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Laughter: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations
We must laugh before we are happy, for we die before we laugh at all. fear we die before we laugh at all.— DE LA BRUYÈRE — The Characters or
Manners of the Present Age. Ch. IV. The landlord's laugh was ready chorus.— BURNS — Tam o' Shanter.
And if I laugh at any mortal thing, 'Tis that I may not weep.— BYRON — Don Juan. Canto IV. St. 4.
, How much lies in Laughter: the cipherkey, wherewith we decipher the whole man. wherewith we decipher the whole man.— CARLYLE — Sartor Resartus. Bk. I. Ch. IV.
And the loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind mind.— GOLDSMITH — The Deserted Village. L. 121.
Low gurgling laughter, as sweet As the swallow's song i' the South, And a ripple of dimples that, dancing, meet By the curves of a perfect mouth.— PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE — Ariel.
Laugh not too much; the witty man laughs least: For wit is news only to ignorance. Lesse at thine own things laugh; lest in the jest Thy person share, and the conceit advance.— HERBERT — The Temple. Church Porch. St. 39.
You hear that boy laughing?-you think he's all fun; But the angels laugh, too, at the good he has done; The children laugh loud as they troop to his call, And the poor man that knows him laughs loudest of all.— O. W. HOLMES — The Boys.
And unextinguish'd laughter shakes the skies.— HOMER — Iliad. Bk. I. L. 771.
Pope's trans. Laugh, and be fat, sir, your penance is known. They that love mirth, let them heartily drink, 'Tis the only receipt to make sorrow sink. S.— BEN JONSON — Entertainments.
The Penates. Sport, that wrinkled Care derides, And Laughter holding both his sides.— MILTON — L'Allegro. L. 31.
To laugh, if but for an instant only, has never been granted to man before the fortieth day from his birth, and then it is looked upon as a miracle of precocity.— PLINY THE ELDER — Natural History. Bk. VII. Ch. I. Holland's trans.
Laugh at your friends, and if your friends are sore So much the better, you may laugh the more.— POPE — Epilogue to Satire. Dialogue I. L. 55.
The man that loves and laughs must sure do well.— POPE — Imitations of Horace. Ep. VI. Bk. I. L. 129.
To laugh were want of goodness and of grace: And to be grave, exceeds all pow'r of face.— X. POPE — Prologue to Satires. L. 35.
One inch of joy surmounts of grief a span, Because to laugh is proper to the man.— RABELAIS — To the Readers.
O, I am stabb'd with laughter.— Shakespeare — Love's Labour's Lost. Act V. Sc. 2. L. 79.
O, you shall see him laugh till his face be like a wet cloak ill laid up.— Shakespeare — Henry IV. Pt. II. Act V. Sc. 1. L. 88.
The brain of this foolish-compounded clay, man, is not able to invent anything that tends to laughter, more than I invent or is invented on me. C.— Shakespeare — Henry IV. Pt. II. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 6.
They laugh that win.— Shakespeare — Othello. Act IV. Sc. 1. L. 124.
With his eyes in flood with laughter.— Shakespeare — Cymbeline. Act I. Sc. 6. L. 74.
Laughter almost ever cometh of things most disproportioned to ourselves and nature: delight hath a joy in it either permanent or present; laughter hath only a scornful tickling.— SIR PHILIP SIDNEY — The Defence of
Poesy. For still the World prevail'd, and its dread laugh, Which scarce the firm Philosopher canscorn.— THOMSON — The Seasons. Autumn. L. 233.
Fight Virtue's cause, stand up in Wit's defence, Win us from vice and laugh us into sense.— TICKELL — On the Prospect of Peace. St. 38.
Laugh and the world laughs with you. ELLA WHEELER WILCox-Solitude. Care to our coffin adds a nail, no doubt; And every Grin, so merry, draws one out. JOHN WOLCOTT (Peter Pindar)- Expostulatory Odes. Ode 15. The house of laughter makes a house of woe.— YOUNG — Night Thoughts. Night VIII. L. 757.
Nam risu inepto res ineptior nulla est. Nothing is more silly than silly laughter.— CATULLUS — Carmina. XXXIX. 16.
Quid rides? Mutato nomine de te fabula narratur. Why do you laugh? Change but the name, and the story is told of yourself.— HORACE — Satiræ. I. 1. 69.
Nimium risus pretium est, si probitatis impendio constat. A laugh costs too much when bought at the expense of virtue.— QUINTILIAN — De Institutione Oratoria.
Ce n'est pas être bien aisé que de rire. He is not always at ease who laughs.— ST. EVREMOND
La plus perdue de toutes les journées est celle où l'on n'a pas rit. The most completely lost of all days is that on which one has not laughed.