LAUGHTER QUOTES VI
quotations about laughter
To laugh is proper to man.
FRANCOIS RABELAIS
Gargantua
Laughter is a pure, concentrated form of fault-tolerance; a much-needed way out when things go wrong.
SHEYNA GIFFORD
"My Life on (Simulated) Mars", Narratively, April 4, 2016
Anyone who takes himself too seriously always runs the risk of looking ridiculous; anyone who can consistently laugh at himself does not.
VACLAV HAVEL
Disturbing the Peace
Laughing, if loud, ends with a deep sigh; and all pleasures have a sting in the tail, though they carry beauty in the face.
JEREMY TAYLOR
attributed, Day's Collacon
Laugh whenever you can. Keeps you from killing yourself when things are bad. That and vodka.
JIM BUTCHER
Changes
The house of laughter makes a house of woe.
EDWARD YOUNG
Night Thoughts
There is nothing [that] disarms us like laughter.
HENRI BERGSON
Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic
He who always prefaces his tale with laughter, is poised between impertinence and folly.
JOHANN KASPAR LAVATER
attributed, Day's Collacon
Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee
Jest, and youthful Jollity,
Quips, and Cranks, and wanton Wiles,
Nods, and Becks, and wreathed Smiles,
Such as hang on Hebe's cheek,
And love to live in dimple sleek;
Sport that wrinkled Care derides,
And Laughter holding both his sides.
JOHN MILTON
L'Allegro
Has the gift of laughter been withdrawn from me? I protest that I do still, at the age of forty-seven, laugh often and loud and long. But not, I believe, so long and loud and often as in my less smiling youth. And I am proud, nowadays, of laughing, and grateful to any one who makes me laugh. That is a bad sign. I no longer take laughter as a matter of course.
MAX BEERBOHM
"Laughter", And Even Now
Life is worth living as long as there's a laugh in it.
LUCY MAUD MONTGOMERY
Anne of Green Gables
Laughter is, above all, a corrective. Being intended to humiliate, it must make a painful impression on the person against whom it is directed. By laughter, society avenges itself for the liberties taken with it. It would fail in its object if it bore the stamp of sympathy or kindness.
HENRI BERGSON
Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic
Laugh and be wise.
MARTIAL
attributed, Day's Collacon
There is laughter that goes so far as to lose all touch with its motive, and to exist only, grossly, in itself. This is laughter at its best. A man to whom such laughter has often been granted may happen to die in a work-house. No matter. I will not admit that he has failed in life. Another man, who has never laughed thus, may be buried in Westminster Abbey, leaving more than a million pounds overhead. What then? I regard him as a failure.
MAX BEERBOHM
"Laughter", And Even Now
Laughter would appear to be a physical reflex, although even if it is, this still leaves unanswered the question of why the human response to humor is a convulsive spasm of the respiratory mechanism rather than a crossing of the eyes or a waving of the arms.
STEVE ALLEN
How to Be Funny
Laughter is the representative of Tragedy, when Tragedy is away.
WYNDHAM LEWIS
"Inferior Religions"
Laughter is equally the expression of extreme anguish and horror as of joy: as there are tears of sorrow and tears of joy, so is there a laugh of terror and a laugh of merriment.
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE
"Notes on Hamlet"
Just because there's a war going on doesn't mean people aren't laughing. In fact, in some of these absurd situations, laughing is the only thing you could do to make sense of it.
KIM BARKER
"War is once again a laughing matter", News OK, March 8, 2016
Laugh and the world laughs with you; cry -- and the world laughs harder.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
He laughs best who laughs last.
JOHN VANBRUGH
The Country House