
“He said they that were serious in ridiculous matters would be ridiculous in serious affairs.”
Cato the Elder
Roman Apophthegms
A lecture at Königsberg (1775), as quoted in A New Dictionary of Quotations on Historical Principles from Ancient and Modern Sources (1946) by H. L. Mencken, p. 1017
“He said they that were serious in ridiculous matters would be ridiculous in serious affairs.”
Cato the Elder
Roman Apophthegms
“The fate of animals is of far greater importance to me than the fear of appearing ridiculous.”
( Fiji Live http://www.Fijilive.com).
Reaction to the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, 7 February 2006
“Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.”
Part 4, Section 7
Source: A Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40), Book 1: Of the understanding
As quoted in What Great Men Think of Religion (1972 [1945]) by Ira D. Cardiff, p. 245. Actually said by Edward Gibbonː "The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people, as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful." (The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 1776, Vol. I, Ch. II).
Misattributed
“I try not to underestimate my opponents, no matter how ridiculous their beards.”
Source: Death Bringer
Source: Astronomia nova (1609), Ch.58, as quoted in John Freely, Before Galileo: The Birth of Modern Science in Medieval Europe (2012)
Context: I was almost driven to madness in considering and calculating this matter. I could not find out why the planet would rather go on an elliptical orbit. Oh, ridiculous me! As the liberation in the diameter could not also be the way to the ellipse. So this notion brought me up short, that the ellipse exists because of the liberation. With reasoning derived from physical principles, agreeing with experience, there is no figure left for the orbit of the planet but a perfect ellipse.
Women Can't Hear What Men Don't Say (2000)