quotations about humor
A sense of humor is a great resource against the problems of everyday life, a shield against the too serious effect of the tragic, and a wonderful remedy for petty annoyance. People whose humorous perception is keen become philosophers and are able to see the interrelations, causes and effects, and the nature of all parts of life; they thereby avoid taking any one part too seriously. They also refuse to take themselves too seriously, and are thereby spared many heartaches and problems.
MAURICE HINSON
Humor in Piano Music: Baroque to Modern
A jest's prosperity lies in the ear
Of him that hears it, never in the tongue
Of him that makes it.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Love's Labour's Lost
As soon as you realize everything's a joke, being the Comedian is the only thing that makes sense.
ALAN MOORE
Watchmen
Humor is how we find comfort in the totally illogical, for it is the bridge back to the logical.
LEWIS BLACK
Nothing's Sacred
That's part of our policy, is not to be taken seriously, because I think our opposition, whoever they may be, in all their manifest forms, don't know how to handle humor. You know, and we are humorous, we are, what are they, Laurel and Hardy. That's John and Yoko, and we stand a better chance under that guise, because all the serious people, like Martin Luther King, and Kennedy, and Gandhi, got shot.
JOHN LENNON
BBC interview, May 8, 1969
Humour is essentially a comforter, reconciling us to things as they are in contrast to things as they might be.
STEPHEN LEACOCK
The Garden of Folly
A joke's a very serious thing.
CHARLES CHURCHILL
The Ghost
When you've killed the sense of humor of a nation, you've killed the nation.
RED SKELTON
attributed, Phillips' Treasury of Humorous Quotations
This I conceive to be the chemical function of humor: to change the character of our thought.
LIN YUTANG
The Importance of Living
Nothing is more curious than the almost savage hostility that Humour excites in those who lack it.
GEORGE SAINTSBURY
A Last Vintage
Humor is when the joke is on you but hits the other fellow first.
LANGSTON HUGHES
prefatory note, The Book of Negro Humor
The only thing I can recommend at this stage is a sense of humor, an ability to see things in their ridiculous and absurd dimensions, to laugh at others and at ourselves, a sense of irony regarding everything that calls out for parody in this world.
VACLAV HAVEL
address upon receiving the Open Society Prize, June 24, 1999
Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our hardnesses yield, all our irritations and resentments flit away and a sunny spirit takes their place.
MARK TWAIN
"What Paul Bourget Thinks of Us?"
The law of levity is allowed to supersede the law of gravity.
R. A. LAFFERTY
Space Chantey
Humor won't save you; it doesn't really do anything at all. You can look at life ironically for years, maybe decades; there are people who seem to go through most of their lives seeing the funny side, but in the end, life always breaks your heart. Doesn't matter how brave you are, how reserved, or how much you've developed a sense of humor, you still end up with your heart broken. That's when you stop laughing. In the end there's just the cold, the silence and the loneliness. In the end, there's only death.
MICHEL HOUELLEBECQ
The Elementary Particles
A bitter jest, when it comes too near the truth, leaves a sharp sting behind it.
TACITUS
Annales
A good comedian can say things funny and other guys just say funny things.
FRED ALLEN
The Sunday Press, August 9, 1959
When Humor goes, there goes civilization.
ERMA BOMBECK
attributed, On Being Blonde: Wit and Wisdom from the World's Most Infamous Blondes
Should we call it humor? Is there a theory of humor? For a phenomenon that is so universal to humans, it is a paradox that there is so little agreement among scholars about how it operates, what it is, or what to label it.
CHARLES S. GULAS & MARC G. WEINBERGER
Humor in Advertising: A Comprehensive Analysis
Comedy too can sometimes discern what is right.
ARISTOPHANES
The Acharnians