Quotations about Humour and Laugher

1. Comedy teaches the world what ails it. (George Meredith, p. 13)
2. Comedy and laughter are two separate notions, not necessarily interdependent. Laughter is a psychological and physiological phenomenon, comedy the product of a creative act of one human's humorous capacity. (Sorell, p. 13)
3. Philosopher and comic poet are of a cousinship in the eye they cast on life. - (Meredith, p. 15)
4. To love comedy you must know the real world, and know men and women well enough not to expect too much of them, though you may still hope for good. (Meredith, p. 24)
5. There never will be civilization where comedy is not possible… (Meredith, p. 32)
6. The laughter of comedy is impersonal and of unrivaled politeness, nearer a smile-often no more than a smile. It laughs through the mind, for the mind directs it; and it might be called the humor of the mind.
7. We know the degree of refinement in men by the matter they will laugh at, and the ring of the laugh; but we know likewise that the larger natures are distinguished by the great breadth of their power of laughter…(Meredith, p. 50)
8. Comedy is the thinking person’s response to experience; tragedy records the reactions of the person with feelings. (Charles B. Hands, from internet)
9. Comedy is the fountain of sound sense. (Meredith, p.14)
10. "Laughter is the shortest distance between two people." -Victor Borge
11. "Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh." -George Bernard Shaw
12. "Nobody ever died of laughter." -Max Beerbohm
13. "Men show their character in nothing more clearly than by what they find laughable." -Anon.
14. "The most wasted day of all is that during which we have not laughed." -Sebastian R. N. Chamfort
15. "The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter." -Mark Twain
16. "If you don't learn to laugh at troubles, you won't have anything to laugh at when you grow old."-Ed Howe
17. "The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself." -Ben Franklin
18. "Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go." -Oscar Wilde
19. "When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us." -Helen Keller
20. "People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be." -Abraham Lincoln
21. "Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times." -Anon.
22. "Most people would rather be certain they're miserable, than risk being happy." -Robert Anthony
23. "The grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for." -Allan K. Chalmers
24. "Nobody really cares if you're miserable, so you might as well be happy." -Cynthia Nelms
25. "Be happy while you're living, for you're a long time dead." -Scottish Proverb
26. "Good humor is one of the best articles of dress one can wear in society." -William Makepeace Thackeray
27. "The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up." -Mark Twain
29. "I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive." -Henry Miller
30. "The joy that isn't shared dies young." -Anne Sexton