When you laugh, be sure to laugh at what people do and not at what people are.
—Unknown
Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Anyone who takes himself too seriously always runs the risk of looking ridiculous; anyone who can consistently laugh at himself does not.
—Vaclav Havel (1936–2011) Czech Dramatist, Statesman
From quiet homes and first beginning,
Out to the undiscovered ends,
There’s nothing worth the winning,
But laughter and the love of friends.
—Hilaire Belloc (1870–1953) British Historian, Poet, Critic
It was not a laugh but merely a loud smile.
—Unknown
The sound of laughter is like the vaulted dome of a temple of happiness.
—Milan Kundera (b.1929) Czech Novelist
There is no way under the sun of making a man worthy of love, except by loving him.
—Thomas Merton (1915–68) American Trappist Monk
Good laws lead to the making of better ones; bad ones bring about worse.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) Swiss-born French Philosopher
There exists a kind of laughter, which is worthy to be ranked with the higher lyric emotions and is infinitely different from the twitching of a mean merrymaker.
—Nikolai Gogol (1809–52) Russian Novelist, Dramatist
Laughter is regional: a smile extends over the whole face.
—Malcolm de Chazal (1902–81) Mauritian Writer, Painter, Visionary
Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
A good, real, unrestrained, hearty laugh is a sort of glorified internal massage, performed rapidly and automatically. It manipulates and revitalizes corners and unexplored crannies of the system that are unresponsive to most other exercise methods.
—Unknown
Wrinkle not thy face with too much laughter, lest thou become ridiculous; neither wanton thy heart with too much mirth, lest thou become vain; the suburbs of folly is vain mirth, and profuseness of laughter is the city of fools.
—Francis Quarles (1592–1644) English Religious Poet
Laughter gives us distance. It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it and then move on.
—Bob Newhart (b.1929) American Comedian, Actor, TV Personality, Film Personality
Frequent and loud laughing is the characteristic of folly and ill-manners.—True wit never made a man laugh.
—Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) English Statesman, Man of Letters
Laughter is the sensation of feeling good all over and showing it principally in one place.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) (1818–85) American Humorist, Author, Lecturer
Not by wrath does one kill, but by laughter.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
Laughter is day, and sobriety is night; a smile is the twilight that hovers gently between both, more bewitching than either.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
Hearty laughter is a good way to jog internally without having to go outdoors.
—Norman Cousins (1915–90) American Journalist, Author, Academic, Activist
The laughter of girls is, and ever was, among the delightful sounds of earth.
—Thomas de Quincey (1785–1859) English Essayist, Critic
Men show their character in nothing more clearly than by what they find laughable.
—Anonymous
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 (1915–90) American Journalist, Author, Academic, Activist
Laughter kills fear, and without fear there can be no faith. For without fear of the devil there is no need for God.
—Sean Connery (1930–2020) Scottish Actor, Film Producer
That laughter costs too much which is purchased by the sacrifice of decency.
—Quintilian (c.35–c.100 CE) Roman Rhetorician, Literary Critic
I quickly laugh at everything for fear of having to cry.
—Pierre Beaumarchais (1732–99) French Inventor, Diplomat, Musician, Fugitive, Revolutionary
The nightmare always becomes laughter, once it’s understood.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul.
—Yiddish Proverb
The loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
Loud laughter is the mirth of the mob, who are only pleased with silly things; for true Wit or good Sense never excited a laugh since the creation of the world. A man of parts and fashion is therefore often seen to smile, but never heard to laugh.
—Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) English Statesman, Man of Letters
There are some things so serious you have to laugh at them.
—Niels Bohr (1885–1962) Danish Physicist
Laughter is one of the very privileges of reason, being confined to the human species.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
If I can get you to laugh with me, you like me better, which makes you more open to my ideas. And if I can persuade you to laugh at the particular point I make, by laughing at it you acknowledge its truth.
—John Cleese (b.1939) British Actor, Writer, Comic Innovator
There is a form of laughter that springs from the heart, heard every day in the merry voice of childhood, the expression of a laughter—loving spirit that defies analysis by the philosopher, which has nothing rigid or mechanical in it, and totally without social significance. Bubbling spontaneously from the heart of child or man. Without egotism and full of feeling, laughter is the music of life.
—William Osler (1849–1919) Canadian Physician
It is more fitting for a man to laugh at life than to lament over it.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
Laughter is nothing else but a sudden glory arising from some sudden conception of some eminency in ourselves, by comparison with the infirmity of others, or with our own formerly.
—Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) English Political Philosopher
God made both tears and laughter, and both for kind purposes; for as laughter enables mirth and surprise to breathe freely, so tears enable sorrow to vent itself patiently. Tears hinder sorrow from becoming despair and madness; and laughter is one of the very privilegea of reason, being confined to the human species.
—Leigh Hunt (1784–1859) British Poet, Essayist, Journalist
We do have a zeal for laughter in most situations, give or take a dentist.
—Joseph Heller (1923–99) American Novelist
At the height of laughter, the universe is flung into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities.
—Jean Houston (b.1937) American New Thought Author, Speaker
The more laws, the more offenders.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
You may forget the one with whom you have laughed, but never the one with whom you have wept.
—Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese-born American Philosopher, Poet, Painter, Theologian, Sculptor
With the fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
Laughter—An interior convulsion, producing a distortion of the features and accompanied by inarticulate noises. It is infectious and, though intermittent, incurable.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
I have always felt that laughter in the face of reality is probably the finest sound there is and will last until the day when the game is called on account of darkness. In this world, a good time to laugh is any time you can.
—Linda Ellerbee (b.1944) American Journalist
Laughter is the brush that sweeps away the cobwebs of the heart.
—Mort Walker (b.1923) American Comic Artist, Cartoonist
The burden of the self is lightened with I laugh at myself.
—Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) Bengali Poet, Polymath
The shortest distance between two people is laughter.
—Indian Proverb
We sometimes laugh from ear to ear, but it would be impossible for a smile to be wider than the distance between our eyes.
—Malcolm de Chazal (1902–81) Mauritian Writer, Painter, Visionary
Even this vein of laughing, as I could produce out of grave authors, hath oftentimes a strong and sinewy force in teaching and comforting.
—John Milton (1608–74) English Poet, Civil Servant, Scholar, Debater
Man, when you lose your laugh you lose your footing.
—Ken Kesey (1935–2001) American Novelist, Essayist, Short Story Writer
The malicious sneer is improperly called laughter.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet