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Laughter

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“I have seen the very bottom of life: I was so afraid I wouldn’t be funny anymore. I just knew that I would lose my zaniness and my sense of humor. But I didn’t. Recovery turned out to be a wonderful thing.”
Ann Richards (1933–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have always felt that humor was a wonderful vehicle to let us become connected with each other and ourselves… I try to portray the similarities and polarities in men and women, so that we can acknowledge and embrace our collective consciousness.”
Lily Tomlin (born 1939) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Variety magazine (2003)
“People ask what I am really trying to do with humor. The answer is, "I'm getting even." … For me, being funny is the best revenge.”
Art Buchwald (1925–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I feel frustrated sometimes. I feel bitterness, but I’m not embittered. Feelings pass. A lot of the humor in the music is missed. They insist on painting me as this tragic . . . well not even a tragic, because in this town people don’t understand tragedy. All they understand is drama. You have to be moral to understand tragedy [laughs].”
Joni Mitchell (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are two insults which no human being will endure: The assertion that he hasn't a sense of humor, and the doubly impertinent assertion that he has never known trouble.”
Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951) said by 1951 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Lorn stared at Tool. “Was that an attempt at humor?” she asked. The T’lan Imass adjusted his helmet. “That depends on your mood, Adjunct.”
Steven Erikson (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have seen something of the project of M. de St. Pierre, for maintaining a perpetual peace in Europe. I am reminded of a device in a cemetery, with the words: Pax perpetua; for the dead do not fight any longer: but the living are of another humor; and the most powerful do not respect tribunals at all.”
Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716) first seen 1712 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter 11 to Grimarest: Passages Concerning the Abbe de St. Pierre's 'Project for Perpetual Peace (June 1712). Taken from Leibniz: Political Writings (2nd Edition, 1988), Edited by Patrick Riley.
“Humor — it helps to make the vibe better — it loosens up the vibrations.”
Brian Wilson (1942–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A pamphlet, no matter how good, is never read more than once, but a song is learned by heart and repeated over and over. And I maintain that if a person can put a few common sense facts into a song and dress them up in a cloak of humor, he will succeed in reaching a great number of workers who are too unintelligent or too indifferent to read.”
Joe Hill (activist) first seen 1914 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to the editor of Solidarity (1914-11-29)
“My sense of humor is the raunchier, inappropriate kind. It's so much funnier than the quirky stuff.”
Katherine Heigl (born 1978) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Khalil Bendib, with a few ingenious strokes of his pen, gets to the heart of the issues of our time. His cartoons are in the greatest tradition of American political humor, with that combination of wit and intelligence so needed in the struggle for justice.”
Howard Zinn (1922–2010) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mission Accomplished: Wicked Cartoons by America's Most Wanted Political Cartoonist , (2007)
“Well, if you compare my album even as late as two years ago, I think as a writer I am much more at the forefront. I wrote all the lyrics and lots of the music on that album. It shows humor of the writer side of me. But I have evolved since then.”
Gloria Estefan (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was glad I wasn't in love, that I wasn't happy with the world. I like being at odds with everything. People in love often become edgy, dangerous. They lose their sense of perspective. They lose their sense of humor. They become nervous, psychotic bores. They even become killers.”
Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“God has no rhyme or reason to who he gives a sense of humor to.”
Jerry Seinfeld (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When I started out in comedy in the 70s, if you didn't do clean humor you weren't getting on TV, so I started doing that so I could be on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. And then when I saw what other people were doing, I just always wanted to be a little different.”
Jerry Seinfeld (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think the duck really is the perfect model of how to live: paddle as hard as you can beneath the surface, let everything else roll off your back, and have a little sense of humor about your appearance.”
Jerry Seinfeld (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A word says more than a thousand images. Exercises for the visually inclined: illustrate "appreciation", "humor", "software", "education", "inalienable rights", "elegance", "fact".”
Erik Naggum (1965–2009) said by 2009 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A sense of humor judges one's actions and the actions of others from a wider reference and a longer view and finds them incongruous. It dampens enthusiasm; it mocks hope; it pardons shortcomings; it consoles failure. It recommends moderation.”
Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But I believe without any doubt at all that our greatest good fortune was that even in the most extreme difficulties we might lose our patience but never our sense of humor.”
Gabriel García Márquez (1927–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She decided she wanted a cool, starchy independent life, with ruffles of humor like window curtains.”
Mary McCarthy (1912–1989) said by 1989 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We had a street gang that was very vivid — very surreal. We were fans of Monty Python. We'd put on performances in the city center of Dublin. I'd get on the bus with a stepladder and an electric drill. Mad shit. Humor became our weapon. Just stand there, quiet — with the drill in my hand. Stupid teenage shit.”
Bono (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Don't wish me happiness — I don't expect to be happy; it's gotten beyond that, somehow. Wish me courage and strength and a sense of humor — I will need them all.”
Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906–2001) first seen 1928 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Corliss Lamont on her engagement (1928)
“Congratulations, you have a sense of humor. And to those who didn't: Go stick your head in the mud.”
Jesse Ventura (born 1951) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speaking in a news conference to reporters, where a few were wearing the "Official Jackal" security passes that he had issued. (23 February 2001)
“The theatre demanded of its members stamina, good digestion, the ability to adjust, and a strong sense of humor. There was no discomfort an actor didn’t learn to endure. To survive, we had to be horses and we were.”
Helen Hayes (1900–1993) said by 1993 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The believers have four signs: good humor, tactfulness, kind heartedness and openhandedness”
Ja'far al-Sadiq (699–765) said by 765 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If humor be the safety of our race, then it is due largely to the infusion into the American people of the Irish brain.”
William Howard Taft (1857–1930) first seen 1908 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Irish Humor, address in Hot Springs, Virginia (5 August 1908) .
“Humor is a delicate shrub, with the passing hectic flush of its time. The current-topic variety is especially subject to early frosts, as is also the dialectic species.”
Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836–1907) said by 1907 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The whole reason of this War is because the Germans have no sense of humor.”
André Maurois (1885–1967) said by 1967 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A sense of humor is a major defense against minor troubles.”
Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the theatre, as in life, we prefer a villain with a sense of humor to a hero without one.”
Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Humor, fearlessness, seriousness, and honesty: the qualities that are hated with an equal hatred by all the smelly little orthodoxies that are contending for tenure in the humanities departments of our universities.”
Anthony Daniels (psychiatrist) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Migration: Multiculturalism and its Metaphors (2016)
“I think my life has been wonderful. I have done what I felt like. I was given courage and I was given adventure and that has carried me along. And then also a sense of humor and a little bit of common sense. It has been a very rich life.”
Ingrid Bergman (1915–1982) said by 1982 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 2007: Movie Icons, ISBN 9783822822081 , page 174 , Verlag Taschen GmbH
“Yiddish has not yet said its last word. It contains treasures that have not been revealed to the eyes of the world. It was the tongue of martyrs and saints, of dreamers and Cabalists — rich in humor and in memories that mankind may never forget. In a figurative way, Yiddish is the wise and humble language of us all, the idiom of frightened and hopeful Humanity.”
Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904–1991) said by 1991 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is the characteristic of totalitarian systems to understand nothing about humor.”
Alexander Zinoviev (1922–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In fact, we had a number of extreme leftists and trade unionists among us, and they seemed to take it for granted that we all agreed that the rich must somehow be forced to surrender their ill-gotten gains. Yet there was an air of good humor about their idealism that made me feel they would not be too offended if I admitted that I regard socialists as well-meaning but muddle-headed brigands.”
Colin Wilson (1931–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Humor is laughing at what you haven't got when you ought to have it.”
Langston Hughes (1901–1967) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Note on Humor", from The Book of Negro Humor, p. vii (1966)
“A sense of humor, properly developed, is superior to any religion so far devised.”
Tom Robbins (1932–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Accept that you're a pimple and try to keep a lively sense of humor about it. That way lies grace — and maybe even glory.”
Tom Robbins (1932–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Anyone who tries to predict the future is inevitably a fool. Present company included. A prophet without a sense of humor is just stupid.”
David Brin (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Total absence of humor renders life impossible.”
Colette (1873–1954) first seen 1952 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Chance Acquaintances (1952)
“Until the age of twelve, then, I only lived on bread, milk-food, vegetables, and fruit. My health was not less robust on this account, nor my growth less rapid, and it was to this diet, perhaps, that I was indebted for that purity of feature, that exquisite sensibility of feeling, and that serene gentleness of humor and character which I had preserved up to that period.”
Alphonse de Lamartine (1790–1869) said by 1869 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The roll of the dice, the turn of the card…Some guys had a shell burst ten feet away from them and didn’t get badly hurt. Some turned into hamburger. Who could say why? God, maybe. From everything Jorge had seen, He had a rugged sense of humor.”
Harry Turtledove (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Do you know what Mobile is?” Sam Carsten said. “Tell me,” Lon Menefee urged him. “Mobile is what New Orleans would’ve been if it was settled by people without a sense of humor,” Sam said.”
Harry Turtledove (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That's the eureka moment, when suddenly you know something. Your hands sweat, you get into all kinds of symptoms of tremendous excitement. First of all, it's fear. Is it right? And it's incredible humor. 'How could it be any other way? It had to be that way! How could we have been so stupid, not to see this?'”
Leon M. Lederman (1922–2018) first seen 1992 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: June 27, 1992 Las Vegas, Nevada interview with Lederman.
“Music played a large role in the survival of the black people in America — that and a sense of humor that just couldn't be enslaved.”
Redd Foxx (1922–1991) first seen 1977 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Redd Foxx Encyclopedia of Black Humor (1977) (co-written with Norma Miller)
“I had used my sense of humor; I had called it proportion, perspective. But perspective is distance.”
Bel Kaufman (1911–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Lord Peter Wimsey: She has a sense of humor... and brains... life wouldn't be dull. One would wake up, and there would be a whole day full of jolly things to do. And then we would come home and go to bed... and that would be jolly too.”
Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957) said by 1957 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Now as before it is the vulgar and the vital and the possibility of its transformation into the beautiful which continues to challenge and fascinate me... Or perhaps the subject of my art is like the definition of humor — emotional pain remembered in tranquillity.”
Grace Hartigan (1922–2008) first seen 1950 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement to World Artists : 1950-1980 as quoted n "Grace Hartigan, 86, Abstract Painter, Dies" in The New York Times (18 November 2008)
“I would like to thank a world that never understood or accepted me, family and friends that never believed in me, and a God with one hell of a sense of humor. You have all made me what I am today. Let that weigh heavily on your consciences.”
David Draiman (born 1973) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: sleeve notes, The Sickness (2000)
“And best (or worst) of all, I grew old during that time, so that now I am a settled and mature old spinster with an opinion on every topic under heaven... I've also acquired... a sense of humor—so that I no longer take myself and my doings seriously...”
Frances Perkins (1880–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source