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Ridicule is generally made use of to laugh men out of virtue and good sense, by attacking everything praiseworthy in human life. - Joseph Addison It frequently happens that where the second line is sublime, the third, in which he meant to rise still higher, is perfectly bombast. - Hugh Blair, commenting on Lucan's style 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, Essays--Voltaire 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, Table Talk 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, Characteristics--Letter Concerning Enthusiasm (pt. I, sec. II) '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. - Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, Characteristics--Letter Concerning Enthusiasm (pt. I, sect, V), referring to Leontinus Truth, 'tis supposed, may bear all lights; and one those principal lights or natural mediums by which things are to be viewed in order to a thorough recognition is ridicule itself. - Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, Essay on the Freedom of Wit and Humour (pt. I, sec. I) 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, Tales of the Hall (bk. VIII, l. 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. - Andre-Francois Boureau Deslandes, Reflexions sur les Grands Hommes qui sont morts en Plaisantant There is nothing one sees oftener than the ridiculous and magnificent, such close neighbors that they touch. [Fr., L'on ne saurait mieux faire voir que le magnifique et le ridicule sont si voisins qu'ils se touchent.] - Bernard de Bovier de Fontenelle, Oeuvres--Dialogues des Morts (IV, 32), (ed. 1825) We grow tired of everything but turning others into ridicule, and congratulating ourselves on their defects. - William Hazlitt (1), On the Pleasure of Hating Ridicule more often settles things more thoroughly and better than acrimony. [Lat., Ridiculum acri fortius ac melius magnas plerumque secat res.] - Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus), Satires (bk. I, 10, 14) Resort is had to ridicule only when reason is against us. - Thomas Jefferson Generally the ridiculous touches the sublime. [Fr., En general, le ridicule touche au sublime.] - Jean Francois Marmontel, Oeuvres Complettes (V, 188) There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous. [Fr., Du sublime au ridicule il n'y a qu'un pas.] - Napoleon Bonaparte (Napoleon I), to Abbe du Pradt, at Warsaw The sublime and ridiculous are often so nearly related that it is difficult to class them separately. One step below the sublime makes the ridiculous and one step above the ridiculous makes the sublime again. - Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason (pt. II) I have always made one prayer to God, a very short one. Here it is: "My God, make our enemies very ridiculous!" God has granted it to me. - Voltaire (Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire), Letter to M. Damilaville, May 16, 1767
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