“Between levity and cheerfulness there is a wide distinction; and the mind which is most open to levity is frequently a stranger to cheerfulness.”

—  Hugh Blair

Reported in The Saturday Magazine‎ (September 28, 1833), p. 118 https://books.google.com/books?id=jh_nAAAAMAAJ&pg=118.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Between levity and cheerfulness there is a wide distinction; and the mind which is most open to levity is frequently a …" by Hugh Blair?
Hugh Blair photo
Hugh Blair 16
British philosopher 1718–1800

Related quotes

R. A. Lafferty photo

“As regards very small celestial bodies of a light-minded nature, the law of levity is allowed to supersede the law of gravity.”

R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) American writer

Atlas, in Ch. 4
Space Chantey (1968)

Robert Anton Wilson photo

“I remain cheerful and unimpressed. I look forward without dogmatic optimism but without dread. I love you all and I deeply implore you to keep the lasagna flying.
Please pardon my levity, I don't see how to take death seriously. It seems absurd.”

Robert Anton Wilson (1932–2007) American author and polymath

"Do Not Go Gently Into That Good Night" final blog entry (6 January 2007) http://robertantonwilson.blogspot.com/2007/01/do-not-go-gently-into-that-good-night.html
Context: Various medical authorities swarm in and out of here predicting I have between two days and two months to live. I think they are guessing. I remain cheerful and unimpressed. I look forward without dogmatic optimism but without dread. I love you all and I deeply implore you to keep the lasagna flying.
Please pardon my levity, I don't see how to take death seriously. It seems absurd.

Brandon Sanderson photo

“a cheerful voice said in his mind.”

Brandon Sanderson book Words of Radiance

Source: Words of Radiance

Michel De Montaigne photo

“The most certain sign of wisdom is cheerfulness.”

Michel De Montaigne (1533–1592) (1533-1592) French-Occitan author, humanistic philosopher, statesman
Robert Jordan photo

“Cheer the bull, or cheer the bear; cheer both, and you will be trampled and eaten.”

Robert Jordan (1948–2007) American writer

Old saying in Randland
(15 October 1994)

James Randi photo

“Sir, there is a distinct difference between having an open mind and having a hole in your head from which your brain leaks out.”

James Randi (1928) Canadian-American stage magician and scientific skeptic

Swift, 30 December 2005,. "McGill University Featuring Pseudoscience" http://web.archive.org/web/20110108172522/http://www.randi.org/jr/200512/123005museum.html#i8
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/living/17126222.htm April 24, 2007.

Swami Vivekananda photo

“It is the cheerful mind that is persevering. It is the strong mind that hews its way through a thousand difficulties.”

Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher

Pearls of Wisdom

Jeremy Clarkson photo

“No, no, no. There's no such thing as cheap and cheerful. It's cheap and nasty & expensive and cheerful.”

Jeremy Clarkson (1960) English broadcaster, journalist and writer
Benito Mussolini photo

“Three cheers for the war. Three cheers for Italy's war and three cheers for war in general. Peace is hence absurd or rather a pause in war.”

Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) Duce and President of the Council of Ministers of Italy. Leader of the National Fascist Party and subsequen…

Popolo d'Italia (Feb. 1, 1921), quoted in The Menace of Fascism, John Strachey (1933) p. 65
1920s

“When the wind blew from the south and the French doors had been opened, the sound of cheering carried from Ebbets Field into the apartment. It was astonishing, to hear cheers from a major league crowd while sitting at home.”

Roger Kahn (1927–2020) American baseball writer

Source: The Boys Of Summer, Chapter 1, The Trolley Car That Ran By Ebbets Field, p. 36

Related topics