quotations about satire
Satire is the antidote to Pollyanna and Dr. Pangloss. It focuses our gaze sharply upon the contrast between things as they are and as they should be.
EDGAR JOHNSON
A Treasury of Satire
When scandal has new-minted an old lie,
Or tax'd invention for a fresh supply,
'Tis call'd a satire, and the world appears
Gathering around it with erected ears.
WILLIAM COWPER
Charity
The feathered arrow of satire has often been wet with the heart's blood of its victims.
ISAAC DISRAELI
attributed, Day's Collacon
Satire lies about literary men while they live and eulogy lies about them when they die.
VOLTAIRE
Lettre a Bordes, January 10, 1769