Ridicule is the tribute paid to the genius by the mediocrities.
What people don't understand, they laugh at.
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.
Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions.
Ridicule is the first and last argument of a fool.
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
ridicule may be a shield, but it is not a weapon.
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.
The height of stupidity is most clearly demonstrated by the individual who ridicules something he knows nothing about.
Ridicule has always been the enemy of enthusiasm, and the only worthy opponent to ridicule is success.
Ridicule dishonours more than dishonour.
Mockery is often the result of a poverty of wit.
He who brings ridicule to bear against truth finds in his hand a blade without a hilt.
Ridicule is a weak weapon when pointed at a strong mind; but common people are cowards and dread an empty laugh.
Resort is had to ridicule only when reason is against us.
Ridicule more often settles things more thoroughly and better than acrimony.
Suburban houses and tin sheds are often the objects of ridicule.
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.
I believe they talked of me, for they laughed consumedly.
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.
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.
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
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.
I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail, not to scorn human actions, but to understand them.
Man learns more readily and remembers more willingly what excites his ridicule than what deserves esteem and respect.
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