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Laughter

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“Laughter is Humanity's mechanism to escape suffering.”
Deepak Chopra (born 1946) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Iconoclasts" Sundance Channel Original Series episode 3.03 (Original Air Date: 8 November 2007)
“His purpose is therapeutic. A man at play with the freedoms of his mind, believing that it is allegiance to the truth and not the flag that rescues the citizens of a democracy from the prisons of their selfishness and greed, Twain aims to blow away with a blast of laughter the pestilent hospitality tents of a society making itself sick with its consumption of “sweet-smelling, sugar-coated lies.”
Lewis H. Lapham (1935–2024) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mark Twain's democratic ideal: How truth, laughter defeat "sweet-smelling, sugar-coated lies Salon, 1 November 2014
“Fiction is made of life/ Of earth and clay/ Of tears and laughter/ Of blood and sweat/ Hear them, the works of an author or a painter/ The singer and the clown/ Preserve the mystery of life.”
Kuruvilla Pandikattu (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You may think life is sweet now, but when death is a heartbeat away then life becomes unbearably desirable. And when you survive, everything you do will be enhanced and filled with greater joy: the sunlight, the breeze, a good wine, a woman's lips, a child's laughter.”
David Gemmell (1948–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Life is sad enough, Magir. Laughter is a thing to be treasured.”
David Gemmell (1948–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Writer-director John Roecker's debut, Live Freaky! Die Freaky! will have you convulsing on the floor … with nausea, laughter, or both.”
John Roecker (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“People are shuffling by in long coats, with shopping bags and takeout, smoking cigarettes and feigning laughter - filling up their lives with distractions to shut out the chaos.”
Rob Payne (born 1973) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The analysis of laughter had opened to me points of contact between the fundamentals of a communal and disciplined emotional knowledge and those of discursive knowledge.”
Georges Bataille (1897–1962) said by 1962 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The preceding criticism … justifies the following definition of the entire human: human existence as the life of “unmotivated” celebration, celebration in all meaning of the word: laughter, dancing, orgy, the rejection of subordination, and sacrifice that scornfully puts aside any consideration of ends, property, and morality.”
Georges Bataille (1897–1962) said by 1962 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I remember thinking how often we look, but never see … we listen, but never hear … we exist, but never feel. We take our relationships for granted. A house is only a place. It has no life of its own. It needs human voices, activity and laughter to come alive.”
Erma Bombeck (1927–1996) first seen 1993 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Marriage Made In Heaven; or, Too Tired For an Affair (1993)
“Philosophical” ideology critique is truly the heir of a great satirical tradition, in which the motif of unmasking, exposing, baring has served for aeons now as a weapon. But modern ideology critique—according to our thesis has ominously cut itself off from the powerful traditions of laughter in satirical knowledge.”
Peter Sloterdijk (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the kynicism of Diogenes of Sinope, the laughter about philosophy itself became philosophical. … In the pantomimes and wordplays of the philosopher from the tub, the Gay Science was born, which saw the earnestness of the false life recur in the false earnestness of philosophy.”
Peter Sloterdijk (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was so enchanted with the open possibilities and the power of being able to choose my part. Who was the child now? I decided I’d be a Japanese businessman because it would be less predictable. Even when I was alone, I was so filled with excitement and laughter at the thought of my task. This was joyful children’s play!”
Piper Laurie (1932–2023) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: About her role in Twin Peaks. Learning to Live Out Loud: A Memoir (2011), quoted in Word and Film, Piper Laurie: On Twin Peaks and a New Identity, October 31, 2011
“[I]t would be a pity if laughter should ever become, like rhetoric and the arts, a habit.”
Alice Meynell (1847–1922) said by 1922 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I can't see me writing an autobiography. I mean it seems so stupid. [Laughter.] You have to feel like you are telling the world something. I feel I'm doing it when I write the way I write. (1995)”
Grace Paley (1922–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Voices were blended and intermingled in a tumultuous swirl around which eddied laughter, shouts, the squeaking of doors and windows, piano and accordion music, rollicking handclaps, a policeman's bark, braying, grunts, coughs of hashish addicts and screams of drunkards, anonymous calls for help, raps of a stick, and singing by individuals and groups.”
Naguib Mahfouz (1911–2006) first seen 1957 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mahfouz (1957) Palace of Desire Part II; Cited in Matt Schudel "Leading Arab Novelist Gave Streets a Voice" in: Washington Post, August 31, 2006
“Life is a jest; Take the delight of it. Laughter is best; Sing through the night of it. Swiftly the tear And the hurt and the ache of it Find us down here; Life must be what we make of it.”
Edgar Guest (1881–1959) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Life, stanza 1, All That Matters, p. 80 (1922).
“None knows the day that friends must part None knows how near is sorrow; If there be laughter in your heart Don't hold it for tomorrow.”
Edgar Guest (1881–1959) said by 1959 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A man is at his finest towards the finish of the year; He is almost what he should be when the Christmas season's here; Then he's thinking more of others than he's thought the months before, And the laughter of his children is a joy worth toiling for. He is less a selfish creature than at any other time; When the Christmas spirit rules him he comes close to the sublime.”
Edgar Guest (1881–1959) said by 1959 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I must get out on the trails once more that wind through shadowy haunts and cool, Away from the presence of wall and door, and see myself in a crystal pool; I must get out with the silent things, where neither laughter nor hate is heard, Where malice never the humblest stings and no one is hurt by a spoken word.”
Edgar Guest (1881–1959) said by 1959 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The pain and laughter of the day are done So strangely hushed and still the long ward seems, Only the Sister's candle softly beams. Clear from the church near by the clock strikes 'one'; And all are wrapt away in secret sleep and dreams.”
Eva Dobell (1876–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think that wherever your journey takes you, there are new gods waiting there, with divine patience — and laughter.”
Susan M. Watkins (born 1945) first seen 1994 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in: Shawn Brennan, ‎Julie Winklepleck, ‎Gina Renée Misiroglu (1994) Resourceful Woman, p. 532
“I enjoy laughter and good living and believe life is like a very short visit to a toyshop between birth and death.”
Desmond Morris (1928–2026) first seen 1991 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Sunday Express (November 3, 1991). Cited in Angela Partington (ed.) The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, 4th ed. (BCA, 1992) p. 485
“In my youth I committed black deeds. In maturity I practised innocence. Now, released from both good and evil, I have destroyed the root of karmic action and shall have no reason for action in the future. To say more than this would only cause weeping and laughter. What good would it do to tell you? I am an old man. Leave me in peace.”
Milarepa (1040–1135) said by 1135 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Life of Milarepa: A New Translation from the Tibetan (1977) by Tsangnyön Heruka, as translated by Lobsang P. Lhalungpa, p. 12
“To be conservative, then, is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried, fact to mystery, the actual to the possible, the limited to the unbounded, the near to the distant, the sufficient to the superabundant, the convenient to the perfect, present laughter to utopian bliss.”
Michael Oakeshott (1901–1990) said by 1990 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I would like to note that I have long considered myself a libertarian Marxist. This causes laughter and outrage from both Marxists and libertarians because they accuse me of being a hypocrite. If you are libertarian you cannot be a Marxist and if you are a Marxist you cannot be libertarian, they say. I see it differently.”
Yanis Varoufakis (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“On that September morning I spent more than an hour with John Paul II. During the meal he asked me my age. I told him that I was thirty-four years old. He then let out a great burst of laughter and exclaimed: "But then you are a baby bishop! Un vescovo Bambino!" There was no arguing with that; I was at that time the youngest bishop in the world...”
Robert Sarah (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Only a shipwrecked person who has just escaped drowning could understand the psychology of someone who breaks out in laughter just because he is able to breathe.”
Kōbō Abe (1924–1993) said by 1993 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Raise a song for her, O Muse! The violet-crownèd maiden, And praise her soft throat's changing hues, Her low voice, laughter-laden. Sing yet again her thousand charms, Her eyes entrancing splendour, Her swarthy cheeks and supple arms And bosom dark and tender. Yea, sing forevermore of her, My mistress soft-beguiling, Fairest of all who are, or were, My Sappho, sweetly-smiling.”
Alcaeus (born 631 BC) first seen 1901 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Paraphrase (tr. James S. Easby-Smith, 1901)
“Beneath all this gaiety and baroque complexity lay the simple and so carefully denied: beyond the thin metal surrounding us was the endless humorless void. Hollow rings the laughter of orphans in the night.”
Norman Spinrad (born 1940) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Alchian: Perhaps it might have been more appropriate for the Nobel Prize to have gone to you and Hicks together, and [Kenneth] Arrow and [[Gunnar Myrdal|[Gunnar] Myrdal]] together. Hayek: Oh, surely. [laughter]”
Armen Alchian (1914–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The roar of laughter at civilization’s end.”
Osamu Dazai (1909–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Mike Lindell: "'The Big Lie' is the big lie." Steve: [Laughter] Is that like a Zen koan? Like "the sound of one hand clapping in the forest"?!”
Steve Bannon (born 1953) first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: War Room Pandemic, ep. 747 Feb. 22 2021 at 18min. Regarding news of Dominion's lawsuit vs. Lindell which accused him of pushing "the Big Lie" starting on its fourth line and a total of 31 times.
“There was a time when you were not a slave, remember that. You walked alone, full of laughter, you bathed bare-bellied. You say you have lost all recollection of it, remember…You say there are no words to describe this time, you say it does not exist. But remember. Make an effort to remember. Or, failing that, invent.”
Monique Wittig (1935–2003) said by 2003 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“O Soul go not to the West Where level wastes of sand stretch on and on; And demons rage, swine-headed, hairy-skinned, With bulging eyes; Who in wild laughter gnash projecting fangs. O Soul go not to the West Where many perils wait!”
Qu Yuan (343–278 BC) said by 278 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Laughter and gibes and scorn they brave for her: their pounds, their silver, and their pence they give; their time, their talent and their youth for her that she may live.”
Helen Cruickshank (1886–1975) first seen 1954 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lines for the Scottish Watch", st. 1, in Sea Buckthorn (1954)
“For the purposes of recreation he has selected the felling of trees, and we may usefully remark that his amusements, like his politics, are essentially destructive. (Laughter.) Every afternoon the whole world is invited to assist at the crashing fall of some beech or elm or oak—the forest laments in order that Mr. Gladstone may perspire.”
Lord Randolph Churchill (1849–1895) first seen 1884 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Blackpool (24 January 1884), quoted in The Times (25 January 1884), p. 12
“Comparing Jews to termites is anti-Semitic, wrong and dangerous. The responsive laughter makes my skin crawl. For everyone who rightly condemned President Trump’s rhetoric when he spoke about immigrants “infesting our country,” this rhetoric should be equally unacceptable to you:”
Chelsea Clinton (born 1980) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 17 October 2018 response to Louis Farrakhan highlighted by The Hill
“I need the saint of laughter, I need the saint of tears, I need the saint detective who can find my stolen years”
Joseph Arthur (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She is one from the mountains She is one from the plains She is one with the woodlands And she's at home on the range And all these things of beauty They left a kiss on her I'll tell you, sirI say Lord she's as sweet as one of her pecan pies Listenin' to her laughter I get hypnotized Goodness knows I love my Angel Eyes I love my Angel Eyes oh, yes I do”
Willis Allan Ramsey (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Is it a surprise to anybody in this room that if you don’t have any money, you don’t get any justice? (Laughter.) Is that a surprise to you all? (Applause.) My gracious, the only way you’re going to get justice is to turn around and empower yourselves to become lawmakers so you can change the system, and there’s no thought of really changing the system today. It’s politics as usual. (Applause.)”
Mike Gravel (1930–2021) said by 2021 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If there is no laughter, the soul dies. (p186)”
Louise Erdrich (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Although spring, with all the force of its poised new growth, called to her, although the tender new buds, opening magically, touched her heart, there would always be a shadow to her laughter, a corner of sadness in her smile. (p221)”
Louise Erdrich (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Laughter is our consolation prize for consciousness. (p81)”
Louise Erdrich (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I’ve been around Natives all over the — all over the world, but there’s something about Oklahoma Natives, you know, something about a Southern kind of openness, which makes more holes for laughter to go through, or for the ironic to live.”
Joy Harjo (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's because of the prevalence of whiteness, Eurocentric standards of beauty that we experience this. You know? And it is subconscious. Colorism is the daughter of racism. But sometimes it seems like racism has had amnesia (laughter). You know? And so that's why I wrote this - to hopefully bring it to the fore and people can address it.”
Lupita Nyong'o (born 1983) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On how warped standards of beauty encouraged her to write the children’s book Sulwe in “Lupita Nyong'o On 'Sulwe'” in NPR (October 17, 2019)
“Nnaife did not realise that Dr Meers's laughter was inspired by that type of wickedness that reduces any man, white or black, intelligent or not, to a new low; lower than the basest of animals, for animals at least respected each other's feelings, each other's dignity.”
Buchi Emecheta (1944–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The truths are universal: Every kid knows fear. Every kid knows family and friendship. Loss, love, laughter. Everything else is just detail.”
Jason Reynolds (born 1983) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I've been a joyous person, but not a happy person. I've experienced joy and laughter, but I've also been a depressed person.”
Billie Eilish (born 2001) first seen 2024 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Billie Eilish Opens Up About Her Mental Health: ‘I’m a Depressed Person’", Rolling Stone (April 24, 2024)
“A few centuries ago one King who stood up against the common people of that day lost his head—lost it really. (Laughter and cheers.) Later, one of his descendants was told to get out as quickly as he could. Since that day Kings and Queens had been what they ought to be. They never interfered with ordinary politics, and George V would be well advised to keep his finger out of the pie now.”
George Lansbury (1859–1940) first seen 1924 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Shoreditch Town Hall at a meeting to celebrate the Labour Party's gains in the general election (5 January 1924), quoted in The Times (7 January 1924), p. 9