SATIRE QUOTES II

quotations about satire

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


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


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

Tags: William Cowper


It is a pretty mocking of the life.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Timon of Athens

Tags: William Shakespeare


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

Tags: P. J. O'Rourke


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


It is difficult not to write satire.

JUVENAL

Satires

Tags: Juvenal


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

Tags: Charles Churchill


Satire is enjoyable compensation for being forced to think.

EDGAR JOHNSON

A Treasury of Satire


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


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


Wherever there is objective truth, there is satire.

WYNDHAM LEWIS

Rude Assignment

Tags: Wyndham Lewis


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


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


Satire is a prompt recipe for making bitter enemies.

CHARLES WILLIAM DAY

The Maxims, Experiences, and Observations of Agogos

Tags: Charles William Day


Men are more satirical from vanity than from malice.

FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Maxims

Tags: Francois de La Rochefoucauld


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


You must not think that a satiric style allows of scandalous and brutish words.

ROSCOMMON

"Horace's Art of Poetry"


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