APAD: From the sublime to the ridiculous

From the sublime to the ridiculous (is only a step)

A change from something very good or serious to something silly or unimportant.

The OED defines ‘from the sublime to the ridiculous’ as ‘from one extreme (esp. one characterized by lofty thoughts or noble actions) to the other’ and attributes the phrase to Napoleon in 1812: ‘Du sublime au ridicule, il n’y a qu’un pas’. Napoleon is reported to have made this comment on his retreat from Russia in D G F De Pradt’s Hist. Ambassade dans Grande Duché Varsouvie (1815). The OED suggests that Napoleon was inspired by a similar phrase in Thomas Paine’s The Age of Reason, Part 2 (1795): ‘One step above the sublime, makes the ridiculous’.