Motivational Quotes

Humor

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

Best Quotes about Humor

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

Horace

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

Blessington, Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of

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

Colton, Charles Caleb

The secret to humor is surprise.

Aristotle

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

Gandhi, Mahatma

Fortune and humor govern the world.

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

To appreciate nonsense requires a serious interest in life.

Burgess, (Frank) Gelett

What some people invent the rest enlarge.

Swift, Jonathan

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

Johnson, Samuel

10.

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

Martin, Steve

11.

One should never risk a joke, even of the mildest and most unexceptional charters, except among people of culture and wit.

La Bruyere, Jean De

12.

As a person is so must you humor them.

Terence

13.

Any discussion of the problems of being funny in America will not make sense unless we substitute the word wit for humor. Humor inspires sympathetic good-natured laughter and is favored by the healing-power gang. Wit goes for the jugular, not the jocular, and it's the opposite of football; instead of building character, it tears it down.

King, Florence

14.

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

Joubert, Joseph

15.

Life is tough, and if you have the ability to laugh at it you have the ability to enjoy it.

Salma Hayek

16.

A person who knows how to laugh at himself will never ceased to be amused.

Maclaine, Shirley

17.

A poor joke must invent its own laughter.

Proverb, Latin

18.

Humor must not professedly teach and it must not professedly preach, but it must do both if it would live forever.

Twain, Mark

19.

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

Gary, Roman

20.

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

Wilson, Flip

21.

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

22.

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

James Thurber

23.

A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs-jolted by every pebble in the road.

Beecher, Henry Ward

24.

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

25.

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

26.

That is the saving grace of humor, if you fail no one is laughing at you.

A. Whitney Brown

27.

A brilliant epigram is a solemn platitude gone to a masquerade ball.

Strachey, Lionel

28.

Humor is not a mood but a way of looking at the world. So if it is correct to say that humor was stamped out in Nazi Germany, that does not mean that people were not in good spirits, or anything of that sort, but something much deeper and more important.

Wittgenstein, Ludwig

29.

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

Hughes, Langston

30.

Humor is by far the most significant activity of the human brain.

Edward De Bono

31.

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

Albee, Edward

32.

For every ten jokes you acquire a hundred enemies.

Sterne, Laurence

33.

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

Rourke, Constance

34.

We must laugh at man to avoid crying for him.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

35.

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

36.

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.

37.

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

Clark, Dick

38.

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

Sheridan, Richard Brinsley

39.

By blood a king, in heart a clown.

Tennyson, Lord Alfred

40.

Humor is just another defense against the universe.

Mel Brooks

41.

Good humor isn't a trait of character, it is an art which requires practice.

Seabury, David

42.

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

Nelson, Lord

43.

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

Kathryn L. Nelson

44.

It is well known that Beauty does not look with a good grace on the timid advances of Humor.

Maugham, W. Somerset

45.

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

Warhol, Andy

46.

There's nothing like a gleam of humor to reassure you that a fellow human being is ticking inside a strange face.

Eva Hoffman

47.

The absolute truth is the thing that makes people laugh

Reiner, Carl

48.

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

49.

Comedy is nothing more than tragedy deferred.

Pico Iyer

50.

Musical comedies aren't written, they are rewritten.

Sondheim, Stephen