The only source of the true Ridiculous (as it appears to me) is affectation — Henry Fielding

A comic writer should of all others be the least excused for deviating from nature, since it may not be always so easy for a serious poet to meet with the great and the admirable; but life every where furnishes an accurate observer with the ridiculous.

I describe not men, but manners; not an individual, but a species.

Some folks rail against other folks, because other folks have what some folks would be glad of.