A Quote by Thomas Paine

When authors and critics talk of the sublime, they see not how nearly it borders on the ridiculous.

Thomas Paine

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Authors Borders Critics How Nearly Ridiculous See Sublime Talk

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Thomas Paine
English - Activist
January 29, 1737 - June 8, 1809

The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly related, that it is difficult to class them separately. One step above the sublime makes the ridiculous, and one step above the ridiculous makes the sublime again.

Thomas Paine

There's only a step from the sublime to the ridiculous, but there's no road leading from the ridiculous to the sublime.

Lion Feuchtwanger

'Horrible Bosses' is just blatant, outright fun. I've read some of what the critics have said, and it's incredible how mean critics can be about comedies... It's so ridiculous.

Chris Pine

Even the most sublime ideas sound ridiculous if heard too often. Be the change that you want to see in the world.

Mahatma Gandhi

When I step back from any moment of crisis that I've ever had, I'm always struck by how humor and tragedy can kind of live in the same moment, holding hands together. How life can go from the ridiculous to the sublime to the tragic all in one breath.

Peter Vack

At first critics classified authors as Ancients, that is to say, Greek and Latin authors, and Moderns, that is to say, every post-Classical Author. Then they classified them by eras, the Augustans, the Victorians, etc., and now they classify them by decades, the writers of the '30's, '40's, etc. Very soon, it seems, they will be labeling authors, like automobiles, by the year.

W. H. Auden

You get this overview effect where you realize how small we are and how fragile our planet is and how we're really all in it together. You don't see borders from space, you don't see diversity and differences in people on Earth.

Anne McClain

At the heart of the ridiculous, the sublime

Derek Mahon

There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Tottenham ice their sublime cake with the ridiculous.

Peter Drury

Only by chancing the ridiculous, can I hope for the sublime.

Jay DeFeo

The sublime is only a step removed from the ridiculous.

Theodor Adorno

In a world of travail and cheap wine the ridiculous becomes sublime

Ben Sidran

Living authors, therefore, are usually, bad companions. If they have not gained character, they seek to do so by methods often ridiculous, always disgusting; and if they have established a character, they are silent for fear of losing by their tongue what they have acquired by their pen--for many authors converse much more foolishly than Goldsmith, who have never written half so well.

Charles Caleb Colton

Critics are to authors what dogs are to lamp-posts.

Jeffrey Robinson

It would be ridiculous to talk of male and female atmospheres, male and female springs or rains, male and female sunshine....How much more ridiculous is it in relation to mind, to soul, to thought, where there is as undeniably no such thing as sex.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

A Quote by Thomas Paine

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