Jonathan Swift on humor

We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.

Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.

When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.

Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.

George Bernard Shaw1856–1950The Doctor’s Dilemma (1911), Act V

• Life & Death

Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our irritation and resentments slip away, and a sunny spirit takes their place.

Mark Twain1835–1910“What Paul Bourget Thinks of Us?” (1897)

You can turn painful situations around through laughter. If you can find humor in anything, even poverty, you can survive it.

Bill Cosbyborn 1937