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Quotes about humor

113 quotes from 83 people

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Never laugh when you’re being sarcastic. It will ruin the effect.
Scott Adams1957–2026The Joy of Work (1998)
- Laughter
If we may believe our logicians, man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter.
Joseph Addison1672–1719The Spectator (1711–1714), No. 494 (26 September 1712)
- Laughter
I shall endeavor to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality.
Joseph Addison1672–1719The Spectator (1711–1714), No. 10 (11 March 1711)
- Morality
A good comedian can say things funny and other guys just say funny things.
Fred Allen1894–1956Attributed by Robert Lemke in The Sunday Press (Binghamton, NY), “Rock ‘n Roll ‘Musically Horrid” Says Ex-2-a-Dayer,” pg. 2-C, col. 1 (9 August 1959)
I mean, look at them all: Dickens, George Eliot, Jane Austen, Smollet, Fielding, they’re all funny. All the good ones are funny.
Martin Amis1949–2023Prospect interview (2010)
- Writing
The secret to humor is surprise.
Aristotle384–322 BC
Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh.
W. H. Auden1907–1973The Dyer’s Hand, and Other Essays (1962)
- Laughter
- Love
A God who cannot smile, could not have created this humorous universe.
Sri Aurobindo1872–1950Bhakti
- God
To listen to some devout people, one would imagine that God never laughs.
Sri Aurobindo1872–1950Sri Aurobindo: The Hour of God, and Other Writings (1970)
- God
- Laughter
For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?
Jane Austen1775–1817Pride and Prejudice (1813), Volume III, Chapter XVIn context
- Comedy
- Laughter
You see, Wendy, when the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.
J. M. Barrie1860–1937Peter Pan (1911), Peter and Wendy (1911), Ch. 3In context
- Children
- Laughter
When a new baby laughs for the first time a new fairy is born, and as there are always new babies there are always new fairies.
J. M. Barrie1860–1937Peter Pan (1911), Chapter XVIIIn context
- Children
- Laughter
I hasten to laugh at everything, for fear of being obliged to weep.
Pierre Beaumarchais1732–1799Le Barbier de Séville (1773), Act I, sc. ii (Figaro). Harbottle and Dalbiac (1904) p. 63
- Laughter
Laughter, n. An interior convulsion, producing a distortion of the features and accompanied by inarticulate noises. It is infectious and, though intermittent, incurable.
Ambrose Bierce1842–1914The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)
- Laughter
To be comic is merely to be playful, but wit is a serious matter. To laugh at it is to confess that you do not understand.
Ambrose Bierce1842–1914Epigrams, p. 346
- Laughter