“Irony is the glory of slaves.”

— Czeslaw Milosz

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Czeslaw Milosz 106

Polish, poet, diplomat, prosaist, writer, and translator 1911–2004

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

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Gardons-nous de l'ironie en jugeant. De toutes les dispositions de l'esprit, l'ironie est la moins intelligente.
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“He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,
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So the world shall be his footstool, and the soul of Time his slave,
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“We have men sold to build churches, women sold to support the gospel, and babes sold to purchase Bibles for the poor heathen! all for the glory of God and the good of souls! The slave auctioneer's bell and the church-going bell chime in with each other, and the bitter cries of the heart-broken slave are drowned in the religious shouts of his pious master. Revivals of religion and revivals in the slave-trade go hand in hand.”

Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman

Appendix
1840s, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave (1845)

“Irony is wasted on the stupid”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

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1840s, On the Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates (1841)

“That's the difference between irony and sarcasm. Irony can be spontaneous, while sarcasm requires volition. You have to create sarcasm.”

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Source: Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

“Hamlet, Kiekegaard, Kafka are ironists in the wake of Jesus. All Western irony is a repetition of Jesus' enigmas/riddles, in amalgam with the ironies of Socrates.”

Harold Bloom (1930–2019) American literary critic and scholar

Jesus and Yahweh: the names divine (2005), p 10.

“Irony is the glory of slaves.”

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Czeslaw Milosz 106

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