I always do the first line well, but I have trouble doing the others.
MoliereRead
It is a strange enterprise to make respectable people laugh.
Interpretation
Making serious or respectable individuals laugh can be a challenging task.
Moliere's quote highlights the difficulty and complexity involved in finding humor that resonates with those who typically uphold a serious demeanor. It suggests that humor often straddles a fine line between irreverence and respect, especially when aimed at an audience that values decorum.
In practice
This quote can be used during a comedy event to illustrate the challenge of making an audience composed of serious individuals laugh.
I always do the first line well, but I have trouble doing the others.
Beauty without intelligence is like a hook without bait.
Betrayed and wronged in everything, I’ll flee this bitter world where vice is king, And seek some spot unpeopled and apart Where I’ll be free to have an honest heart. - Molière, The Misanthrope
Long is the road from conception to completion.
Oh, I may be devout, but I am human all the same.
Hypocrisy is a fashionable vice, and all fashionable vices pass for virtue.
Congress consists of one-third, more or less, scoundrels; two-thirds, more or less, idiots; and three-thirds, more or less, poltroons.
We must laugh at man to avoid crying for him.
The only exercise I take is walking behind the coffins of friends who took exercise.
People who are rather more than six feet tall and nearly as broad across the shoulders often have uneventful journeys. People jump out at them from behind rocks then say things like, "Oh. Sorry. I thought you were someone else.
Fish and visitors stink in three days.
Oh, for a pin that would puncture pretension!
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