“Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions.”
Letter to Francis Adrian Van der Kemp (30 July 1816), denouncing the doctrine of the Trinity.
1810s
Context: Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them; and no man ever had a distinct idea of the trinity. It is the mere Abracadabra of the mountebanks calling themselves the priests of Jesus.
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Thomas Jefferson 456
3rd President of the United States of America 1743–1826Related quotes

“Ridicule is man's most potent weapon.”
Source: Rules for Radicals: A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals (1971), p. 128

Source: Essays in the Philosophy of Language, 1967, p. 51

“A small man always has one weapon he can use against a great big man: he can "talk" about him.”
Country Town Sayings (1911), p298.

“It ain't much, but it's the only weapon we have against the Greedheads.”
On voting, in "My 49er Habit" (4 November 2002), also published in Hey Rube : Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine, and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness (2004)
2000s
What Does God Want Us to Do About Russia? (1948)
Context: It is impossible to use an atomic bomb here to defend the population of our own city. Likewise we cannot use our bacterial weapons here in our own country. These weapons of annihilation must be used offensively. And against their use no effective defense is possible.

RTNDA Convention Speech (1958)
Context: This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and even it can inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it's nothing but wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference. This weapon of television could be useful.
Stonewall Jackson, who knew something about the use of weapons, is reported to have said, "When war comes, you must draw the sword and throw away the scabbard." The trouble with television is that it is rusting in the scabbard during a battle for survival.