quotations about satire
It is a pretty mocking of the life.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Timon of Athens
Viewed in its happiest form, as a work of art, satire has one defect which seems to be incurable, its uniformity of censure. Bitterness scarcely admits those fine transitions which make the harmony of a composition. Aquafortis bites a plate all over alike; the satirist is met by the difficulty of the etcher.
ROBERT ARIS WILLMOTT
Pleasures of Literature
But the most annoying of all public reformers is the personal satirist; though he may be considered by some few as a useful member of society, yet he is only ranked with the hang-men, whom we tolerate because he executes the judgment we abhor to do ourselves, and avoid with a natural detestation of his office; the pen of the one and the cord of the other are inseparable in our minds.
JANE PORTER
attributed, Day's Collacon
There is parody, when you make fun of people who are smarter than you; satire, when you make fun of people who are richer than you; and burlesque, when you make fun of both while taking your clothes off.
P. J. O'ROURKE
Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut
The world of satire is a funny, fictional place. But every now and then, some unwitting soul mistakes it for reality.
KIM ODE
"U's Dr. Davis Logsdon is an expert on everything -- too bad he's not real", Minneapolis Star Tribune, September 15, 2017
A moral being of the highest and purest cast will forfeit none of his dignity by occasionally forging the shafts of satire; but he will be studious to increase the polish of his weapon in exact proportion to the keenness of its point and the velocity of its flight.
ELIAS LYMAN MAGOON
Proverbs for the People
Why should we fear; and what? The laws?
They all are armed in virtue's cause;
And aiming at the self-same end,
Satire is always virtue's friend.
CHARLES CHURCHILL
The Ghost
Satire is a prompt recipe for making bitter enemies.
CHARLES WILLIAM DAY
The Maxims, Experiences, and Observations of Agogos
Satire is enjoyable compensation for being forced to think.
EDGAR JOHNSON
A Treasury of Satire
But one thing sure hasn't changed
Once satire takes the stage
We'll be worn out
Oh yeah, we're worn out
NONE MORE BLACK
"We Dance on the Ruins of the Stupid Stage"
Political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
TOM LEHRER
The New York Times Magazine, 1997
Unless a love of virtue light the flame,
Satire is, more than those he brands, to blame;
He hides behind a magisterial air
His own offences, and strips others' bare.
WILLIAM COWPER
Charity
I wear my Pen as others do their Sword.
To each affronting sot I meet, the word
Is Satisfaction: straight to thrusts I go,
And pointed satire runs him through and through.
JOHN OLDHAM
Satire upon a Printer
Some people don't "get" satire. And some are offended because their sacred cows are being gored.
RUTH CROOK
"Satire is as old as Li'l Abner", The News Tribune, September 20, 2017
It is difficult not to write satire.
JUVENAL
Satires
Men are more satirical from vanity than from malice.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Maxims
A satirist of true genius, who is warmed by a generous indignation of vice, and whose censures are conducted by candor and truth, merits the applause of every friend to virtue. He may be considered as a sort of supplement to the legislative authority of his country; as assisting the unavoidable defects of all legal institutions for regulating of manners, and striking terror even where the divine prohibitions themselves are held in contempt. The strongest defence, perhaps, against the in-roads of vice, among the more cultivated part of our species, is well directed ridicule: they who fear nothing else, dread to be marked out to the contempt and indignation of the world.
SIR THOMAS FITZOSBORNE
The Letters of Sir Thomas Fitzosborne
Wherever there is objective truth, there is satire.
WYNDHAM LEWIS
Rude Assignment
Satire is essential for healthy, growing youngsters; it's every bit as important as finishing your greens and mastering your reading, writing and arithmetic, not to say a spot of coding. But are there sufficient snide sniggers and subversive stuff in modern diets? Has the march of the nanny state with its proliferation of rules, regulations and po-faced jobsworths and fun police, together with the echo-chamber of social media and the new intolerance, given rise to a place where satire is strangled? Are we losing the ability to cock a snook at authority and have a laugh at ourselves?
JACON GAGLIARDI
"You're not yourself without a snicker brought on by a bit of satire", The Australian, September 25, 2017
You must not think that a satiric style allows of scandalous and brutish words.
ROSCOMMON
"Horace's Art of Poetry"