Motivational Quotes

Humor

Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious.

- Peter Ustinov

Best Quotes about Humor

For every ten jokes you acquire a hundred enemies.

Sterne, Laurence

They say the seeds of what we will do are in all of us, but it always seemed to me that in those who make jokes in life the seeds are covered with better soil and with a higher grade of manure.

Hemingway, Ernest

The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the world; the humorist makes fun of himself, but in so doing, he identifies himself with people --that is, people everywhere, not for the purpose of taking them apart, but simply revealing their true nature.

Thurber, James

The happiness or unhappiness of men depends as much on their humors as on fortune.

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

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

Sheridan, Richard Brinsley

What some people invent the rest enlarge.

Swift, Jonathan

Musical comedies aren't written, they are rewritten.

Sondheim, Stephen

There are things of deadly earnest that can only be mentioned under the cover of a joke.

Procter, J. J.

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

10.

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

Clark, Dick

11.

Our five senses are incomplete without the sixth -- a sense of humor.

12.

Be simple in words, manners, and gestures. Amuse as well as instruct. If you can make a man laugh, you can make him think and make him like and believe you.

Smith, Alfred E.

13.

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

14.

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

Horace

15.

WARNING: Humor may be hazardous to your illness.

Katz, Ellie

16.

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

Wilson, Flip

17.

To appreciate nonsense requires a serious interest in life.

Burgess, (Frank) Gelett

18.

The absolute truth is the thing that makes people laugh

Reiner, Carl

19.

Defining and analyzing humor is a pastime of humorless people.

Robert Benchley

20.

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

James Thurber

21.

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

Horace Walpole

22.

The secret to humor is surprise.

Aristotle

23.

Fortune and humor govern the world.

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

24.

People of humor are always in some degree people of genius.

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor

25.

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

Johnson, Samuel

26.

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

Mel Brooks

27.

Comedy is a tragedy plus time.

Burnett, Carol

28.

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

Colton, Charles Caleb

29.

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

30.

If you can make a woman laugh you can do anything with her.

Williamson, Nicol

31.

Men will confess to treason, murder, arson, false teeth, or a wig. How many of them will own up to a lack of humor?

Colby, Frank Moore

32.

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

33.

Humor is a whisper from the soul, imploring mind and body to relax, let go and be at peace again.

34.

I used to think that everything was just being funny but now I don't know. I mean, how can you tell?

Warhol, Andy

35.

Isn't it sad how some people can't be funny, so they have to settle for being obnoxious?

36.

The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the world; the humorist makes fun of himself.

James Thurber

37.

I have a fine sense of the ridiculous, but no sense of humor.

Albee, Edward

38.

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

Gary, Roman

39.

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

Proverb, Chinese

40.

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

41.

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

Rourke, Constance

42.

Humor is the affectionate communication of insight.

Rosten, Leo

43.

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

Martin, Steve

44.

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

Whipple, Edwin P.

45.

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

Dick Clark

46.

Humor is just another defense against the universe.

Mel Brooks

47.

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

Joubert, Joseph

48.

The comic and the tragic lie inseparably close, like light and shadow.

Socrates

49.

The role of a comedian is to make the audience laugh, at a minimum of once every fifteen seconds.

Bruce, Lenny

50.

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