2,109 quotes
After the Rodgers and Hammerstein revolution, songs became part of the story, as opposed to just entertainments in between comedy scenes.
Stephen Sondheim
Composer · American · b. 1930
With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.
William Shakespeare
Dramatist · English · 1564 – 1616
If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.
Woody Allen
Director · American · b. 1935
Nothing shortens a journey so pleasantly as an account of misfortunes at which the hearer is permitted to laugh.
Quentin Crisp
Writer · English · 1908 – 1999
Humor was not important only for me, humor was important for this nation for centuries, to survive, you know.
Milos Forman
Director · Czechoslovakian · b. 1932
Humor expands our limited picture frame and gets us to see more than just our problem.
Allen Klein
Businessman · American · b. 1931
There are two insults no human being will endure: that he has no sense of humor, and that he has never known trouble.
Sinclair Lewis
Novelist · American · 1885 – 1951
Nothing can confound a wise man more than laughter from a dunce.
George Byron
Poet · Scottish · 1788 – 1824
In laughter we always find an unavowed intention to humiliate and consequently to correct our neighbour.
Henri Bergson
Scientist · French · 1859 – 1941
God writes a lot of comedy... the trouble is, he's stuck with so many bad actors who don't know how to play funny.
Garrison Keillor
Writer · American · b. 1942
I have never understood why it should be considered derogatory to the Creator to suppose that he has a sense of humour.
William Ralph Inge
Clergyman · English · 1860 – 1954
People who do not know how to laugh are always pompous and self-conceited.
William Makepeace Thackeray
Novelist · English · 1811 – 1863
Everybody laughs the same in every language because laughter is a universal connection.
Yakov Smirnoff
Comedia · Russian · b. 1951
Some one is generally sure to be the sufferer by a joke.
William Hazlitt
Critic · English · 1778 – 1830
Humor can help you cope with the unbearable so that you can stay on the bright side of things until the bright side actually comes along.
There are men so philosophical that they can see humor in their own toothaches. But there has never lived a man so philosophical that he could see the toothache in his own humor.
H. L. Mencken
Writer · American · 1880 – 1956
Comedy is unusual people in real situations; farce is real people in unusual situations.
Chuck Jones
Director · American · 1912 – 2002
A sense of humor is the ability to understand a joke - and that the joke is oneself.
Clifton Fadiman
Writer · American · 1904 – 1999
Clifton Paul Fadiman
Writer
The man who can make others laugh secures more votes for a measure than the man who forces them to think.
Malcolm De Chazal
Writer · French
Like all young men I set out to be a genius, but mercifully laughter intervened.
Lawrence Durrell
Writer · British · 1912 – 1990
Good humor is one of the best articles of dress one can wear in society.
Billy Tauzin is one of the most interesting people in Washington. He is smart, funny, and interesting.
Tucker Carlson
Journalist · American · b. 1969
To make mistakes is human; to stumble is commonplace; to be able to laugh at yourself is maturity.
William Arthur Ward
Writer · American
If I were given the opportunity to present a gift to the next generation, it would be the ability for each individual to learn to laugh at himself.
Charles M. Schulz
Cartoonist · 1922 – 2000
Don't laugh at a youth for his affectations; he is only trying on one face after another to find a face of his own.
Logan P. Smith
When we are dealing with death we are constantly being dragged down by the event: Humor diverts our attention and lifts our sagging spirits.
Life was a funny thing that happened to me on the way to the grave.
We must laugh at man to avoid crying for him.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Leader · French · 1769 – 1821
The only cure for vanity is laughter, and the only fault that is laughable is vanity.
The jest loses its point when he who makes it is the first to laugh.
Friedrich Schiller
Dramatist · German · 1759 – 1805
Advertisers also know that humor can help bond us to their product.
Humor is the first of the gifts to perish in a foreign tongue.
Virginia Woolf
Author · British · 1882 – 1941
It is hard for power to enjoy or incorporate humour and satire in its system of control.
Dario Fo
Playwright · Italian · b. 1926
Laughter can help relieve tension in even the heaviest of matters.
Investigators have discovered that dogs can laugh, which can't be too big of a surprise.
Tony Snow
Journalist · American · 1955 – 2008
The tears of the world are a constant quality. For each one who begins to weep, somewhere else another stops. The same is true of the laugh.
Samuel Beckett
Playwright · Irish · 1906 – 1989
It is funny the two things most men are proudest of is the thing that any man can do and doing does in the same way, that is being drunk and being the father of their son.
Gertrude Stein
Author · American · 1874 – 1946
Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he isn't. A sense of humor was provided to console him for what he is.
Horace Walpole
Author · English · 1717 – 1797
Whether planned or not, humor takes our mind off of our troubles.
A Swedish newspaper reporter called and said, You've been awarded the Prize. I was quite sure it was a practical joke.
Joshua Lederberg
Scientist · American · 1925 – 2008
I think, for me, humour needs to be used like a strong spice - sparingly.
George Murray
Poet · Canadian
I believe that economists put decimal points in their forecasts to show they have a sense of humor.
William Gilmore Simms
Novelist · American
We participate in a tragedy; at a comedy we only look.
Aldous Huxley
Novelist · English · 1894 – 1963
Any attempts at humor immediately after September 11th were deemed tasteless.
If you are not allowed to laugh in heaven, I don't want to go there.
Martin Luther
Leader · German · 1483 – 1546
A sense of humor is a major defense against minor troubles.
Mignon McLaughlin
Journalist · American · 1913 – 1983
I need to be cheered up a lot. I think funny people are people who need to be cheered up.
Lynda Barry
Cartoonist · American · b. 1956
