# Did Augustine really say...



## Mathetes (Aug 31, 2007)

"The ridiculous deserves to be ridiculed"? I saw it in someone's sig once over at Derek Webb's message board, and it's a neat saying, but I've never found a source for it. Anyone know?


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## caddy (Aug 31, 2007)

I found on uncommon descent.com where you posted it : )


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## Mathetes (Aug 31, 2007)

Yeah, that might've been a bit hasty of me >_>


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## BobVigneault (Aug 31, 2007)

In 1656 Blaise Pascal wrote in his 6th Provicial letter to the Jeusuits and quoted Augustine as saying,

"Charity may sometimes oblige us to ridicule the errors of men, that they may be induced to laugh at them in their turn, and renounce them."

This certainly contains the sentiment of what may be a paraphrase that you've picked up somewhere.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Aug 31, 2007)

BobVigneault said:


> In 1656 Blaise Pascal wrote in his 6th Provicial letter to the Jeusuits and quoted Augustine as saying,
> 
> "Charity may sometimes oblige us to ridicule the errors of men, that they may be induced to laugh at them in their turn, and renounce them."
> 
> This certainly contains the sentiment of what may be a paraphrase that you've picked up somewhere.



Pascal says the following in his 11th Provincial letter (which treats the subject of ridicule extensively):



> Thus you see, fathers, that ridicule is, in some cases, a very appropriate means of reclaiming men from their errors, and that it is accordingly an act of justice, because, as Jeremiah says, "the actions of those that err are worthy of derision, because of their vanity- vana sunt es risu digna." And so far from its being impious to laugh at them, *St. Augustine holds it to be the effect of divine wisdom: "The wise laugh at the foolish, because they are wise, not after their own wisdom, but after that divine wisdom which shall laugh at the death of the wicked."*
> 
> The prophets, accordingly, filled with the Spirit of God, have availed themselves of ridicule, as we find from the examples of Daniel and Elias. In short, examples of it are not wanting in the discourses of Jesus Christ himself. St. Augustine remarks that, when he would humble Nicodemus, who deemed himself so expert in his knowledge of the law, "perceiving him to be pulled up with pride, from his rank as doctor of the Jews, he first beats down his presumption by the magnitude of his demands, and, having reduced him so low that he was unable to answer, What! says he, you a master in Israel, and not know these things!- as if he had said, Proud ruler, confess that thou knowest nothing." *St. Chrysostom and St. Cyril likewise observe upon this that "he deserved to be ridiculed in this manner."*
> 
> ...


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## DTK (Sep 19, 2007)

Mathetes said:


> "The ridiculous deserves to be ridiculed"? I saw it in someone's sig once over at Derek Webb's message board, and it's a neat saying, but I've never found a source for it. Anyone know?


I found the time, finally, to look up this quote. The following is the closest I can find in the language of Augustine...

*Augustine (354-430):* So, not to speak of the truth, even their own fiction obliges them to confess that the law written on tables of stone was purer than their sacred parchments. Or perhaps they prefer sheepskin to stone, because their legends make stones the bones of princes. In any case, the ark of the Old Testament was a cleaner covering for the tables of stone than the goatskin of their manuscripts. *Laugh at these things, while pitying them, to show their falsehood and absurdity*. _NPNF1: Vol. IV, Reply to Faustus the Manichaean_, Book XV, Chapter 4.
*Latin text of the last sentence:* Haec tu misericorditer irride, ut eis irridenda et fugienda commendes: _Contra Faustum Manichaeum_, Liber 15, Caput IV, PL 42:306.

DTK


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## Mathetes (Sep 19, 2007)

Thanks for the help, everyone. Augustine left behind a huge amount of writings, so it's not surprising if the occasional misquote comes up


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## Dieter Schneider (Sep 19, 2007)

Well - what about answering a fool according to his folly? No prizes for the right answer!


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