it.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Courage, Kindness, Used

  Abraham Lincoln (2012). “The Complete Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln (Biographically Annotated Edition)”, p.1275, Jazzybee Verlag

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• When the time comes I will go joyfully. Whatever may be there, it will be real, without complication, without ridicule, without deception.

  Isaac Bashevis Singer

  Real, Deception, May

  Isaac Bashevis Singer (1982). “The collected stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer”, Vintage

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

  Oscar Wilde

  Genius, Mediocrity, Tribute

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

  Charles Simmons

  Lasts, Fool, Firsts

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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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• It is said that ridicule is the test of truth: it is never applied, but when we wish to deceive ourselves.

  Letitia Elizabeth Landon

  Wish, Tests, Deceiving

  Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1857). “The Complete Works of L. E. Landon ...”

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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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  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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• When people can't use you, they ridicule what you represent. I was lucky that I understood that, because when one does not understand that, it is very easy to be broken and to be subdued.

  Wangari Maathai

  People, Broken, Doe

  Source: www.motherjones.com

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• I know the Muslim psychology. It is all pomposity and bravado. I give you my word that if Islam is ridiculed publicly and systematically, it will be defeated. Shame is a great motivator as well as deterrent. Do not underestimate the power of ridicule. This is serious stuff not a laughing matter.

  Ali Sina

  Giving, Laughing, Psychology

  Source: myislam.dk

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• The greatest height of heroism to which an individual, like a people, can attain is to know how to face ridicule.

  Miguel de Unamuno

  People, Height, Faces

  Miguel de Unamuno (1977). “The Tragic Sense of Life in Men and Nations”, p.342, Princeton University Press

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

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Poverty, Results, Wit

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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

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

  Geraldine McCaughrean

  People, Laughing, Understanding

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• There is no character, howsoever good and fine, but it can be destroyed by ridicule, howsoever poor and witless.

  Mark Twain

  Inspiration, Character, Personality

  Pudd'nhead Wilson "A Whisper to the Reader," "Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar" (1894)

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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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• It is easy for a man who sits idle at home, and has nobody to please but himself, to ridicule or censure the common practices of mankind.

  Samuel Johnson

  Home, Men, Practice

  Samuel Johnson, Elizabeth Carter, Samuel Richardson, Catherine Talbot (1825). “The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752”

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• Ridicule dishonours more than dishonour.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Dishonour

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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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• The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity... and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.

  William Blake

  Nature, Moving, Eye

  William Blake (1977). “The Portable William Blake”, p.136, Penguin

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