Quotes and anectdotes from the wise to the foolish, and the courageous to the drunk

humor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 sayings from James Thurber

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Total absence of humor renders life impossible. 9 more quotes from Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

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

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

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

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 sayings from Frank Moore Colby

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

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

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

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

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

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 views 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

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

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

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

Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air and you. 7 more quotes from Langston Hughes

When humor goes, there goes civilization. 33 sayings from Erma Bombeck

Gags die, humor doesn't. 4 wisdom & wit from Jack Benny

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

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

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

Humor is the most engaging cowardice. 50 wisdom & wit from Robert Frost

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

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

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

Humor distorts nothing, and only false gods are laughed off their earthly pedestals. 5 wisdom & wit from Agnes Repplier

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

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 other sayings 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 wisdom & wit from Max Frisch

Wit is the lowest form of humor. 43 wisdom & wit from Alexander Pope

A sense of humor is a major defense against minor troubles. 21 other wisdom & wit 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

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

Humor is merely tragedy standing on its head with its pants torn. 3 quotes from Irvin S. Cobb

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The love of truth lies at the root of much humor. 3 quotes 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 other quotes from Samuel Richardson

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

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

The sense of humor has other things to do than to make itself conspicuous in the act of laughter. 3 more wisdom & wit 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 quotes 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 more quotes from Robert Benchley

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

Cynicism is humor in ill health. 19 sayings from H. G. Wells

Humor is reason gone mad. 29 quotes 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 other wisdom & wit from William Temple

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

Men live by intervals of reason under the sovereignty of humor and passion. 8 more wisdom & wit from Thomas Browne

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

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

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

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

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