It is commonly said, and more particularly by Lord Shaftesbury, that ridicule is the best test of truth; for that it will not stic...k 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 humour, may, and often doth, become ridiculous, at least so far, that the truth is only remembered and repeated for the sake of the ridicule.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
But among all our Methods of moving Pity or Terror, there is none so absurd and barbarous, and what more exposes us to the Contemp...t and Ridicule of our Neighbours, than that dreadful butchering of one another, which is so very frequent upon the English Stage. To delight in seeing Men stabbed, poisoned, racked, or impaled, is certainly the Sign of a cruel Temper: And as this is often practised before the British Audience, several French Criticks, who think these are grateful Spectacles to us, take Occasion from them to represent us a People that delight in Blood.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Personal size and mental sorrow have certainly no necessary proportions. A large bulky figure has a good a right to be in deep aff...liction, as the most graceful set of limbs in the world. But, fair or not fair, there are unbecoming conjunctions, which reason will pa tronize in vain,--which taste cannot tolerate,--which ridicule will seize.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
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.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
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.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
While love ceaselessly strives toward that which lies at the hiddenmost center, hatred only perceives the topmost surface and perc...eives it so exclusively that the devil of hatred, despite all his terror-inspiring cruelty, never is entirely free of ridicule and of a somewhat dilettantish aspect. One who hates is a man holding a magnifying-glass, and when he hates someone, he knows precisely that person's surface, from the soles of his feet all the way up to each hair on the hated head. Were one merely to seek information, one should inquire of the man who hates, but if one wishes to know what truly is, one better ask the one who loves.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
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 tru...th learned in a certain light, and attacked in certain words, by men of wit and humour, may, and often doth, become ridiculous, at least so far, that the truth is only remembered and repeated for the sake of the ridicule.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I have been grateful to you from the day you turned your attention to the follies and fanaticisms of religious sects. Against thos...e fools and impostors you employ the most appropriate weapons: to use others would be to imitate them. It is by ridicule that they must be attacked, and by scorn that they must be punished.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There is always a degree of ridicule that attends a disappointment, though often very unjustly, if the expectation was reasonably ...grounded; however, it is certainly most prudent not to communicate, prematurely, one's hopes or one's fears.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »