The talent of turning men into ridicule, and exposing to laughter those one converses with, is the qualification of little ungenerous tempers.

To make fun of a person to his face is a brutal way of amusing one's self; be delicate and cunning, and keep your laugh in your sleeve, lest you frighten away your game.

Mockery is often the result of a poverty of wit.

Ridicule dishonours more than dishonour.

The most effective way of attacking vice is to expose it to public ridicule. People can put up with rebukes but they cannot bear being laughed at: they are prepared to be wicked but they dislike appearing ridiculous.

There is no character, howsoever good and fine, but it can be destroyed by ridicule, howsoever poor and witless.