Benjamin Franklin
Inventor, Statesman, Author
"Praise to the undeserving is severe satire."
Satire quotes
Satire
83 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Vladimir Nabokov
Novelist
"Satire is a lesson, parody is a game."
Mel Smith
Comedian, Actor, Writer
"How do we get a pantomime cow on set. Jeez, the rigours of satire."
Moliere
Playwright, Actor
"All the satires of the stage should be viewed without discomfort. They are public mirrors, where we are never to admit that we seeourselves; one admits to a fault when one is scandalized by its censure."
Gore Vidal
Writer, Essayist, Playwright
"If satire is to be effective, the audience must be aware of the thing satirized."
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Topics related to Satire
Browse quotes that often appear alongside satire — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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Satire quotes (page 1 of 5)
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"When dunces are satiric, I take it for a panegyric."
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"One easily bears moral reproof, but never mockery."
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"The Irish and British, they love satire, its a large part of the culture."
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"Satirists do expose their own ill nature."
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"One man's pointlessness is another's barbed satire."
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"A man is angry at a libel because it is false, but at a satire because it is true."
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"What is a miracle?--'Tis a reproach, 'Tis an implicit satire on mankind; And while it satisfies, it censures too."
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"Satires which the censor can understand are justly forbidden"
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"Satire, being levelled at all, is never resented for an offence by any."
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"Through my satire I make little people so big that afterwards they are worthy objects of my satire and no one can reproach me any longer."
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"I like to write a lot of satire."
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"I grew up around media so for me I've always been interested in that topic, whether it's a complete satire or a documentary. I love anything that touches on the state of information versus entertainment and what's newsworthy and what's not."
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"Satire recoils whenever charged too high; round your own fame the fatal splinters fly."
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"Kennedy didn't beat Nixon. Satire beat Nixon."
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"Satire has a great big glaring target. If successful, it blasts a great big hole in the center. Directness there must be and singleness of aim: it is all aim, all trajectory."
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"Wherever there is objective truth, there is satire."
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"Satire that the censor understands is rightly censored."
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"Satire chooses and knows no objects. It arises by fleeing from them and their forcing themselves upon it."
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