“He said they that were serious in ridiculous matters would be ridiculous in serious affairs.”
Plutarch (46–127) ancient Greek historian and philosopher
Cato the Elder
Roman Apophthegms
"Game III," p. 98
The Sun Watches the Sun (1999), Sequence: “A Game”
“He said they that were serious in ridiculous matters would be ridiculous in serious affairs.”
Plutarch (46–127) ancient Greek historian and philosopher
Cato the Elder
Roman Apophthegms
Joseph Addison (1672–1719) politician, writer and playwright
Attributed to "Addison" in A Dictionary of Thoughts : Being a Cyclopedia of Laconic Quotations from the Best Authors of the World, both Ancient and Modern (1908) edited by Tryon Edwards, p. 580, but this might be the later "Mr. Addison" who was credited with publishing Interesting Anecdotes, Memoirs, Allegories, Essays, and Poetical Fragments (1794).
Disputed
Kirby Page (1890–1957) American clergyman
"What is War?" (1924)
George Washington (1732–1799) first President of the United States
US Senator William Edgar Borah, writing in The Reader's Digest, Vol. 8, Issue 2 (1929), p. 776; this has only rarely begun to be attributed to Washington, since about 2010.
Misattributed
Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918) United States Baptist theologian
Source: Christianity and the Social Crisis (1907), Ch.1 The Historical Roots of Christianity the Hebrew Prophets, p. 9
John B. Anderson (1922–2017) American politician
As quoted in No Holding Back : The 1980 John B. Anderson Presidential Campaign (2011) by Jim Mason, p. 412
Context: I had no great sense of failure. I didn’t come out of the campaign with the sense that I’d thrown my career away or thrown my life away on what was a fruitless, feckless endeavor. I felt that I had made my mark on the pages of history and laid down some markers for others possibly to follow.
Michel De Montaigne book Essays
Book II, Ch. 10. Of Books
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Adam Ferguson book An Essay on the History of Civil Society
PART II, SECTION I.
An Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767)