Quotes about humor

"Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity."

Addison, Joseph on humor
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"I have a fine sense of the ridiculous, but no sense of humor."

Albee, Edward on humor
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"The secret to humor is surprise."

Aristotle on humor
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"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."

Auden, W. H. on humor
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"Imagination was given man to compensate for what he is not, and a sense of humor to console him for what he is."

Bacon, Francis on humor
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"A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs-jolted by every pebble in the road."

Beecher, Henry Ward on humor
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"We never respect those who amuse us, however we may smile at their comic powers."

Blessington, Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of on humor
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"We must laugh at man to avoid crying for him."

Bonaparte, Napoleon on humor
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"Humor is by far the most significant activity of the human brain."

Bono, Edward De on humor
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"Humor is something that thrives between man's aspirations and his limitations. There is more logic in humor than in anything else. Because, you see, humor is truth."

Borge, Victor on humor
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"Humor is just another defense against the universe."

Brooks, Mel on humor
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"A rich man's joke is always funny."

Brown, Thomas Edward on humor
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"All my humor is based upon destruction and despair. If the whole world were tranquil, without disease and violence, I'd be standing on the breadline right in back of J. Edgar Hoover."

Bruce, Lenny on humor
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"The role of a comedian is to make the audience laugh, at a minimum of once every fifteen seconds."

Bruce, Lenny on humor
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"Comedy is a tragedy plus time."

Burnett, Carol on humor
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"True humor springs not more from the head than from the heart. It is not contempt; its essence is love. It issues not in laughter, but in still smiles, which lie far deeper."

Carlyle, Thomas on humor
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"In the end, everything is a gag."

Chaplin, Charlie on humor
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"Humor is always based on a modicum of truth. Have you ever heard a joke about a father-in-law."

Clark, Dick on humor
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"People of humor are always in some degree people of genius."

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor on humor
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"Levity is often less foolish and gravity less wise than each of them appears."

Colton, Charles Caleb on humor
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"A caricature is putting the face of a joke on the body of a truth."

Conrad, Joseph on humor
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"Burt Reynolds once asked me out. I was in his room."

Diller, Phyllis on humor
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"The comic is the perception of the opposite; humor is the feeling of it."

Eco, Umberto on humor
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"A difference of taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections."

Eliot, George on humor
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"There is this benefit in brag, that the speaker is unconsciously expressing his own ideal. Humor him by all means; draw it all out, and hold him to it."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on humor
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"A joke is an epigram on the death of a feeling."

Fredrich on humor
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"If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide."

Gandhi, Mahatma on humor
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"Humor is an affirmation of dignity, a declaration of man's superiority to all that befalls him."

Gary, Roman on humor
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"A humorist is a person who feels bad, but who feels good about it."

Herold, Don on humor
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"A jest often decides matters of importance more effectual and happily than seriousness."

Horace on humor
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"Humor is laughing at what you haven't got when you ought to have it."

Hughes, Langston on humor
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"An inexhaustible good nature is one of the most precious gifts of heaven, spreading itself like oil over the troubled sea of thought, and keeping the mind smooth and equable in the roughest weather."

Irving, Washington on humor
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"I am a great friend to public amusements, for they keep the people from vice."

Johnson, Samuel on humor
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"There is always some frivolity in excellent minds; they have wings to rise, but also stray."

Joubert, Joseph on humor
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"WARNING: Humor may be hazardous to your illness."

Katz, Ellie on humor
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"Humor, a good sense of it, is to Americans what manhood is to Spaniards and we will go to great lengths to prove it. Experiments with laboratory rats have shown that, if one psychologist in the room laughs at something a rat does, all of the other psychologists in the room will laugh equally. Nobody wants to be left holding the joke."

Keillor, Garrison on humor
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"Any discussion of the problems of being funny in America will not make sense unless we substitute the word wit for humor. Humor inspires sympathetic good-natured laughter and is favored by the healing-power gang. Wit goes for the jugular, not the jocular, and it's the opposite of football; instead of building character, it tears it down."

King, Florence on humor
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"Good humor is a tonic for mind and body. It is the best antidote for anxiety and depression. It is a business asset. It attracts and keeps friends. It lightens human burdens. It is the direct route to serenity and contentment."

Kleiser, Grenville on humor
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"The hall-mark of American humor is its pose of illiteracy."

Knox, Ronald on humor
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"One should never risk a joke, even of the mildest and most unexceptional charters, except among people of culture and wit."

La Bruyere, Jean De on humor
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