“Let us beware of irony when making judgements. Of all the dispositions of the mind, irony is the least intelligent.”

—  Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve

Gardons-nous de l'ironie en jugeant. De toutes les dispositions de l'esprit, l'ironie est la moins intelligente.
Notebook entry, February 24, 1848, cited from Les cahiers de Sainte-Beuve (Paris: Alphonse Lemerre, 1876) p. 75; Christopher Prendergast The Classic (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007) p. 244.

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Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve10
French literary critic 1804–1869

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