If the first Prometheus brought fire from heaven in a fennel-stalk, the last will take it back — in a book.
The Pleasures of Literature (1938), p. 17
The Pleasures of Literature (1938), p. 17 <!-- London: Cassell -->
"On Wit and Humour"
Lectures on the English Comic Writers (1819)
“Man is the only animal that laughs and has a state legislature.”
As quoted in 1,911 Best Things Anybody Ever Said (1988) by Robert Byrne
Solitude
Poetry quotes
Source: Poems of Passion
Context: Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone.
For this brave old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
Sing, and the hills will answer;
Sigh, it is lost on the air.
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink from voicing care.
“Excessive sorrow laughs. Excessive joy weeps.”
“The proper definition of a man is an animal that writes letters.”
Source: Lewis Carroll, Roger Lancelyn Green (1989). “The Selected Letters of Lewis Carroll”, p.10, Springer
“816. Women laugh when they can and weepe when they will.”
Jacula Prudentum (1651)
“I hasten to laugh at everything, for fear of being obliged to weep.”
Je me presse de rire de tout, de peur d'être obligé d'en pleurer.
Act I, scene ii
Variant translations:
I quickly laugh at everything, for fear of having to cry.
I force myself to laugh at everything, for fear of having to cry.
Le Barbier de Séville (1773)
