I believe they talked of me, for they laughed consumedly.
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.
Mockery is often the result of a poverty of wit.
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.
No great movement designed to change the world can bear to be laughed at or belittled. Mockery is a rust that corrodes all it touches.
Oh that wisdom was half as zealous for converts as ridicule.
One cannot be always laughing at a man without now and then stumbling on something witty.
Resort is had to ridicule only when reason is against us.
Ridicule has always been the enemy of enthusiasm, and the only worthy opponent to ridicule is success.
Ridicule is a weak weapon when pointed at a strong mind; but common people are cowards and dread an empty laugh.
Ridicule often checks what is absurd, and fully as often smothers that which is noble.
We grow tired of everything but turning others into ridicule, and congratulating ourselves on their defects.
When a person can no longer laugh at himself, it is time for others to laugh at him.