One cannot be always laughing at a man without now and then stumbling on something witty.
~ Jane Austen

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.
~ Lord Chesterfield

I believe they talked of me, for they laughed consumedly.
~ George Farquhar

Ridicule has always been the enemy of enthusiasm, and the only worthy opponent to ridicule is success.
~ Oliver Goldsmith

Oh that wisdom was half as zealous for converts as ridicule.
~ Franz Grillparzer

We grow tired of everything but turning others into ridicule, and congratulating ourselves on their defects.
~ William Hazlitt

Resort is had to ridicule only when reason is against us.
~ Thomas Jefferson

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.
~ Milan Kundera

Mockery is often the result of a poverty of wit.
~ Jean De La Bruyere

Ridicule often checks what is absurd, and fully as often smothers that which is noble.
~ Sir Walter Scott

When a person can no longer laugh at himself, it is time for others to laugh at him.
~ Thomas Szasz

Ridicule is a weak weapon when pointed at a strong mind; but common people are cowards and dread an empty laugh.
~ Martin Tupper

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.
~ Mark Twain