Quotes about comedy
1,001 quotes from 337 people
I regard you with an indifference closely bordering on aversion.
Robert Louis Stevenson1850–1894The New Arabian Nights (1882)The cow is of the bovine ilk;
One end is moo, the other, milk.
Ogden Nash1902–1971Free Wheeling (1931), “The Cow”.God in his wisdom made the fly
And then forgot to tell us why.Ogden Nash1902–1971Good Intentions (1942), “The Fly”I have no relish for the country; it is a kind of healthy grave.
Sydney Smith1771–1845Lady Holland’s Memoir (1855), Vol. II, letter to Miss Georgiana Harcourt (1838), p. 410The proper definition of a man is an animal that writes letters.
Lewis Carroll1832–1898The Selected Letters of Lewis Carroll, ed. Roger Lancelyn Green (1989), p. 10Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt.
Herbert Hoover1874–1964Address to the Nebraska Republican Conference, Lincoln, Nebraska (16 January 1936)Labor, n. One of the processes by which A acquires property of B.
Ambrose Bierce1842–1914The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)Prejudice, n. A vagrant opinion without visible means of support.
Ambrose Bierce1842–1914The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming.
Wernher von Braun1912–1977“On Bureaucracy”, Chicago Sun Times (10 July 1958), as quoted in Gaither’s Dictionary of Scientific Quotations, 2nd edition (2012), by Carl C. Gaither and Alma E. Cavazos-Gaither, editors, p. 925Year, n. A period of three hundred and sixty-five disappointments.
Ambrose Bierce1842–1914The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)Communism is like prohibition, it’s a good idea but it won’t work.
Will Rogers1879–1935The Autobiography of Will Rogers (1949)It is Ill-manners to silence a Fool, and Cruelty to let him go on.
George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax1633–1695Moral Thoughts and ReflectionsSelfish, adj. Devoid of consideration for the selfishness of others.
Ambrose Bierce1842–1914The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)Anyone can rat, but it takes a certain amount of ingenuity to re-rat.
Winston Churchill1874–1965Remark on rejoining the Conservatives (1923 or 1924), reported in Kay Halle, Irrepressible Churchill (1966), pp. 52–53I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.
Douglas Adams1952–2001The Salmon of Doubt (2002)