Ridicule Quotes
More Ridicule Quotes
We are a democracy, and there is only one way to get a democracy on its feet in the matter of its individual, its social, its municipal, its State, its National conduct, and that is by keeping the public informed about what is going on.There isnot a crime, there isnot a dodge, there is not a trick, there is not a swindle, there is not a vice which does not live by secrecy.Get these things out in the open, describe them, attack them, ridicule them in the press, and sooner or later public opinion will sweep them away.
joseph pulitzer— c.1910 Quoted in Alleyne Ireland An Adventure with a Genius, ch.4.
Let the rabbit of free enterprise out of its velveteen bag and too many people would have to be fired, too much idiocy exposed to the light of judgment or ridicule, too much vanity sacrificed to the fires of efficiency. Such a catastrophe obviously would threaten the American way of life, to say nothing of the belief in free markets.
lewis h. lapham— Chapter 9, Coined Souls, p. 232
I am convinced that the majority of the religious hierarchy today deplores the hardship inflicted on our people. I am referring not only to the martyrs but of the families who have been dispersed and terrified, who have no resources, and to the four million unemployed who are suffering from the economic chaos of a country which only a year earlier was giving employment to a million foreigners. Those who have chosen to serve God must feel profoundly sad at seeing ridicule poured on the most sacred principles of our religion.
muhammad reza pahlavi— Page 167 (The Shah's Story (1980))
To how much lying, extravagance, hypocrisy and servilism does not the fear of ridicule lead? Human respect makes us cowards and slaves. It may deter from evil, but much oftener it drives to baseness. “We are too much afraid,” said Cato, “of death, exile and poverty.”
john lancaster spalding— p. 171 (Aphorisms and Reflections (1901))
Already has He sent you Word in the Book, that when ye hear the signs of God held in defiance and ridicule, ye are not to sit with them unless they turn to a different theme: if ye did, ye would be like them. For God will collect the hypocrites and those who defy faith - all in Hell:-
— Original: ?
— The Qur'an (?), Sura 4:140
Fashion, n. A despot whom the wise ridicule and obey.
Ambrose Gwinett Bierce— 1906 The Cynic's Word Book. Retitled The Devil's Dictionary (1911).
When adults first become conscious of something new, they usually either attack or try to escape from it... Attack includes such mild forms as ridicule, and escape includes merely putting out of mind.
William Beveridge— p. 65 (The Art of Scientific Investigation (1950))
I confidently expect that we shall continue to be grouped with mothers-in-law and Wigan Pier as one of the recognized objects of ridicule.
— On the civil service, in Portrait of a Profession: The Civil Service Tradition (1950)
Le ridicule qu’on a augmente toujours en proportion qu’on s’en défend.
pierre choderlos de laclos— One's ridiculousness increases in proportion as one denies it.Letter 141: La Marquise de Merteuil to le Vicomte de Valmont. Trans. Richard Aldington (1924). [13]
And took for truth the test of ridicule.
George Crabbe— Book viii, "The Sisters".
When once enthusiasm has been turned into ridicule, everything is undone except money and power.
anne louise germaine de staël— Bk. 4, ch. 3
It is commonly said, and more particularly by Lord Shaftesbury, that ridicule is the best test of truth.
stanhope, philip, 4th earl of chesterfield— February 6, 1752.
The Tibetan missionaries in their mood of bright confidence disconcerted the imperial governments by laughing the new movement into frustration. For a sham faith cannot stand ridicule.
Olaf Stapledon— Part VII, 1. Harking Back to the Tibetan Revolution
I recall an incident involving the late George Stigler at a conference in Spain in the 1980s. Hearing that I had written a book on reason and natural law, Stigler started to ridicule reason, going so far as to say that there is as much reason in a monkey's antics as in any human act. At that point I asked him whether he was trying to tell me something about how he wrote his books; he gave me a blank stare and stormed out of the room.
frank van dun— "Argumentation Ethics and the Philosophy of Freedom," Ludwig von Mises Institute (2006-08-22)
A vague uncritical idealism always lends itself to ridicule and too much of it might be a danger to mankind, leading it round in a futile wild-goose chase for imaginary ideals.
lin yutang— Ch. I : The Awakening
We have oftener than once endeavoured to attach some meaning to that aphorism, vulgarly imputed to Shaftesbury, which however we can find nowhere in his works, that "ridicule is the test of truth ."
thomas carlyle— Voltaire, Foreign Review, (1829); compare: "How comes it to pass, then, that we appear such cowards in reasoning, and are so afraid to stand the test of ridicule?", Shaftesbury, Characteristics. A Letter concerning Enthusiasm, sect. 2.; "Truth, 't is supposed, may bear all lights; and one of those principal lights or natural mediums by which things are to be viewed in order to a thorough recognition is ridicule itself", Shaftesbury, Essay on the Freedom of Wit and Humour, sect. 1.; "'T was the saying of an ancient sage [Gorgias Leontinus, apud Aristotle's "Rhetoric," lib. iii. c. 18], 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", ibid. sect. 5.
In the first place, an unjust law exists in this Commonwealth, by which marriages between persons of different color is pronounced illegal. I am perfectly aware of the gross ridicule to which I may subject myself by alluding to this particular; but I have lived too long, and observed too much, to be disturbed by the world's mockery.
lydia maria child— Chapter VIII
A lost love. Deny it who will, ridicule it, treat it as mere imagination and sentiment, the thing is and will be; and women do suffer therefrom, in all its infinite varieties: loss by death, by faithlessness or unworthiness, and by mistaken or unrequited affection.
dinah maria mulock— Ch. 10. (A Woman's Thoughts About Women (1858))
I wish I didn't have to introduce the following information, [on reptilian shapeshifting] because it complicates the story and opens me up to mass ridicule. But I'm not afraid to go where information leads me
david icke— The Biggest Secret, ch. 2
I am inclined to believe that few attacks either of ridicule or invective make much noise, but by the help of those they provoke.
samuel johnson— Letter to Hester Thrale (1783-07-05) [2]
Questioning the status quo can result in banishment, imprisonment, ridicule or being burned at the stake, depending on your era, your locale, and the sacred cows you wish to butcher.
gene spafford— The Pursuit of Knowledge, from Genesis to Google
We should reward people, not ridicule them, for thinking the impossible.
nassim nicholas taleb— "Learning to Expect the Unexpected," The New York Times (2004-04-08}
In measured tones he answered Madouc: “Your condition lacks dignity; you bring ridicule upon us all.” Madouc gave a stony shrug. “If you do not like what you see, look elsewhere.”
jack vance— Chapter 9, section 4 (p. 928)
En géneral, le ridicule touche au sublime.
— Generally the ridiculous touches the sublime.
— Jean-François Marmontel, Œuvres Complettes (1787), V, 188
Du sublime au ridicule il n'y a qu'un pas.
— There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.
— Napoleon I to Abbé du Pradt, at Warsaw. See Histoire de l'Ambassade dans la Grande Duché de Vasovie, Ed. 2, p. 219. Attributed also to Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (traced from Napoleon to Paine, Paine to Blair)
How comes it to pass, then, that we appear such cowards in reasoning, and are so afraid to stand the test of ridicule?
— Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, Characteristics, Letter Concerning Enthusiasm, Part I, Section II
Truth, 'tis supposed, may bear all lights; and one of those principal lights or natural mediums by which things are to be viewed in order to a thorough recognition is ridicule itself.
— Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, Essay on the Freedom of Wit and Humour, Part I, Section I
We must be on our guard against giving interpretations which are hazardous or opposed to science, and so exposing the word of God to the ridicule of unbelievers.
augustine of hippo— Augustine of Hippo, De genesi ad litteram libri duodecim (The Literal Meaning of Genesis) (415), I, nos. 19, 21, 39 [2]
ridicule is man's most potent weapon.
saul alinsky— p. 128 (Rules for Radicals: A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals (1971))
