From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step

Cultural  

1. In life, things that are noble and magnificent are never far from things that are trivial and laughable. This saying has been attributed to both Napoleon Bonaparte and the French statesman Talleyrand.

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Example Sentences

There is no country in the world, where Napoleon's own phrase, that from the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step, is more perpetually and practically realised than in France.

From Project Gutenberg

From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step: which is the sublime, and which the ridiculous, every one must settle for himself.

From Project Gutenberg

But whenever the verge of harmony is not only reached, but transgressed, the connection of opposite ideas produces a different effect upon us, and we admit that from the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step.

From Project Gutenberg