Theodor W. Adorno Quotes

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

It is only a step from the sublime to the ridiculous.

I don't think it's possible to have a sense of tragedy without having a sense of humor.

I think a good dollop of sadness is quite a useful thing in comedy sometimes. I think if everyone's happy all the time, it's a bit dull. It's like salt and caramel - you wouldn't imagine they would go well together, but they do.

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

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.

The best way to make the most serious point in the world is to be as unserious as possible.

When you see things upside down, the ego can be extraordinarily funny; it's absurd. But it's tragic at the same time.

I like to think my sense of humor is sort of smart and dumb at the same time. I like to work on multiple levels - smart and dumb, funny and sad, profound and mundane, cynical and hopeful.

Nothing surpasses the beauty and elegance of a bad idea.

It's great extremes which leads to great drama and great comedy.

Many of my poems try to use a comic element to reach a place that isn't comic at all. The comic element works as a surprise. It is unexpected and energizing.

All the things that I find beautiful have a darkness about them.

I hate bananas. I just hate them. But I also think a banana suit is the funniest fruit costume a person can wear.

There's obviously a lot of tragedy in comedy; I really enjoy the paradox of what a really good comedy is.

If truth is beauty, how come no one has their hair done in the library?

Life is dramatic and comedic at times. Sometimes in the most dramatic situations, there is comedy. And good comedy comes from a sense of reality.

Funny is when you're serious.

If you stretch tragedy, it will always become comedy.

Humor is such a wonderful thing, helping you realize what a fool you are but how beautiful that is at the same time.

Beauty has as many meanings as man has moods. Beauty is the symbol of symbols. Beauty reveals everything, because it expresses nothing. When it shows us itself, it shows us the whole fiery-coloured world.

There's so much humor in serious things sometimes.

Just because a subject is serious doesn't mean it doesn't have plenty of absurdities.

There is nothing that is so serious that you can't also see its comic side. Comedy is a way of talking about the most serious things.

Some things are so tragic that you don't know what's funny in it, and some things are so ridiculous you don't know if it's worth talking about it.