Humour & Wit Quotes — page 8

Humor is...nearer right than any emotion we have. Humor is the atmosphere in which grace most flourishes.

Every trouble in life is a joke compared to madness.

Any thing awful makes me laugh. I misbehaved once at a funeral.

I've jibe and joke, And quip and crank, For lowly folk And men of rank.

In England it is a very dangerous handicap to have a sense of humour; and Whistler's levity had always stood in his way.

A person of the right sort is one who has a solid grasp and realistic apprehension of people and things as they are, an irresistible inclination to transfigure them according to his imagination, and an inexhaustible supply of philosophic …

He who maligns an absent friend's fair fame, Who says no word for him when others blame, Who courts a reckless laugh by random hits, Just for the sake of ranking among wits, Who feigns what he ne'er saw, a secret blabs, Beware him, Roman! …

the world is indeed comic, but the joke is on mankind.

It is — or seems to be — a wise sort of thing, to realise that all that happens to a man in this life is only by way of joke, especially his misfortunes, if he have them. And it is also worth bearing in mind, that the joke is passed round …

The monuments of wit survive the monuments of power.

Poets have imagined no utterance of fiends or hobgoblins so fearfully appropriate as a laugh. And even the obtuse lime-burner felt his nerves shaken, as this strange man looked inward at his own heart, and burst into laughter that rolled …

Oh! it is a strange world, full of jest to those who can see the strings that work it.

This quiet dust was gentlemen and ladies And lads and girls; Was laughter and ability and sighing, And frocks and curls.

They tell us that we live in a great free republic; that our institutions are democratic; that we are a free and self-governing people. This is too much, even for a joke. But it is not a subject for levity; it is an exceedingly serious …

Don't mistake vivacity for wit, thare iz about az mutch difference az thare iz between lightning and a lightning bug.

For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors and laugh at them in our turn?

At that time there was some truth in the old joke which describes the English dislike of speculation by saying that all our philosophy consists of a short catechism in two questions: “What is mind? No matter. — What is matter? Never mind.” …

Whose wit in the combat, as gentle as bright, Ne'er carried a heart-stain away on its blade.

And soft as lips that laugh and hide The laughing leaves of the tree divide, And screen from seeing and leave in sight The god pursuing, the maiden hid.

There is no estimating the wit and wisdom concealed and latent in our lower fellow mortals until made manifest by profound experiences; for it is through suffering that dogs as well as saints are developed and made perfect.

When the goodman mends his armor, And trims his helmet's plume; When the goodwife's shuttle merrily Goes flashing through the loom; With weeping and with laughter Still is the story told,

Wherewith will ye buy it, ye rich who behold me? Draw out from your coffers your rest and your laughter, And the fair gilded hope of the dawn coming after! Nay this I sell not, — though ye bought me and sold me, — For your house stored …

Actually I am an exceedingly mild mannered person — a practitioner of peace, both domestic and foreign, a believer in the capitalistic system, and for my breakfast a devotee of scrambled eggs. ( Laughter)

If you tell the Legislatures they have violated the treaty of peace and invaded the prerogatives of the confederacy they will laugh in your face. What then is to be done? Things cannot go on in the same train forever.