Quotes & anectdotes from the wise, the foolish, the courageous & the drunk

humor

Bad humor is an evasion of reality good humor is an acceptance of it. 8 more quotes from Malcolm Muggeridge

Humor is the most engaging cowardice. 50 quotes from Robert Frost

I don't have a very quick sense of humor. 2 other thoughts from Florenz Ziegfeld

Humor distorts nothing, and only false gods are laughed off their earthly pedestals. 5 other quotes from Agnes Repplier

Humor brings insight and tolerance. Irony brings a deeper and less friendly understanding. 5 quotes from Agnes Repplier

In conversation, humor is worth more than wit and easiness more than knowledge. 12 quotes from George Herbert

Humor is the affectionate communication of insight. 6 quotes from Leo Rosten

Wit is the lowest form of humor. 43 quotes from Alexander Pope

All I know about humor is that I don't know anything about it. 13 quotes from Fred Allen

Any man who has had the job I've had and didn't have a sense of humor wouldn't still be here. 26 quotes from Harry S. Truman

When you say a friend has a sense of humor do you mean that he makes you laugh, or that he can make you laugh? 7 quotes from Max Frisch

Putting a little time aside for clean fun and good humor is very necessary to relieve the tensions of our time. 5 quotes from Hattie McDaniel

Humor is merely tragedy standing on its head with its pants torn. 3 more wisdom & wit from Irvin S. Cobb

Nothing in man is more serious than his sense of humor it is the sign that he wants all the truth. 2 other quotes from Mark Van Doren

I think I have always had a little humor. 53 quotes from Marilyn Monroe

A sense of humor is a major defense against minor troubles. 21 more thoughts from Mignon McLaughlin

A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It's jolted by every pebble on the road. 58 quotes from Henry Ward Beecher

Whatever else an American believes or disbelieves about himself, he is absolutely sure he has a sense of humor. 19 other thoughts from E. B. White

Probably it is impossible for humor to be ever a revolutionary weapon. Candide can do little more than generate irony. 6 other views from Lionel Trilling

Good humor is one of the best articles of dress one can wear in society. 8 sayings from William Makepeace Thackeray

Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it. 19 other views from E. B. White

A humorist is a person who feels bad, but who feels good about it. 3 thoughts from Don Herold

Married people should not be quick to hear what is said by either when in ill humor. 22 quotes from Samuel Richardson

The love of truth lies at the root of much humor. 3 more wisdom & wit from Robertson Davies

From sixteen to twenty, all women, kept in humor by their hopes and by their attractions, appear to be good-natured. 22 quotes from Samuel Richardson

Stand-up comics reflect less of a visual humor and more of a commentary. 2 views from Shel Silverstein

The sense of humor has other things to do than to make itself conspicuous in the act of laughter. 3 more views from Alice Meynell

If this humor be the safety of our race, then it is due largely to the infusion into the American people of the Irish brain. 4 views from William Howard Taft

There seems to be no lengths to which humorless people will not go to analyze humor. It seems to worry them. 10 thoughts from Robert Benchley

Comedy, we may say, is society protecting itself - with a smile. 9 sayings from J. B. Priestley

Cynicism is humor in ill health. 19 more wisdom & wit from H. G. Wells

The first ingredient in conversation is truth, the next good sense, the third good humor, and the fourth wit. 6 other quotes from William Temple

Men live by intervals of reason under the sovereignty of humor and passion. 8 other quotes from Thomas Browne

Alimony is like buying hay for a dead horse. 29 other quotes from Groucho Marx

If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide. 100 other wisdom & wit from Mahatma Gandhi

No mind is thoroughly well organized that is deficient in a sense of humor. 24 other thoughts from Samuel Taylor Coleridge

People of humor are always in some degree people of genius. 24 views from Samuel Taylor Coleridge

This I conceive to be the chemical function of humor: to change the character of our thought. 4 other views from Lin Yutang

Humor is reason gone mad. 29 other sayings from Groucho Marx

The first glass is for myself, the second for my friends, the third for good humor, and the forth for my enemies. 6 more wisdom & wit from William Temple

We do not take humor seriously enough. 2 more wisdom & wit from Konrad Lorenz

Next to power without honor, the most dangerous thing in the world is power without humor. 2 wisdom & wit from Eric Sevareid

The secret source of humor is not joy but sorrow there is no humor in Heaven. 98 other views from Mark Twain

Men are happy to be laughed at for their humor, but not for their folly. 19 thoughts from Jonathan Swift

A joke is a very serious thing. 74 quotes from Winston Churchill

Humor must not professedly teach and it must not professedly preach, but it must do both if it would live forever. 98 other quotes from Mark Twain

Everything human is pathetic. The secret source of humor itself is not joy but sorrow. There is no humor in heaven. 98 thoughts from Mark Twain

Humor is mankind's greatest blessing. 98 other thoughts from Mark Twain

Humor has justly been regarded as the finest perfection of poetic genius. 58 more quotes from Thomas Carlyle

Humor is a serious thing. I like to think of it as one of our greatest earliest natural resources, which must be preserved at all cost. 14 other quotes from James Thurber

My stories are very somber, so I think I need the comic ingredient. Besides, life has so much humor. 11 sayings from Manuel Puig

Humor is a social lubricant that helps us get over some of the bad spots. 2 views from Steve Allen

I don't think humor is forced upon my universe it's a part of it. 11 quotes from Manuel Puig

Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility. 14 sayings from James Thurber

Get well cards have become so humorous that if you don't get sick you're missing half the fun. 7 quotes from Flip Wilson

Things can be funny only when we are in fun. When we're 'dead earnest,' humor is the only thing that is dead. 7 more sayings from Flip Wilson

Total absence of humor renders life impossible. 9 more wisdom & wit from Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

Good humor isn't a trait of character, it is an art which requires practice. 2 views from David Seabury

It is the ability to take a joke, not make one, that proves you have a sense of humor. 7 other quotes from Max Eastman

Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing. 40 wisdom & wit from William James

A well-developed sense of humor is the pole that adds balance to your steps as you walk the tightrope of life. 14 quotes from William Arthur Ward

You are not angry with people when you laugh at them. Humor teaches tolerance. 29 quotes from W. Somerset Maugham

The overwhelming majority of Americans are possessed of two great qualities a sense of humor and a sense of proportion. 24 quotes from Franklin D. Roosevelt

Men will confess to treason, murder, arson, false teeth, or a wig. How many of them will own up to a lack of humor? 3 more quotes from Frank Moore Colby

Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not a sense of humor to console him for what he is. 67 quotes from Francis Bacon

Humor is the instinct for taking pain playfully. 7 quotes from Max Eastman

Humor is the first of the gifts to perish in a foreign tongue. 30 more quotes from Virginia Woolf

Robert Walker as Bruno was excellent. He had elegance and humor, and the proper fondness for his mother. 5 views from Patricia Highsmith

Start every day off with a smile and get it over with. 24 sayings from W. C. Fields

Humor is laughing at what you haven't got when you ought to have it. 7 thoughts from Langston Hughes

There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt. 33 quotes from Erma Bombeck

There are two insults no human being will endure: that he has no sense of humor, and that he has never known trouble. 6 quotes from Sinclair Lewis

Gags die, humor doesn't. 4 other quotes from Jack Benny

The total absence of humor from the Bible is one of the most singular things in all literature. 19 quotes from Alfred North Whitehead

When humor goes, there goes civilization. 33 other wisdom & wit from Erma Bombeck

Humor has been the balm of my life, but it's been reserved for those close to me, not part of the public Lana. 6 other quotes from Lana Turner

The satirist shoots to kill while the humorist brings his prey back alive and eventually releases him again for another chance. 10 quotes from Peter De Vries

Women, as they grow older, rely more and more on cosmetics. Men, as they grow older, rely more and more on a sense of humor. 12 quotes from George Jean Nathan

Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air and you. 7 other wisdom & wit from Langston Hughes