I always do the first line well, but I have trouble doing the others.
MoliereRead
It is a strange enterprise to make respectable people laugh.
Interpretation
Making serious or respectable individuals laugh can be a challenging task.
Moliere's quote highlights the difficulty and complexity involved in finding humor that resonates with those who typically uphold a serious demeanor. It suggests that humor often straddles a fine line between irreverence and respect, especially when aimed at an audience that values decorum.
In practice
This quote can be used during a comedy event to illustrate the challenge of making an audience composed of serious individuals laugh.
I always do the first line well, but I have trouble doing the others.
Beauty without intelligence is like a hook without bait.
Betrayed and wronged in everything, I’ll flee this bitter world where vice is king, And seek some spot unpeopled and apart Where I’ll be free to have an honest heart. - Molière, The Misanthrope
Long is the road from conception to completion.
Oh, I may be devout, but I am human all the same.
Hypocrisy is a fashionable vice, and all fashionable vices pass for virtue.
You wonder sometimes how our government puts on its pants in the morning.
I would tell myself that I was about to address the largest mass assembly of idiots ever gathered in the history of mankind.
SIREN, n. One of several musical prodigies famous for a vain attempt to dissuade Odysseus from a life on the ocean wave. Figuratively, any lady of splendid promise, dissembled purpose and disappointing performance.
If I close my eyes and think of Hollywood, all I see is one big varicose vein.
I don't feel that no big stone should be put over my head, saying he did this, he did that. Unless there's something that I really did do. I believe I'm just ordinary. And I'd like for people to think of me that way, as just a guy that tried. Wanted to be loved by other people because he loved people.
Eisenhower admitted that the budget can't be balanced and McCarthy said the communists are taking over. You don't know what to worry about these days - whether the country will be overthrown or overdrawn.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.