quotations about laughter
Nothing is more silly than silly laughter.
CATULLUS
Carmina
Laughter isn't only about expressing joy. Sometimes we laugh out of embarrassment, sometimes from confusion, sometimes out of courtesy, and sometimes from nervousness. In the evil laugh, we celebrate the misfortune of others. Laughter can also express our personality -- the frivolous laugh, or the laugh of the loud and in-your-face extrovert versus the shy, withdrawn laugh of the introvert. Some people have a particular skill for the superior laugh. Does he who laughs last, laugh loudest?
STEVE ELLEN
"The lowdown on laughter: from boosting immunity to releasing tension", The Conversation, March 22, 2016
Laughter is free, free your laughter.
ANONYMOUS
Laugh, and be fat, sir, your penance is known.
They that love mirth, let them heartily drink,
'Tis the only receipt to make sorrow sink.
BEN JONSON
"The Penates", Masques and Entertainments
I prefer that laughter shall take me unawares. Only so can it master and dissolve me.
MAX BEERBOHM
"Laughter", And Even Now
We do not stop laughing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop laughing.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
Take bread away from me, if you wish,
take air away, but
do not take from me your laughter.
PABLO NERUDA
"Your Laughter"
A well-developed sense of humor is the pole that adds balance to your steps as you walk the tightrope of life.
WILLIAM ARTHUR WARD
Woman's Day Magazine, Jun. 1, 2007
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
I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints.
BILLY JOEL
"Only the Good Die Young"
I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing.
HERMAN MELVILLE
Moby Dick
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
Laugh at your friends, and if your friends are sore;
So much the better, you may laugh the more.
ALEXANDER POPE
Epilogue to Satire
In regard to health care, we've all heard that laughter is the best medicine. Laughter is also our least costly healthcare option.
DANNY MURPHY
"If elected president, I promise a laugh in every belly!", The Florida Times-Union, April 1, 2016
Remember laughter. You'll need it even in the blessed isles of Ever After.
JAMES THURBER
13 Clocks
A hearty laugh lengthens your life.
SWEDISH PROVERB
A wonderful thing about true laughter is that it just destroys any kind of system of dividing people.
JOHN CLEESE
interview, A. V. Club, February 5, 2008
Laughter gives us distance. It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it and then move on.
BOB NEWHART
attributed, Standup Comedian: The Secret and Beyond
The man who laughs has simply not yet had the terrible news.
BERTOLT BRECHT
"To Those Born Later"
Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion.... I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning do to do afterward.
KURT VONNEGUT
Palm Sunday