LAUGHTER QUOTES III
quotations about laughter
Ridicule is a weak weapon, when leveled at a strong mind; But common men are cowards, and dread an empty laugh.
MARTIN FARQUHAR TUPPER
Proverbial Philosophy
You grow up the day you have your first real laugh -- at yourself.
ETHEL BARRYMORE
The Tell Tale, 1940
[I am] persuaded that every time a man smiles, but much more so when he laughs ... it adds something to this fragment of life.
LAURENCE STERNE
dedication, The Works of Laurence Sterne
It may be remarked in general, that the laugh of men of wit is for the most part but a feint, constrained kind of half-laugh, as such persons are never without some diffidence about them; but that of fools is the most honest, natural, open laugh in the world.
RICHARD STEELE
The Guardian, Apr. 14, 1713
Laughter was absent from her life. Unless strategic or issued in triumph at some further depth she'd managed to go down to.
GLEN DUNCAN
By Blood We Live
I hasten to laugh at everything, for fear of being obliged to weep.
PIERRE DE BEAUMARCHAIS
Barbier de Seville
A laugh to be joyous must flow from a joyous heart, for without kindness there can be no true joy.
THOMAS CARLYLE
attributed, Day's Collacon
I laugh until I weep
And weep until I smile
RAY BRADBURY
"Christ, Old Student in a New School"
He who laughs last didn't get the joke at first.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
The problem is that we live in an uptight country. Why don't we just laugh at ourselves? We are funny. Gays are funny. Straights are funny. Women are funny. Men are funny. We are all funny, and we all do funny things. Let's laugh about it.
BOB NEWHART
I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This
Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are, and what they ought to be.
WILLIAM HAZLITT
Lectures on the English Comic Writers
Comedy naturally wears itself out--destroys the very food on which it lives; and by constantly and successfully exposing the follies and weaknesses of mankind to ridicule, in the end leaves itself nothing worth laughing at.
WILLIAM HAZLITT
"On Modern Comedy", The Round Table
O, glorious laughter! thou man-loving spirit, that for a time doth take the burden from the weary back, that doth lay salve to the weary feet, bruised and cut by flints and shards.
DOUGLAS JERROLD
The Wit and Opinions of Douglas Jerrold
I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints.
BILLY JOEL
"Only the Good Die Young"
Take bread away from me, if you wish,
take air away, but
do not take from me your laughter.
PABLO NERUDA
"Your Laughter"
Laughter is the closest thing to the grace of God.
KARL BARTH
attributed, The Harper Book of Quotations
When you've laughed like that with someone, it connects you at a humanity level.
JOHN CLEESE
interview, A. V. Club, February 5, 2008
I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing.
HERMAN MELVILLE
Moby Dick
Do you know what I like about comedy? You can't laugh and be afraid at the same time -- of anything. If you're laughing, I defy you to be afraid.
STEPHEN COLBERT
interview, Parade Magazine, Sep. 23, 2007
Only in this world do we laugh: in hell, it won't be possible; and in heaven, it won't be proper.
JULES RENARD
attributed, The Comic Encyclopedia