Sign in with your pod

Famous quotes

Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide

EnglishItalianoPolskiעבריתFrançaisPortuguêsفارسیEspañol中文РусскийDeutschالعربيةहिन्दी日本語ΕλληνικάLatina

Laughter

LoveFriendshipHappinessHopeFearCourageDeathLifeTimeWarPeaceFreedomTruthWisdomKnowledgeScienceArtMusicNatureMoneyWorkPowerGodBeautyLaughterFamilySuccess and failureChangeDreamsBooks and reading

• “God was feeling sardonic the day He created the Universe. So it's rather up to at least one man every few centuries to pop up and come just as close to making him swallow his laughter as possible.”

  L. Ron Hubbard (1911–1986) first seen 1938 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: A letter to his wife Polly (October 1938), quoted in Bare-faced Messiah: The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard (1987), p. 81.

• “I liked your velvet yoni, Annalena, long voyages in the delta of your legs. A striving upstream toward your beating heart through more and more savage currents saturated with the light of hops and bindweed. And our vehemence and triumphant laughter and our hasty dressing in the middle of the night to walk on the stone stairs of the upper city.”

  Czesław Miłosz (1911–2004) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Annalena" (1967) in Selected Poems (1996); also in New and Collected Poems (2001)

• “I'd play at all the talent nights, I'd finish, they'd applaud. Some called it muffled laughter, I just figured they were odd. So I went up for an encore, but they screamed they'd had enough. Or maybe I just need a group to help me do my stuff.”

  Harry Chapin (1942–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “And I know you're frightened By my laughter But you're not afraid To hold my pain You see I'm never sure Just what you're after, Babe But it seems you only love me When it rains. How come you only love me when it rains?”

  Harry Chapin (1942–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Death is another milestone on their way. With laughter on their lips and with winds blowing round them They record simply How this one excelled all others in making driving belts.”

  Stephen Spender (1909–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The laughter of the aphorism is sometimes triumphant, but seldom carefree.”

  Mason Cooley (1927–2002) first seen 1989 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: City Aphorisms, Sixth Selection (1989)

• “Laughter and tears are meant to turn the wheels of the same machinery of sensibility; one is wind-power, and the other water-power; that is all.”

  Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (1809–1894) said by 1894 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I also had braces. [...] Glasses at 10, braces at 12: I was thrilled to have these things on my face. I mean, y'know, [I'm] thinkin' about talkin' to a girl for the very first time in my life, I want a lot of corrective apparatus on my head. [pause for laughter] This is what women like! I said to my parents "Let's not stop now! Let's get me a hearing aid! Orthopedic shoes!”

  Jerry Seinfeld (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I'm supposed to get the colonoscopy test. When you get into your forties, I think-- I have heard -- from the healthcare professionals -- that you-- it's very important to get the camera up your ass. I have resisted this... because I feel the press has invaded my life enough. [pause for laughter] I feel that I will draw the line here, and say "no" to the pooparazzi.”

  Jerry Seinfeld (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “That's the first thing an audience wants to feel when someone gets up on a stage: "Does this person know what they're doing?" "'Cause if they do, then I can relax." And when you're trying to elicit laughter, that's-- they have to be relaxed. If they're worried about you, the laughs are harder to get.”

  Jerry Seinfeld (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I love advertising because I love lying. [pause for laughter] In advertising, everything is the way you wish it was. I don't care that it won't be like that when I actually get the product being advertised, because in between seeing the commercial and owning the thing, I'm happy! And that's all I want.”

  Jerry Seinfeld (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Look at him, just like a god, that man sitting across from you, whoever he is, listening to your close, sweet voice, your irresistible laughter And O yes, it sets my heart racing— one glance at you and I can't get any words out, my voice cracks, a thin flame runs under my skin, my eyes go blind, my ears ring, a cold sweat pours down my body, I tremble all over, turn paler than grass.”

  Sappho (651–570 BC) said by 570 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Fr. 31 Voigt (tr. Stanley Lombardo, 2002)

• “You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye Who cheer when soldier lads march by, Sneak home and pray you'll never know The hell where youth and laughter go.”

  Siegfried Sassoon (1886–1967) said by 1967 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “And for a long time yet, led by some wondrous power, I am fated to journey hand in hand with my strange heroes and to survey the surging immensity of life, to survey it through the laughter that all can see and through the tears unseen and unknown by anyone.”

  Nikolai Gogol (1809–1852) said by 1852 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge — That myth is more potent than history. I believe that dreams are more powerful than facts — That hope always triumphs over experience — That laughter is the only cure for grief. And I believe that love is stronger than death.”

  Robert Fulghum (born 1937) first seen 1929 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Credo" at his official website; this may be partly influenced by remarks of Albert Einstein in "What Life Means to Einstein: An Interview by George Sylvester Viereck" The Saturday Evening Post (26 October 1929): I am en…

• “If all the skies were sunshine, Our faces would be fain To feel once more upon them The cooling splash of rain.If all the world were music, Our hearts would often long For one sweet strain of silence. To break the endless song.If life were always merry, Our souls would seek relief, And rest from weary laughter In the quiet arms of grief.”

  Henry van Dyke (1852–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Faint winds, and far away a fading laughter... And the rain and over the fields a voice calling...”

  F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) said by 1940 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “When the goodman mends his armor, And trims his helmet's plume; When the goodwife's shuttle merrily Goes flashing through the loom; With weeping and with laughter Still is the story told, How well Horatius kept the bridge In the brave days of old.”

  Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859) said by 1859 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Talking of white supremacist violent types, I was in America, recently... [Wild laughter and applause from audience]”

  Bill Bailey (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Before I came, I went to visit Jane Austen's grave in Winchester Cathedral to pay my respects, you know, and tell her about the grosses. [Laughter] I don't know how she would react to an evening like this, but I do hope -- I do hope she knows how big she is in Uruguay.”

  Emma Thompson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “That great moral teacher, Mr. Punch, some years ago proclaimed a society which he called "The Anti-meddling-in-other-people's-business Society." Now, he sometimes wished in private that Her Majesty's Government belonged to that society. (Laughter and cheers.)”

  Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830–1903) first seen 1862 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech to the annual dinner of the 5th Lincolnshire Volunteer Corps in Stamford (22 October 1862), quoted in The Times (23 October 1862), p. 7

• “The Afghan looks upon an Englishman in two lights—first, as a person who is an infidel, and next as a person who has money. In the first character he is anxious to kill him, in the second he is anxious to rifle him. (Cheers and laughter.)”

  Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830–1903) first seen 1881 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech in Newcastle-upon-Tyne (12 October 1881), quoted in The Times (13 October 1881), p. 7

• “We know Mr. Gladstone is an authority...that the Soudanese are struggling for their liberty. My impression of the matter is that the Soudanese are struggling for abridging the liberty of other people in the shape of the slave trade. (Laughter and cheers.)”

  Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830–1903) first seen 1884 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech in Plymouth on the Mahdist War (4 June 1884), quoted in The Times (5 June 1884), p. 6

• “Before him, numberless lovers smiled and talked. And death was observed with sudden cries, And birth with laughter and pain. And the trees grew taller and blacker against the skies And night came down again.”

  Conrad Aiken (1889–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “To listen to some devout people, one would imagine that God never laughs; Heine was nearer the mark when he found in Him the divine Aristophanes. God's laughter is sometimes very coarse and unfit for polite ears; He is not satisfied with being Molière, He must needs also be Aristophanes and Rabelais.”

  Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Sri Aurobindo : The Hour of God, and Other Writings (1970); variant "To listen to some devout people, one would imagine that God never laughed; Heine was nearer the mark when he found in Him the divine Aristophanes" in …

• “I hated the devil and was sick with his temptations and tortures; and I could not tell why the voice in his departing words was so sweet that when he returned often and offered himself to me, it was with sorrow I refused him. Then I discovered it was Krishna at His tricks and my hate was changed into laughter.”

  Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Everyone was laughin’. Even that deaf mute boy was breathing heavy and pointing at me. Which is laughter to their kind.”

  Dave Attell (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “There were mornings in the make-up trailer where I'd have fits of laughter because of the extraordinary daily events of the shoot. Sometimes, it was all too much to believe. But the wildest things happened. And Daniel was a wonderful and trustworthy partner. And a fine prankster as well.”

  Madeleine Stowe (born 1958) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “They are not long, the weeping and the laughter, Love and desire and hate: I think they have no portion in us after We pass the gate.They are not long, the days of wine and roses; Out of a misty dream Our path emerges for a while, then closes Within a dream.”

  Ernest Dowson (1867–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Were I to sum up the Basel Congress in a word — which I shall guard against pronouncing publicly — it would be this: At Basel, I founded the Jewish State. If I said this out loud today, I would be answered by universal laughter. Perhaps in five years, certainly in fifty, everyone will know it.”

  Theodor Herzl (1860–1904) first seen 1897 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Herzl Diary entry (3 September 1897), a few days after the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, as quoted in 'Nonstate Nations in International Politics: Comparative System Analyses (1977) by Judy S. Bertelsen,…

• “Out of the fictitious book I get the expression of the life of the time; of the manners, the movement, the dress, the pleasures, the laughter, the ridicules of society—the old times live again, and I travel in the old country of England. Can the heaviest historian do more for me?”

  William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863) said by 1863 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Love is enough: draw near and behold me Ye who pass by the way to your rest and your laughter, And are full of the hope of the dawn coming after; For the strong of the world have bought me and sold me And my house is all wasted from threshold to rafter. — Pass by me, and hearken, and think of me not!”

  William Morris (1834–1896) said by 1896 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Wherewith will ye buy it, ye rich who behold me? Draw out from your coffers your rest and your laughter, And the fair gilded hope of the dawn coming after! Nay this I sell not, — though ye bought me and sold me, — For your house stored with such things from threshold to rafter. — Pass by me, I hearken, and think of you not!”

  William Morris (1834–1896) said by 1896 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Why worry? There should be laughter after pain. There should be sunshine after rain. These things have always been the same. So why worry now?”

  Mark Knopfler (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Are you home from the sea, my soul balladeerYou've been away roaming far away from here weathered a storm, your heart unafraidcrossed every ocean in the boat that you made.... You're a light in the dark, a beacon of hopeand strong as a sea boat, strong as a rope.And the vagabond wind, whispers over the bayand the songs and the laughter, are carried away in the sky.”

  Mark Knopfler (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “[On the Iraq War] I am against the war, but I do support our white troops. [laughter, long pause] No, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. I'm not a Republican. I'm not a member of the party of inclusion. Wonderful, tolerant, rational human beings they are...”

  David Cross (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “These days when I see a child in Waitrose and smile and say, "Hello, are you going to visit your Mum in her sheltered accommodation when you grow up?" it provokes glistening eyes and hollow laughter. And if you pursue it with, "Or are you going to be a drug dealer?" it may result in a snub.”

  Tom Baker (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “If future society assumes the contours foretold by Marxism, if the jungle of our cities turns to the polis of man and the dreams of anger are made real, the representative art will be high comedy. Art will be the laughter of intelligence, as it is in Plato, in Mozart, in Stendhal.”

  George Steiner (1929–2020) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Literature and Post-History" (1965).

• “A man shall not be full of laughter and mockery, nor sad and mournful, but joyful. ... His desire shall not be so great that he rushes for wealth, nor shall he be lazy and refrain from working. But he shall live in contentment, have a modest occupation, and be occupied mainly with the Torah.”

  Maimonides (1135–1204) said by 1204 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “(…) To the Self the world is but a colourful show, which he enjoys as long as it lasts and forgets when it is over. Whatever happens on the stage makes him shudder in terror or roll with laughter, yet all the time he is aware that it is but a show. Without desire or fear he enjoys it, as it happens.”

  Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Laughter is by definition healthy.”

  Doris Lessing (1919–2013) first seen 1973 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The Summer Before the Dark (1973)

• “Laughter always forgives.”

  Martin Amis (1949–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “You and I are created for transcendence, laughter, caring. God deliberately did not make the world perfect, for God is looking for you and me to be fellow workers with God.”

  Desmond Tutu (1931–2021) said by 2021 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “In my mind, there is nothing so illiberal and so ill-bred, as audible laughter.”

  Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) first seen 1748 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: 9 March 1748

• “Laughter is a form of internal jogging. It moves your internal organs around. It enhances respiration. It is an igniter of great expectations..”

  Norman Cousins (1915–1990) said by 1990 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I, the ocean of mind, drink all creation’s waves. The four veils of solid, liquid, vapor, light, Lift aright. Myself, in everything, Enters the Great Myself. Gone forever, The fitful, flickering shadows of a mortal memory. Spotless is my mental sky, Below, ahead, and high above. Eternity and I, one united ray. I, a tiny bubble of laughter, Have become the Sea of Mirth Itself.”

  Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952) said by 1952 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “When the three of us [Thompson, Rob Pike, and Robert Griesemer] got started, it was pure research. The three of us got together and decided that we hated C++. [laughter] ... [Returning to Go,] we started off with the idea that all three of us had to be talked into every feature in the language, so there was no extraneous garbage put into the language for any reason.”

  Ken Thompson (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Laughter is carbonated holiness.”

  Anne Lamott (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “On my graduation there was a party by the junior students, and I was given a hair brush as a gift — if I take off my hat, you know what I mean.(laughter)”

  Hamid Karzai (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The sound of laughter is like the vaulted dome of a temple of happiness.”

  Milan Kundera (1929–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

More