Quotes about humor

"The happiness or unhappiness of men depends as much on their humors as on fortune."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on humor   

"Fortune and humor govern the world."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on humor   

"If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee."

Lincoln, Abraham on humor
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"A person who knows how to laugh at himself will never ceased to be amused."

Maclaine, Shirley on humor
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"Chaos in the midst of chaos isn't funny, but chaos in the midst of order is."

Martin, Steve on humor
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"Comedy may be big business but it isn't pretty."

Martin, Steve on humor   

"It is well known that Beauty does not look with a good grace on the timid advances of Humor."

Maugham, W. Somerset on humor   

"Good taste and humor are a contradiction in terms, like a chaste whore."

Muggeridge, Malcolm on humor   

"Wit is a weapon. Jokes are a masculine way of inflicting superiority. But humor is the pursuit of a gentle grin, usually in solitude."

Muir, Frank on humor   

"I could not tread these perilous paths in safety, if I did not keep a saving sense of humor."

Nelson, Lord on humor   

"Even the gods love jokes."

Plato on humor   

"There are things of deadly earnest that can only be mentioned under the cover of a joke."

Procter, J. J. on humor   

"One never needs their humor as much as when they argue with a fool."

Proverb, Chinese on humor
8 fans of this quote   

"A poor joke must invent its own laughter."

Proverb, Latin on humor   

"The absolute truth is the thing that makes people laugh"

Reiner, Carl on humor   

"Everything is funny as long as it is happening to somebody else."

Rogers, Will on humor
6 fans of this quote   

"Humor is the affectionate communication of insight."

Rosten, Leo on humor   

"Humor is, I think, the sublets and chanciest of literary forms. It is surely not accidental that there are a thousand novelists, essayists, poets or journalists for each humorist. It is a long, long time between James Thurbers"

Rosten, Leo on humor   

"Anyone without a sense of humor is at the mercy of everyone else."

Rothschild, William E. on humor
4 fans of this quote   

"Humor has been a fashioning instrument in America, cleaving its way through the national life, holding tenaciously to the spread elements of that life. Its mode has often been swift and coarse and ruthless, beyond art and beyond established civilization. It has engaged in warfare against the established heritage, against the bonds of pioneer existence. Its objective --the unconscious objective of a disunited people --has seemed to be that of creating fresh bonds, a new unity, the semblance of a society and the rounded completion of an American type."

Rourke, Constance on humor   

"Good humor isn't a trait of character, it is an art which requires practice."

Seabury, David on humor
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"Comedy is the last refuge of the nonconformist mind."

Seldes, Gilbert on humor   

"It is the saying of an ancient sage that humor was the only test of gravity, and gravity of humor."

Shaftesbury, Lord on humor   

"The right honorable gentlemen is indebted to his memory for his jokes and his imagination for his facts."

Sheridan, Richard Brinsley on humor   

"Be simple in words, manners, and gestures. Amuse as well as instruct. If you can make a man laugh, you can make him think and make him like and believe you."

Smith, Alfred E. on humor   

"The comic and the tragic lie inseparably close, like light and shadow."

Socrates on humor
4 fans of this quote   

"Musical comedies aren't written, they are rewritten."

Sondheim, Stephen on humor   

"For every ten jokes you acquire a hundred enemies."

Sterne, Laurence on humor   

"A brilliant epigram is a solemn platitude gone to a masquerade ball."

Strachey, Lionel on humor   

"What some people invent the rest enlarge."

Swift, Jonathan on humor   

"By blood a king, in heart a clown."

Tennyson, Lord Alfred on humor   

"As a person is so must you humor them."

Terence on humor   

"Good humor is one of the best articles of dress one can wear in society."

Thackeray, William M. on humor   

"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility."

Thurber, James on humor
4 fans of this quote   

"The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the world; the humorist makes fun of himself, but in so doing, he identifies himself with people --that is, people everywhere, not for the purpose of taking them apart, but simply revealing their true nature."

Thurber, James on humor   

"Never say a humorous thing to a man who does not possess humor. He will always use it in evidence against you."

Tree, Sir Herbert Beerbohm on humor   

"Probably it is impossible for humor to be ever a revolutionary weapon. Candide can do little more than generate irony."

Trilling, Lionel on humor   

"Any man who has had the job I've had and didn't have a sense of humor wouldn't still be here."

Truman, Harry S on humor   

"The secret source of humor itself is not joy but sorrow. There is no humor in heaven."

Twain, Mark on humor
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"Humor must not professedly teach and it must not professedly preach, but it must do both if it would live forever."

Twain, Mark on humor