If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; but if you really make them think, they'll hate you.

The remark draws a sharp distinction between the pleasant feeling of intellectual self-satisfaction and the discomfort of genuine critical reflection. Marquis suggests that audiences often reward speakers or writers who flatter their sense of being thoughtful—offering familiar ideas, agreeable paradoxes, or the appearance of depth—because it confirms existing beliefs without demanding change. By contrast, truly making someone think can mean challenging assumptions, exposing contradictions, or forcing moral and social self-examination, which can provoke resentment. The quote captures a satirist’s skepticism about public taste: popularity often follows reassurance, while honest provocation risks hostility, even when it is intellectually or ethically valuable.