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Quotations by Subject: Humor
(Related Subjects: Laughter, Happiness)
Showing quotations 1 to 30 of 32 quotations in our collections

That is the saving grace of humor, if you fail no one is laughing at you.: A. Whitney Brown
Humor is the only test of gravity, and gravity of humor; for a subject which will not bear raillery is suspicious, and a jest which will not bear serious examination is false wit.: Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)
Humor is everywhere, in that there's irony in just about anything a human does.: Bill Nye, Interview with Wired.com, April 2005
All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl.: Charlie Chaplin (1889 - 1977), in My Autobiography (1964)
Total absence of humor renders life impossible.: Colette (1873 - 1954), Chance Acquaintances, 1952
A joke was not a single-use item but something you brought out again and again until it fell apart in your hand like a cheap umbrella.: David Nicholls, One Day, 2010
If you're at school and you're not that bright or good-looking or popular or whatever, and one day you say something and someone laughs, well, you sort of grab onto it, don't you? you think, well I run funny and I've got this stupid big face and big thighs and no-one fancies me, but at least I can make people laugh. And It's such a nice feeling, making someone laugh, that maybe you get a bit reliant on it. Like, if you're not funny then you're not... anything.: David Nicholls, One Day, 2010
Humor is always based on a modicum of truth. Have you ever heard a joke about a father-in-law?: Dick Clark
A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done.: Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)
Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind.: E. B. White (1899 - 1985), Some Remarks on Humor, introduction
Humor is by far the most significant activity of the human brain.: Edward De Bono
There's nothing like a gleam of humor to reassure you that a fellow human being is ticking inside a strange face.: Eva Hoffman
The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think.: Horace Walpole (1717 - 1797)
If there's one thing I know it's God does love a good joke.: Hugh Elliott, Standing Room Only weblog, 05-01-04
The only rules comedy can tolerate are those of taste, and the only limitations those of libel.: James Thurber (1894 - 1961)
The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the world; the humorist makes fun of himself.: James Thurber (1894 - 1961), in Edward R. Murrow television interview
What's the point of havin' a rapier wit if I can't use it to stab people?: Jeph Jacques, Questionable Content, #1615, March 2010
Where humor is concerned there are no standards - no one can say what is good or bad, although you can be sure that everyone will.: John Kenneth Galbraith (1908 - 2006)
The best defence against misguided arrogance is a keen sense of humour.: Kathryn L. Nelson, Pemberley Manor, 2006
One doesn't have a sense of humor. It has you.: Larry Gelbart
Humor is our way of defending ourselves from life's absurdities by thinking absurdly about them.: Lewis Mumford (1895 - 1990)
Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our irritations and resentments slip away and a sunny spirit takes their place.: Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
Humor is a rubber sword - it allows you to make a point without drawing blood.: Mary Hirsch
Humor is just another defense against the universe.: Mel Brooks (1926 - )
Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die.: Mel Brooks (1926 - )
Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious.: Peter Ustinov (1921 - 2004)
Comedy is nothing more than tragedy deferred.: Pico Iyer, Time
Wit makes its own welcome, and levels all distinctions. No dignity, no learning, no force of character, can make any stand against good wit.: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882), Letters and Social Aims: The Comic, 1876
Defining and analyzing humor is a pastime of humorless people.: Robert Benchley (1889 - 1945)
Life is tough, and if you have the ability to laugh at it you have the ability to enjoy it.: Salma Hayek

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