Henry Home Quotes
Ridicule, which chiefly arises from pride, a selfish passion, is but at best a gross pleasure, too rough an entertainment for those who are highly polished and refined.
Home, Henry. Elements of Criticism. Vol. 1, A. Millar, 1762, p. 343.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835-1910. This is why politicians fear ridicule worse than any other form of attack. If it is funny enough, the message sticks and is constantly remembered and repeated even if it is clearly exaggerated or untrue. Ridicule is however, very difficult to do well. Done poorly, it can backfire and appear mean-spirited and craven.
Henry Home, Lord Kames was a Scottish writer, philosopher, advocate, judge, and agricultural improver. A central figure of the Scottish Enlightenment, a founding member of the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh, and active in the Select Society, he acted as patron to some of the most influential thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment, including the philosopher David Hume, the economist Adam Smith, the writer James Boswell, the chemical philosopher William Cullen, and the naturalist John Walker.
