"Why should we fear; and what? The laws? They all are armed in virtue's cause; And aiming at the self-same end, Satire is always virtue's friend." —Charles Churchill on Satire
"Unless a love of virtue light the flame, Satire is, more than those he brands, to blame; He hides behind a magisterial air He own offences, and strips others' bare." —William Cowper on Satire
"The artist, like the God of the creation, remains within or behind or beyond or above his handiwork, invisible, refined out of existence, indifferent, paring his fingernails." —James Joyce on Satire
"It is difficult not to write satire. " —Juvenal on Satire
"Satire is what closes Saturday night." —Juvenal on Satire
"Men are more satirical from vanity than from malice." —Duc De La Rochefoucauld on Satire
"Satire should, like a polished razor keen, Wound with a touch that's scarcely felt or seen. Thine is an oyster knife, that hacks and hews; The rage but not the talent to abuse." —Lady Mary Wortley Montagu on Satire
"I wear my Pen as others do their Sword.
To each affronting sot I meet, the word Is Satisfaction: straight to thrusts I go, And pointed satire runs him through and through." —John Oldham on Satire
"Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, And without sneering teach the rest to sneer; Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike, Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike; Alike reserv'd to blame, or to commend, A tim'rous foe, and a suspicious friend." —Alexander Pope on Satire
"Satire or sense, alas! Can Sporus feel? Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?" —Alexander Pope on Satire
"There are, to whom my satire seems too bold; Scarce to wise Peter complaisant enough, And something said of Chartres much too rough." —Alexander Pope on Satire
"Satire's my weapon, but I'm too discreet To run amuck and tilt at all I meet." —Alexander Pope on Satire
"It is a pretty mocking of the life." —William Shakespeare on Satire
"Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own." —Jonathan Swift on Satire
"Satire lies about literary men while they live and eulogy lies about them when they die. " —Voltaire on Satire
Wikiquote Article on Satire
Satire is a literary technique of writing or art which exposes the follies of its subject (for example, individuals, organizations, or states) to ridicule, often as an intended means of provoking or preventing change.
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Satire is a kind of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own.
In its essence the purpose of satire - whether verse or prose - is aggression ... Satire has a great big blaring target. If successful, it blasts a great big hole in the center.
