Motivational Quotes

Humor

A rich man's joke is always funny.

- Brown, Thomas Edward

Best Quotes about Humor

To appreciate nonsense requires a serious interest in life.

Burgess, (Frank) Gelett

Humor is an affirmation of dignity, a declaration of man's superiority to all that befalls him.

Gary, Roman

Humor is also a way of saying something serious.

T. S. Eliot

There is this benefit in brag, that the speaker is unconsciously expressing his own ideal. Humor him by all means; draw it all out, and hold him to it.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

Humor is laughing at what you haven't got when you ought to have it.

Hughes, Langston

The best defence against misguided arrogance is a keen sense of humour.

Kathryn L. Nelson

If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide.

Gandhi, Mahatma

I am a great friend to public amusements, for they keep the people from vice.

Johnson, Samuel

Chaos in the midst of chaos isn't funny, but chaos in the midst of order is.

Martin, Steve

10.

An inexhaustible good nature is one of the most precious gifts of heaven, spreading itself like oil over the troubled sea of thought, and keeping the mind smooth and equable in the roughest weather.

Irving, Washington

11.

Humor is always based on a modicum of truth. Have you ever heard a joke about a father-in-law.

Clark, Dick

12.

Probably it is impossible for humor to be ever a revolutionary weapon. Candide can do little more than generate irony.

Trilling, Lionel

13.

One never needs their humor as much as when they argue with a fool.

Proverb, Chinese

14.

An emotional man may possess no humor, but a humorous man usually has deep pockets of emotion, sometimes tucked away or forgotten.

Rourke, Constance

15.

Any man who has had the job I've had and didn't have a sense of humor wouldn't still be here.

Truman, Harry S

16.

The secret to humor is surprise.

Aristotle

17.

Comedy is the last refuge of the nonconformist mind.

Seldes, Gilbert

18.

What some people invent the rest enlarge.

Swift, Jonathan

19.

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

20.

We must laugh at man to avoid crying for him.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

21.

Humor has been a fashioning instrument in America, cleaving its way through the national life, holding tenaciously to the spread elements of that life. Its mode has often been swift and coarse and ruthless, beyond art and beyond established civilization. It has engaged in warfare against the established heritage, against the bonds of pioneer existence. Its objective --the unconscious objective of a disunited people --has seemed to be that of creating fresh bonds, a new unity, the semblance of a society and the rounded completion of an American type.

Rourke, Constance

22.

Humor is always based on a modicum of truth. Have you ever heard a joke about a father-in-law?

Dick Clark

23.

Humor is something that thrives between man's aspirations and his limitations. There is more logic in humor than in anything else. Because, you see, humor is truth.

Borge, Victor

24.

A jest often decides matters of importance more effectual and happily than seriousness.

Horace

25.

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

26.

We never respect those who amuse us, however we may smile at their comic powers.

Blessington, Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of

27.

Fortune and humor govern the world.

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

28.

Levity is often less foolish and gravity less wise than each of them appears.

Colton, Charles Caleb

29.

By blood a king, in heart a clown.

Tennyson, Lord Alfred

30.

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

31.

I could not tread these perilous paths in safety, if I did not keep a saving sense of humor.

Nelson, Lord

32.

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

33.

A humorist is a person who feels bad, but who feels good about it.

Herold, Don

34.

Comedy is a tragedy plus time.

Burnett, Carol

35.

The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think.

Horace Walpole

36.

Humor is just another defense against the universe.

Mel Brooks

37.

Comedy may be big business but it isn't pretty.

Martin, Steve

38.

The only rules comedy can tolerate are those of taste, and the only limitations those of libel.

James Thurber

39.

Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die.

Mel Brooks

40.

Wit is a weapon. Jokes are a masculine way of inflicting superiority. But humor is the pursuit of a gentle grin, usually in solitude.

Muir, Frank

41.

A joke is an epigram on the death of a feeling.

Fredrich

42.

Good humor is a tonic for mind and body. It is the best antidote for anxiety and depression. It is a business asset. It attracts and keeps friends. It lightens human burdens. It is the direct route to serenity and contentment.

Kleiser, Grenville

43.

The right honorable gentlemen is indebted to his memory for his jokes and his imagination for his facts.

Sheridan, Richard Brinsley

44.

There is always some frivolity in excellent minds; they have wings to rise, but also stray.

Joubert, Joseph

45.

Never say a humorous thing to a man who does not possess humor. He will always use it in evidence against you.

Tree, Sir Herbert Beerbohm

46.

Where ever you find humor, you find pathos close by it side.

Whipple, Edwin P.

47.

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

48.

Get well cards have become so humorous that if you don't get sick you're missing half the fun.

Wilson, Flip

49.

A caricature is putting the face of a joke on the body of a truth.

Conrad, Joseph

50.

What's the point of havin'a rapier wit if I can't use it to stab people?

Jeph Jacques