Quotes about humor
113 quotes from 83 people
Josh Billings1818–1885Josh Billings’ Old Farmer’s Allminax, “January 1871” (1870)The man who laughs has simply not yet had the terrible news.
Bertolt Brecht1898–1956“To Those Born Later”, part of the Svendborg Poems (1939)
Rita Mae Brownborn 1944Starting from Scratch (1989)Some things are of that nature as to make
One’s fancy chuckle, while his heart doth ache.
John Bunyan1628–1688The Pilgrim’s Progress, Part II (1684), verse preface “The Author’s Way of Sending Forth His Second Part of the Pilgrim”And if I laugh at any mortal thing,
’Tis that I may not weepI think it’s the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately.
No man who has once heartily and wholly laughed can be altogether irreclaimably bad.
Thomas Carlyle1795–1881Sartor Resartus (1833–1834), Bk. I, ch. 4.- Thomas Carlyle1795–1881Sartor Resartus (1833–1834), Bk. II, ch. 4.
- Thomas Carlyle1795–1881“Schiller”, first published in Fraser’s Magazine (1831).
Nicolas Chamfort1740–1794Often credited to Charlie ChaplinThe most completely wasted of all days is that in which we have not laughed.
Nicolas Chamfort1740–1794Maximes et pensées (1805)It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it.
G. K. Chesterton1874–1936All Things Considered (1908), “Spiritualism”It is not funny that anything else should fall down; only that a man should fall down.
G. K. Chesterton1874–1936All Things Considered (1908), “Spiritualism”
