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))
J'ai bien besoin d'avoir cette femme, pour me sauver du ridicule d'en e" tre amoureux. I need to possess this woman in order to save myself from the absurdity of being in love with her.
Pierre-Ambroise Choderlos de Laclos— 1782 Les Liaisons dangereuses, letter 4.
If I can do no more, let my name stand among those who are willing to bear ridicule and reproach for the truth's sake, and so earn some right to rejoice when the victory is won.
Louisa May Alcott— From a letter ("Louisa M. Alcott to the American Woman Suffrage Association", October 1885) in support of women's voting rights, quoted in Elizabeth Cady Stanton et al., History of Woman Suffrage, 1883-1900 (1902), p. 412.
Rien n'est si voisin du haut style que le galimatias: le ridicule est une des extrémités du subtil.
jean-louis guez de balzac balzac— Socrate Chrétien, Discours X.
— Translation: Nothing so closely approaches a grand style as turgid nonsense: the ridiculous is one of the extremes of the subtle.
— Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 202.
We grow tired of every thing but turning others into ridicule, and congratulating ourselves on their defects.
william hazlitt— "On Application to Study"
Do you recall the laughter of the Philistines at the helpless Sampson? You can hear the echo of that laughter to-day, as the church, shorn of her strength by her own sin, is an object of ridicule to the world, who cry in derision, "Where is your boasted triumph and your Millennial glory?"
abbott eliot kittredge— P. 147. (Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895))
Aristophanes turns Socrates into ridicule in his comedies, as making the worse appear the better reason.
diogenes laërtius— Socrates, 5.
...I’m sure lots of people would love to ridicule me when I say this, but it is true: many people die from cold related deaths every winter, and here are studies that say that climate change in certain areas of the world would help those individuals.
dana perino— Press Briefing, October 26, 2007 [2]
Tell those who indulge in these drugs ( LSD , marijuana , and other types) that it is harmful physically, mentally and spiritually, and that they should stop the taking of these drugs. Your duty is to tell them, regardless of whether they accept what you say, or if they ridicule or humiliate you, to boldly and bravely face these things.
meher baba— To Robert Dreyfuss in 1964, p. 6403
La province est la province: elle est ridicule quand elle veut singer Paris.
honoré de balzac— The provinces are provinces; they are only ridiculous when they mimic Paris.Ch III: Pathology of Retired Mercers
L’homme subjugué par sa femme est justement couvert de ridicule. L’influence d’une femme doit être entièrement secrète.
honoré de balzac— A husband who submits to his wife’s yoke is justly held an object of ridicule. A woman’s influence ought to be entirely concealed.Part I, ch. XIII
It is not a sensible or intelligent response for us in Europe to ridicule American argument or parody their political leadership.
tony blair— Speech at the Lord Mayor's Banquet, 15 November 2004Urging Europe to stop ridiculing American President George W. Bush.
As Eastern thought has begun to interest a significant number of people, and meditation is no longer viewed with ridicule or suspicion, mysticism is being token seriously even within the scientific community An increasing number of scientists are aware that mystical thought provides a consistent and relevant philosophical back ground to the theories of Contemporary science, a conception of the world in which the scientific discoveries of men and women can be in perfect harmony with their SpirItual aims and religious beliefs.
fritjof capra— p.78 (The Turning Point (1982))
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.
Humans: The only animal who can laugh!/ We can enjoy the lighter side of life/ And we can also laugh at others/ And ridicule others!
kuruvilla pandikattu— Life: Relish It!
On n'est jamais si ridicule par les qualités que l'on a que par celles que l'on affecte d'avoir.
— The qualities we have do not make us so ridiculous as those which we affect to have.
— François de La Rochefoucauld, Maximes, 134.
Prejudice against impersonating women and the fear of ridicule are considered to have contributed to the decline in interest of male performers. Perceived lack of feasibility and limited employment opportunities through dance are other reasons. I have a dance school and only three in a class of 200 students are male
— Dulal Roy, culture exponent and project director Sattriya Kendra, Sangeet Natak Akademi quoted in Dance as a daily offering. The Hindu (23 September 2013). Retrieved on 18 January 2014.
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— Thomas Carlyle, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827–1855), Voltaire
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— George Crabbe, Tales of the Hall (1819), Book VIII, line 126
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.
— Raymond Deslaudes, Reflexions sur les Grands Hommes qui sont morts en Plaisantant
L'on ne saurait mieux faire voir que le magnifique et le ridicule sont si voisins qu'ils se touchent.
— There is nothing one sees oftener than the ridiculous and magnificent, such close neighbors that they touch.
— Bernard Le Bouvier de Fontenelle, Œuvres, Dialogues des Morts (1683), IV. 32. Ed. 1825. Used by Edward, Lord Oxford, Ms. Common Place Book
Reason is the test of ridicule, and not ridicule the test of truth.
— William Warburton, The Divine Legation of Moses Demonstrated, Volume I, Dedication to the Freethinkers (1738), 1765 edition, p. 15
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— William Blake, The Letters (1799).
Young men, terminate, I beseech you, in your own experience, the sad divorce which has too often existed between intellect and piety. Take your stand, unswerving, heroic, by the altar of truth; and from that altar let neither sophistry nor ridicule expel you. Let your faith rest with a child's trust, with a martyr's grip, upon the truth as it is in Jesus.
— William Morley Punshon, p. 453. (Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895))
Reason is the test of ridicule, not ridicule the test of truth.
— Warburton, p. 349. (Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895))
