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. 1,158,808 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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Laughter
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“I respect her talent and her brain and who she is as a person — and that kind of admiration and respect is a big factor in binding someone in a relationship. I know what a good heart she has, and how empathetic she is with all kinds of people and issues — she's so brilliant on top of it that she can voice these things. And she's as funny as she can possibly be. She makes me laugh.”
Lily Tomlin (born 1939) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For two years I have lived outside the world: in a dream world. One by one, I let each strand tying me to the world and to my fellow men be cut. I live entirely for the mind, for the heart not at all …. I turned myself into a bear, inside and outside … other people did not exist for me. For perhaps two years, I didn’t laugh once and I didn’t cry … but I never hurt anyone but myself.”
Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Gramsci cited in Davidson, 1977, p. 70.
“Certain critics resemble closely those people who when they would laugh show ugly teeth.”
Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) said by 1824 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Lucky we know the forest so well, or we might get lost," said Rabbit half an hour later, and he gave the careless laugh which you give when you know the Forest so well that you can't get lost. Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. "Pooh!" he whispered. "Yes, Piglet?" "Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw. "I just wanted to be sure of you.”
A. A. Milne (1882–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It’s no accident many accuse me of conducting public affairs with my heart instead of my head. Well, what if I do? . . . Those who don’t know how to weep with their whole heart don’t know how to laugh either.”
Golda Meir (1898–1978) said by 1978 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I wanna be strong, I wanna laugh along, I wanna belong to the living. Alive, alive, I wanna get up and jive, Wanna wreck my stockings in some jukebox dive.”
Joni Mitchell (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have written the history of my life, and I have a perfect right to do so; but am I wise in throwing it before a public of which I know nothing but evil? No, I am aware it is sheer folly, but I want to be busy, I want to laugh, and why should I deny myself this gratification?”
Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798) said by 1798 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[Malipiero's advice to Casanova.] If you wish your audience to cry, you must shed tears yourself, but if you wish to make them laugh you must contrive to look as serious as a judge.”
Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798) said by 1798 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Memoirs (trans. Machen 1894), book 1 (Venetian Years), chap. 14
“A child laughs when it feels joy and cries when it feels pain. Both things, laughing and crying, it does with its whole heart. We have all become so tall and so clever. We know so much and we have read so much. But one thing we have forgot: to laugh and cry like the children do.”
Joseph Goebbels (1897–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Anyone who takes himself too seriously always runs the risk of looking ridiculous; anyone who can consistently laugh at himself does not.”
Václav Havel (1936–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When someone just writes 'f**k, f**k, f**k', we just fix it, laugh and move on. But the difficult social issues are the borderline cases — people who do some good work, but who are also a pain in the neck.”
Jimmy Wales (born 1966) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Who knows?", The Guardian (26 October 2004)
“I'm not tempted to write a song about George W. Bush. I couldn't figure out what sort of song I would write. That's the problem: I don't want to satirise George Bush and his puppeteers, I want to vaporise them. … And that's not funny. … OK, well, if I say that, I might get a shock laugh, but it's not really satire.”
Tom Lehrer (1928–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I like it when people laugh for no reason... like that lady over there.”
Mitch Hedberg (1968–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Now I could let these dream killers kill my self esteem, Or use my arrogance as the steam to power my dreams I use it as my gas, so they say that I'm gassed But without it I'd be last, so I ought to laugh.”
Kanye West (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's so easy to laugh, it's so easy to hate, it takes strength to be gentle and kind.”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 1986 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: from the 1986 song "I Know It's Over", co-written with Johnny Marr.
“Hand in glove, the good people laugh, yes we may be hidden by rags, But we've something they'll never have”
“It takes a big man to cry, but it takes an even bigger man to laugh at that man.”
Jack Handey (born 1949) first seen 1992 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Deep Thoughts: Inspiration for the Uninspired (1992), Berkley Books,
“You see, Wendy, when the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The animals laugh from the dark of the wilderness.”
Conor Oberst (born 1980) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I like talking when people ask me sensible questions. Ask me senseless questions also, but in a context, and I can have fun, I can make you laugh at my answers.”
Shahrukh Khan (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have to fight every single day to live my true life. I don't ever want to come home saying, "I should have spoken my mind. I shouldn't have let someone say something that I didn't feel was right." … [But] I have to remember that there's a balance. I'm in the entertainment business. We're here to entertain people, to make them laugh and forget.”
Sandra Bullock (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He makes me laugh like crazy. We're still kids inside. We're mature and responsible when it comes to business, but we know how to have fun.”
Gloria Estefan (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The K Foundation are interesting and lively, a good laugh and they mean it. They are very dedicated to their irrational ideas, which I am wholeheartedly in favour of. …There is an underground again. Probably kill it stone dead to call it that. But I get the sense that there is an underground again, it’s not as self-conscious as it was in the Sixties.”
Alan Moore (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A comedian is basically a very aggressive thing to do. You force people to see things your way so powerfully, they react audibly! They actually-- you force them to react. It's "Look at things the way I look at them, and laugh at it when I say to!”
Jerry Seinfeld (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I thought "This is the pinnacle of life, to me: if [I] could do this-- y'know, if [I] could stand up on stage and make people laugh, that would be the ultimate accomplishment of my personality!" And I just thought "Laughs! To be working with laughs and jokes all the time: what a fun life that would be!”
Jerry Seinfeld (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The real motivation of bein' a comedian is if you really love the sound of a laugh. And if you love that, you will never want to stop.”
Jerry Seinfeld (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Poetry is bad standup. It's carefully chosen words that have no laugh at the end.”
Jerry Seinfeld (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That's the hardest part: if you have a long bit, the biggest laugh has to be at the end. It has to be!”
Jerry Seinfeld (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you can walk to work or take your bike on a daily basis, I think that's just about the coolest thing that there is. Every morning I listen to the traffic [report] on the radio, and they talk about how they are jammed and I just laugh.”
Jerry Seinfeld (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Never try and make a comedian laugh with one of his own jokes.”
Jerry Seinfeld (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The thing about [Seinfeld] is that you have to realize that I had to look into the faces of those people, six inches away, so if you think Kramer is funny on TV, imagine his real face six inches from your nose, how funny that is. You can't imagine. It's impossible not to laugh. So I would.”
Jerry Seinfeld (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[Stand-up is] a martial art. It's voice, it's action, it's gesture; and everything is synchronized to land on that [weakest] point. You ever watch these karate guys? They hit that brick: it's a perfect arrow that hits that target, and when it-- and it's perfect! It's a concentration of energy. And that's what elicits the laugh.”
Jerry Seinfeld (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I don't do movies because I think generally the size of that content does not lend itself to great comedy; it lends itself to people saying, "Hey, I made a movie." To me, the funniest things are shorter, so I think TV series or comedians in cars, I think I have a better chance of making you laugh.”
Jerry Seinfeld (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[Stand-up comedy] is the ultimate democracy. The laugh is the vote.”
Jerry Seinfeld (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What is more, let anyone laugh and taunt if he so wishes. I am not keeping silent, nor am I hiding the signs and wonders that were shown to me by the Lord many years before they happened, [he] who knew everything, even before the beginning of time.”
Saint Patrick (385–461) said by 461 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Chaplin made me laugh and cry without saying a word. I had an instinct. I was touched by the soul of Chaplin — Mime is not an imitator but a creator.”
Marcel Marceau (1923–2007) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview, The Lantern (5 April 2001)
“Don't laugh at a youth for his affectations; he is only trying on one face after another to find his own.”
Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946) said by 1946 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Good? What are you talking about, 'Good'?" "That it's good, that it does some good, that there is good in it! Dear God, even if there is no meaning in this world, surely there can still be goodness! It's good to eat, to drink, to laugh, to be together!”
Anne Rice (1941–2021) said by 2021 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“At parties, sometimes, for a laugh, I introduce myself - people say 'What do you do?' and I say 'I'm Aled Jones, its all gone wrong for me. No, look, I've still got it! (drunken bawl) I'M WALKING THROUGH THE AIIIIIIR, HAAAAAAHAHAHA.' Ch. 19, 32:55”
Bill Bailey (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Evelyn slapped Raymond on the back with a laugh. 'You must be starved old friend. Come into my apartments, and we'll suffer through a deep breakfast of pure sunlight. (The Mummery Book).”
Adi Da (1939–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When what is is congruent to what is supposed the reaction is functional and the mental processes competent. When what is and what is supposed to have nothing to do with each other the choice of reactions is random. Something tears. Stay or run, laugh or frown: the decision is chance.”
Samuel R. Delany (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I saw a bunch of the weirdest, oddest people I have ever met in my life, who thought different, and acted different, and even made love different. And they made me laugh, and get angry, and be happy, and be sad, and excited, and even fall in love a little....And they didn’t seem to be so weird or strange anymore.”
Samuel R. Delany (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When I received my membership card it said I was an apprentice bricklayer and I, who was a great home builder at the time, couldn't help but have a good laugh.”
Silvio Berlusconi (1936–2023) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Silvio Berlusconi, from Telelombardia. As quoted in «Di Pietro? Mi fa orrore» Berlusconi: non è demerito essere piduista, Corriere della Sera, p. 8 (March 7, 2000)
“I would burn the world and use my soul for tinder to hear her laugh again.”
Robert Jordan (1948–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Americans," she said, repeating for me something she told the , "you have taught me this stupid word: cool. Cool, cool, cool! Coolness, coolness, you've got to be cool. Coolness! When I speak like I speak now, with passion, you smile and laugh at me! I've got passion. They've got passion. They have such passion and such guts that they are ready to die for it.”
Oriana Fallaci (1929–2006) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Rage of Oriana Fallaci", in The New York Observer (27 January 2003)
“Will you make us laugh, will you make us cry? Will you tell us when to live; will you tell us when to die? I know we've come a long way, We're changing day to day, But tell me, where do the children play?”
Cat Stevens (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If I laugh just a little bit Maybe I can forget the chance That I didn’t have to know you And live in peace, in peace”
Cat Stevens (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The days, the nights, flow one by one above us, The hours go silently over our lifted faces, We are like dreamers who walk beneath a sea. Beneath high walls we flow in the sun together. We sleep, we wake, we laugh, we pursue, we flee.”
Conrad Aiken (1889–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Censors are dead men set up to judge between life and death. For no live, sunny man would be a censor, he'd just laugh.”
D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) first seen 1929 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Censors (1929)
“When thou findest thyself scorning another, look then at thy own heart and laugh at thy folly.”
Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source