Quotes about laughter

A collection of quotes on the topic of laughter, laugh, likeness, love.

Total 577 quotes laughter, filter:

„Who likes wrinkles?
No one, however remember the laughter, happiness and joy
that created those beautiful marks.
Tell me…would you rather have smooth skin like a cold stone or to see ripples in it from years of happily sitting in a river of running water with the hot sun beating down upon it?“

— Stephie Pahlavi Zan

Joy, Beauty, Sun, Water

„I must get out on the trails once more that wind through shadowy haunts and cool,
Away from the presence of wall and door, and see myself in a crystal pool;
I must get out with the silent things, where neither laughter nor hate is heard,
Where malice never the humblest stings and no one is hurt by a spoken word.“

— Edgar Guest American writer 1881 - 1959

Source: All That Matters (1922), p.11 - The Call, stanza 2.

Hurt, Hate

„None knows the day that friends must part
None knows how near is sorrow;
If there be laughter in your heart
Don't hold it for tomorrow.“

— Edgar Guest American writer 1881 - 1959

Source: A Heap o' Livin' (1916), A Song, opening lines, p. 34.

Heart, Parting

„There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. Even in laughter the heart may be in pain, and the end of joy may be grief. The backslider in heart will have his fill of his own ways, but a good man will be satisfied with his.“

— Bible

Source: Proverbs 14:12-14

Pain, Heart, Joy, Way

„Light, my light, the world-filling light,
the eye-kissing light,
the heart-sweetening light!
Ah, the light dances and the sky opens,
the wind runs wild, laughter passes over the earth,
the light is generosity, is shattered into gems,
and it scatters its golden aura in profusion“

— Alexis Karpouzos 1967

Source: https://twitter.com/AKarpouzos/status/1459547844180951043

Light, World, Kiss, Heart

„Most creativity is a transition from one context into another where things are more surprising. There's an element of surprise, and especially in science, there is often laughter that goes along with the “Aha.”“

— Alan Kay computer scientist 1940

Art also has this element. Our job is to remind us that there are more contexts than the one that we're in — the one that we think is reality.
ACM Queue A Conversation with Alan Kay Vol. 2, No. 9 - Dec/Jan 2004-2005 http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=1039523
2000s, A Conversation with Alan Kay, 2004–05

Science

„We are in danger of forgetting that God is not only a comfort but a joy. He is the source of all pleasures; he is fun and laughter, and we are meant to enjoy him.“

— Joy Davidman American poet 1915 - 1960

Smoke on the Mountain: An Interpretation of the Ten Commandment

God, Forgetting, Pleasure, Joy

„In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.“

— Khalil Gibran Lebanese artist, poet, and writer 1883 - 1931

Friendship, Heart, Pleasure, Friendship

„He discovered or described hundreds of afflictions and cures, and by testing remedies he concluded “Laughter is the best medicine”“

— Eduardo Galeano Uruguayan writer 1940 - 2015

As quoted in Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone (2009), p. 64

Affliction

„Such laughter, like sunshine on the deep sea, is very beautiful to me.“

— Thomas Carlyle Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher 1795 - 1881

1840s, Heroes and Hero-Worship (1840), The Hero as Poet

Beauty, Sea

„Looking through some photographs I found inside a drawer,
I was taken by a photograph of you.
There were one or two I know
That you would have liked a little more,
But they didn't show your spirit quite as true.
You were turning round to see who was behind you
And I took your childish laughter by surprise,
And at the moment that my camera happened to find you
There was just a trace of sorrow in your eyes.“

— Jackson Browne American singer-songwriter 1948

"Fountain of Sorrow"
("Fountain of Sorrow" on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaoHbNNK58k
Late for the Sky (1974)

„God bless the tattoos, the sex, the kisses with the language, the orgasms, the food and the senseless laughter.“

— Prevale Italian DJ and producer 1983

prevale.net
Original: Dio benedica i tatuaggi, il sesso, i baci con la lingua, gli orgasmi, il cibo e le risate senza senso.

God, Food, Kiss, Sex

„She is one from the mountains
She is one from the plains
She is one with the woodlands
And she's at home on the range
And all these things of beauty
They left a kiss on her
I'll tell you, sirI say Lord she's as sweet as one of her pecan pies
Listenin' to her laughter I get hypnotized
Goodness knows I love my Angel Eyes
I love my Angel Eyes oh, yes I do“

— Willis Allan Ramsey American singer-songwriter 1951

Angel Eyes

Home, Mountain, Beauty, Kiss

„But I want very much to be accepted as a good actor, and I have to admit this. Just before the first screenings of The Color Purple, I had some doubts about my name. Steven had told me the billing would read, "And Introducing Whoopi Goldberg as Celie." I had nightmares that when it appeared, a little ripple of laughter would run through the audience and it would grow and grow until it became a horrendous roar of guffaws. Well, I forced myself to go to a screening, and when my name appeared, all I could think was, "Oh, my, how elegant that looks!"“

— Whoopi Goldberg American actress 1955

And no one laughed at all."
As quoted in "Hoopla of Movie Stardom Catches Up With Whoopi" by Philip Wuntch, Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel (January 3, 1986), p. 6S.

Reading, Thinking, Appearance, Color

„I would like to note that I have long considered myself a libertarian Marxist. This causes laughter and outrage from both Marxists and libertarians because they accuse me of being a hypocrite. If you are libertarian you cannot be a Marxist and if you are a Marxist you cannot be libertarian, they say. I see it differently.“

— Yanis Varoufakis Greek-Australian political economist and author, Greek finance minister 1961

Source: In conversation on the postcapitalist vision in my ANOTHER NOW – JACOBIN interview & DISSENS podcast https://www.yanisvaroufakis.eu/2020/12/17/in-conversation-on-the-postcapitalist-vision-in-my-another-now-jacobin-interview-dissens-podcast/

„It is not given me to trace
The lovely laughter of that face,
Like a clear brook most full of light,
Or olives swaying on a height,
So silver they have wings, almost;
Like a great word once known and lost
And meaning all things. Nor her voice
A happy sound where larks rejoice,
Her body, that great loveliness,
The tender fashion of her dress,
I may not paint them.
These I see,
Blazing through all eternity,
A fire-winged sign, a glorious tree!“

— Stephen Vincent Benét poet, short story writer, novelist 1898 - 1943

Source: Young Adventure (1918), The Quality of Courage

Tree, Painting, Love, Light

„God just put a love for it inside of me, I love telling stories, drawing and painting. Animation is a fairly solitary art form. But what happens when you sit in a theater with an audience and you hear their audible responses to your work—the crying, the laughter—there is nothing like it. I just love storytelling. I am a ham actor with a pencil. I love performing on canvas or on paper or right now on a digital screen.“

— John Pomeroy animator 1951

Animation professor returns to roots as illustrator of Disney biography https://www.lipscomb.edu/now/animation-professor-returns-roots-illustrator-disney-biography (May 8, 2019)

God, Drawing, Painting, Art

„We made the mountains shake
With laughter as we played,
Hiding in our corner of the world.
Then we did the demon dance
And rushed to nevermore,
Threw away the key and locked the door.“

— Ronnie James Dio American singer 1942 - 2010

"Children of the Sea" on Heaven and Hell (1980)
Lyrics

World, Mountain, Dance

„I thought I knew where I was going, until I heard your laughter flowing
And came upon the wisdom in your eyes“

— Jackson Browne American singer-songwriter 1948

I Thought I was Child For Everyman (1973)

Wisdom

„The truths are universal: Every kid knows fear. Every kid knows family and friendship. Loss, love, laughter. Everything else is just detail.“

— Jason Reynolds author of young adult novels 1983

As quoted in[Rockey Fleming, Alexandra, Meet the Inspiring Author Who Writes Books He Wanted to Read Growing Up: 'Every Kid Knows Fear', https://people.com/human-interest/jason-reynolds-author-long-way-down/, People, 10 March 2020, October 24, 2017]

Family, Loss, Friendship, Universe

„Miss Austen was surely a great novelist. What she did, she did perfectly. Her work, as far as it goes, is faultless. She wrote of the times in which she lived, of the class of people with which she associated, and in the language which was usual to her as an educated lady. Of romance, -- what we generally mean when we speak of romance -- she had no tinge. Heroes and heroines with wonderful adventures there are none in her novels. Of great criminals and hidden crimes she tells us nothing. But she places us in a circle of gentlemen and ladies, and charms us while she tells us with an unconscious accuracy how men should act to women, and women act to men. It is not that her people are all good; -- and, certainly, they are not all wise. The faults of some are the anvils on which the virtues of others are hammered till they are bright as steel. In the comedy of folly I know no novelist who has beaten her. The letters of Mr. Collins, a clergyman in Pride and Prejudice, would move laughter in a low-church archbishop.“

— Jane Austen English novelist 1775 - 1817

Anthony Trollope, Lecture (1870)

Time, People, Women, Education

„Do you not know that close to your doors a great multitude of men and women, flesh of your flesh, live lives that are one agony from birth to death? Listen! their dwellings are so near that if you hush your laughter you will hear their grievous voices, the piteous crying of the little ones that suckle poverty, the hoarse curses of men sodden in misery turned half-way back to brutes, the chaffering of an army of women selling themselves for bread. With what have you stopped your ears that you do not hear these doleful sounds?“

— Edward Bellamy American author and socialist 1850 - 1898

Source: Looking Backward, 2000-1887 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25439 (1888), Ch. 28.

Birth, Women, Cry, Way

„Our folks understood that there was a war upon us and that school was a weapon that outdid any Glock. Yet the whole process—with its equally spaced desks, precisely timed periods and lectures, with its standardized pencils and tests—felt unnatural to me. But much as I hated their terms, having been impressed into them, I hated more the failing. So I was left with a great unconscious sadness, an emptiness which, even when I was alone, I was not fully aware. But it worked on me like an invisible weight, altered my laughter, posture, my approach to girls. Fuck what you have heard or what you have seen in your son. He may lie about homework and laugh when the teacher calls home. He may curse his teacher, propose arson for the whole public system. But inside is the same sense that was in me. None of us ever want to fail. None of us want to be unworthy, to not measure up.“

— Ta-Nehisi Coates writer, journalist, and educator 1975

Source: The Beautiful Struggle: A Memoir (2008), p. 169-170.

School, Home, Time, Hate

„Your race, in its poverty, has unquestionably one really effective weapon—laughter. Power, Money, Persuasion, Supplication, Persecution—these can lift at a colossal humbug,—push it a little—crowd it a little—weaken it a little, century by century: but only Laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of Laughter nothing can stand.“

— Mark Twain American author and humorist 1835 - 1910

"The Chronicle of Young Satan" (ca. 1897–1900, unfinished), published posthumously in Mark Twain's Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts (1969), ed. William Merriam Gibson ( pp. 165–166 http://books.google.com/books?id=LDvA2xcYZKcC&pg=PA165 in the 2005 paperback printing, ISBN 0520246950)

Money

„Tragedy is all about losing. And humor is all about gaining perspective. Humour returns our gladness. And with gladness comes generosity. Humor returns us to the light and makes us light—it kills grudges, buries bodies–buries revenge—buries blame and guilt—fear and dread. Laughter, like hiccups and sneezes and farts and burps, relieves us of severity.“

— Giannina Braschi Puerto Rican writer 1953

On the healing effects of humor in “52 WEEKS / 52 INTERVIEWS: WEEK 34: GIANNINA BRASCHI” http://monkeybicycle.net/52-weeks-52-interviews-week-34-giannina-braschi/ (Monkey Bicycle)

Light, Revenge, Fear, Making love

„It is not reassuring to watch the ease with which foreign scholars have absorbed or adopted the non-temple thesis from their Indian colleagues (whom they assume to be neutral observers) even without being shown any positive evidence. In academic circles in the West, my own restating the status quaestionis in terms of actual evidence has only earned me hateful labels and laughter, and this from big professors at big universities whose prestige is based on the widespread belief that scholarship goes by hard evidence, not politically fashionable opinions. Never has any of them offered hard evidence for the newly dominant view, or even just shown a little familiarity with the contents of the debate.“

— Koenraad Elst orientalist, writer 1959

2000s, Ayodhya: The Case Against the Temple (2002)

Universe, Fashion, Hate

„True happiness is impossible without solitude…. I need solitude in my life as I need food and drink and the laughter of little children. Extravagant though it may sound, solitude is the filter of my soul. It nourishes me, and rejuvenates me. Left alone, I discovered that I keep myself good company.“

— Sophia Loren Italian actress 1934

Soul, Drink, Food, Children

„Man is the only creature endowed with the power of laughter; is he not also the only one that deserves to be laughed at?“

— Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke English politician 1554 - 1628

„This happens to be that the power of laughter and love would beat out the power of fear every time. “

— John Goodman American actor, voice artist, and comedian 1952

Love, Fear, Time

„With weeping and with laughter
Still is the story told,
How well Horatius kept the bridge
In the brave days of old.“

— Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, book Lays of Ancient Rome

Horatius, st. 70
Lays of Ancient Rome (1842)
Context: 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,
How well Horatius kept the bridge
In the brave days of old.

„I remember it so clearly —
how people, seeing me, would break off in midword.
Laughter died.“

— Wisława Szymborska Polish writer 1923 - 2012

"Soliloquy for Cassandra"
Poems New and Collected (1998), No End of Fun (1967)
Context: I remember it so clearly —
how people, seeing me, would break off in midword.
Laughter died.
Lovers' hands unclasped.
Children ran to their mothers.
I didn't even know their short-lived names.
And that song about a little green leaf —
no one ever finished it near me.

People

„Laughter always forgives.“

— Martin Amis Welsh novelist 1949

"Political Correctness: Robert Bly and Philip Larkin" (1997)

Forgiveness

„What brings understanding is love. When your heart is full, then you will listen to the teacher, to the beggar, to the laughter of children, to the rainbow, and to the sorrow of man. Under every stone and leaf, that which is eternal exists.“

— Jiddu Krishnamurti Indian spiritual philosopher 1895 - 1986

"Ninth Talk in Bombay, (14 March 1948) http://www.jkrishnamurti.com/krishnamurti-teachings/view-text.php?tid=270&chid=4600&w=%22What+brings+understanding+is+love%22, J.Krishnamurti Online, JKO Serial No. BO48Q1, published in The Collected Works, Vol. IV, p. 200
1940s
Context: What brings understanding is love. When your heart is full, then you will listen to the teacher, to the beggar, to the laughter of children, to the rainbow, and to the sorrow of man. Under every stone and leaf, that which is eternal exists. But we do not know how to look for it. Our minds and hearts are filled with other things than understanding of "what is". Love and mercy, kindliness and generosity do not cause enmity. When you love, you are very near truth. For, love makes for sensitivity, for vulnerability. That which is sensitive is capable of renewal. Then truth will come into being. It cannot come if your mind and heart are burdened, heavy with ignorance and animosity.

Love, Children, Understanding, Teachers

„We have the divinity of our great misery. And our solitude, with its toilsome ideas, tears and laughter, is fatally divine.“

— Henri Barbusse French novelist 1873 - 1935

The Inferno (1917), Ch. XVI
Context: We have the divinity of our great misery. And our solitude, with its toilsome ideas, tears and laughter, is fatally divine. However wrong we may go in the dark, whatever our efforts in the dark and the useless work of our hearts working incessantly, and whatever our ignorance left to itself, and whatever the wounds that other human beings are, we ought to study ourselves with a sort of devotion. It is this sentiment that lights our foreheads, uplifts our souls, adorns our pride, and, in spite of everything, will console us when we shall become accustomed to holding, each at his own poor task, the whole place that God used to occupy. The truth itself gives an effective, practical, and, so to speak, religious caress to the suppliant in whom the heavens spread.

Idea, Solitude, Tear

„But ere the laughter died from out the rear,
Anger in front saw profanation near;
Jubal was but a name in each man's faith
For glorious power untouched by that slow death
Which creeps with creeping time“

— George Eliot English novelist, journalist and translator 1819 - 1880

The Legend of Jubal (1869)
Context: But ere the laughter died from out the rear,
Anger in front saw profanation near;
Jubal was but a name in each man's faith
For glorious power untouched by that slow death
Which creeps with creeping time; this too, the spot,
And this the day, it must be crime to blot,
Even with scoffing at a madman's lie:
Jubal was not a name to wed with mockery.
Two rushed upon him: two, the most devout
In honor of great Jubal, thrust him out,
And beat him with their flutes. 'Twas little need;
He strove not, cried not, but with tottering speed,
As if the scorn and howls were driving wind
That urged his body, serving so the mind
Which could but shrink and yearn, he sought the screen
Of thorny thickets, and there fell unseen.
The immortal name of Jubal filled the sky,
While Jubal lonely laid him down to die.

Death, Faith, Time, Anger

„I would say laughter is the best medicine. But it’s more than that. It’s an entire regime of antibiotics and steroids.“

— Stephen Colbert American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor 1964

Entertainment Weekly interview http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20006490,00.html (4 January 2007)
Context: I would say laughter is the best medicine. But it’s more than that. It’s an entire regime of antibiotics and steroids. Laughter brings the swelling down on our national psyche, and then applies an antibiotic cream... Obviously, it’s a challenge to make light of the darkness but, um, it’s better than crying about it.

„The town is divided into various groups, which form so many little states, each with its own laws and customs, its jargon and its jokes.“

— Jean de La Bruyère, book Les Caractères

Aphorism 4
Les Caractères (1688), De la ville
Context: The town is divided into various groups, which form so many little states, each with its own laws and customs, its jargon and its jokes. While the association holds and the fashion lasts, they admit nothing well said or well done except by one of themselves, and they are incapable of appeciating anything from another source, to the point of despising those who are not initiated into their mysteries.

Law

„The immense laughter of Bruno when he understood that Copernicus had inverted the universe — what was it but joy in the confirmation of his knowledge that Mind, in the center of all, contains within it all that it is the center of?“

— John Crowley American writer 1942

Bk. 3, Ch. 4
Little, Big: or, The Fairies' Parliament (1981)
Context: The immense laughter of Bruno when he understood that Copernicus had inverted the universe — what was it but joy in the confirmation of his knowledge that Mind, in the center of all, contains within it all that it is the center of? … the Universe exploded into infinitude, a circle of which Mind, the center, was everywhere and the circumference nowhere. The trick-mirror of finitude was smashed, Bruno laughed, the starry realms were a jewelled bracelet in the hand.

Knowledge, Universe, Joy

„For all their laughter, ghouls are a dull lot.“

— Brian McNaughton US author 1935 - 2004

"Meryphillia"
The Throne of Bones (1997)
Context: For all their laughter, ghouls are a dull lot. Hunger is the fire in which they burn, and it burns hotter than the hunger for power over men or for knowledge of the gods in a crazed mortal. It vaporizes delicacy and leaves behind only a slag of anger and lust. They see their fellows as impediments to feeding, to be mauled and shrieked at when the mourners go home. They are seldom alone, not through love of one another's company, but because a lone ghoul is suspected of stealing food. Their copulation is so hasty that distinctions of sex and identity are often ignored.

„There's nothing worth the wear of winning,
But laughter and the love of friends.“

— Hilaire Belloc writer 1870 - 1953

"Dedicatory Ode", stanza 22
Verses (1910)
Context: From quiet homes and first beginning,
Out to the undiscovered ends,
There's nothing worth the wear of winning,
But laughter and the love of friends.

Love

„I still get laughed at but it doesn't bother me,
I'm just so glad to hear laughter around me.“

— Amanda Palmer American punk-cabaret musician 1976

Do You Swear to Tell the Truth the Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth So Help Your Black Ass (2010)
Lyrics

„Look at him, just like a god,
that man sitting across from you,
whoever he is,
listening to your
close, sweet voice,
your irresistible laughter
And O yes,
it sets my heart racing—
one glance at you
and I can't get any words out,
my voice cracks,
a thin flame runs under my skin,
my eyes go blind,
my ears ring,
a cold sweat pours down my body,
I tremble all over,
turn paler than grass.“

— Sappho ancient Greek lyric poet -630 - -570 BC

Stanley Lombardo translations, Frag. 20

God, Grass, Heart

„You can compel love, actually, if somebody is isolated and dependent — it’s like the Stockholm syndrome. But you can’t compel laughter. It happens when two things come together and make a third unexpectedly.“

— Gloria Steinem American feminist and journalist 1934

The Humanist interview (2012)
Context: There were never that many women stand-up comics in the past because the power to make people laugh is also a power that gets people upset. But the ones who were performing were making jokes on themselves usually and now that’s changed. So there are no rules exactly but I think if you see a whole group of people only being self-deprecating, it’s a problem.
But I have always employed humor, and I think it’s absolutely crucial that we do because, among other things, humor is the only free emotion. I mean, you can compel fear, as we know. You can compel love, actually, if somebody is isolated and dependent — it’s like the Stockholm syndrome. But you can’t compel laughter. It happens when two things come together and make a third unexpectedly. It happens when you learn something, too. I think it was Einstein who said he had to be careful when he shaved because if he thought of something suddenly, he’d laugh and cut himself.
So I think laughter is crucial. Some of the original cultures, like the Dalit and the Native American, don’t separate laughter and seriousness. There’s none of this kind of false Episcopalian solemnity.

Love, Dependency

„With your face comes laughter
And with your touch
And with your touch comes joy.“

— Happy Rhodes American singer-songwriter 1965

"Ra Is A Busy God"
Many Worlds Are Born Tonight (1998)
Context: Even the leaves laugh
'cause they have what I have
Reach from the best tree
So he can see me
And with your face
With your face comes laughter
And with your touch
And with your touch comes joy.

Joy

„Such grinning inanity is very sad to the soul of man. Human faces should not grin on one like masks; they should look on one like faces! I love honest laughter, as I do sunlight; but not dishonest“

— Thomas Carlyle Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher 1795 - 1881

1840s, Past and Present (1843)
Context: "No man in this fashionable London of yours," friend Sauerteig would say, "speaks a plain word to me. Every man feels bound to be something more than plain; to be pungent withal, witty, ornamental. His poor fraction of sense has to be perked into some epigrammatic shape, that it may prick into me;—perhaps (this is the commonest) to be topsyturvied, left standing on its head, that I may remember it the better! Such grinning inanity is very sad to the soul of man. Human faces should not grin on one like masks; they should look on one like faces! I love honest laughter, as I do sunlight; but not dishonest: most kinds of dancing too; but the St.-Vitus kind not at all! A fashionable wit, ach Himmel, if you ask, Which, he or a Death's- head, will be the cheerier company for me? pray send not him!"

Love, Sadness, Soul

„Life is sad enough, Magir. Laughter is a thing to be treasured.“

— David Gemmell, book The King Beyond the Gate

Source: Drenai series, The King Beyond the Gate, Ch. 22

„Without the laughter, there would be no Tao.“

— Laozi, book Tao Te Ching

Source: Tao Te Ching, Ch. 41
Context: Scholars of the highest class, when they hear about the Tao, take it and practice it earnestly.
Scholars of the middle class, when they hear of it, take it half earnestly.
Scholars of the lowest class, when they hear of it, laugh at it.
Without the laughter, there would be no Tao.

„It is not given me to trace
The lovely laughter of that face“

— Stephen Vincent Benét poet, short story writer, novelist 1898 - 1943

Young Adventure (1918), The Quality of Courage
Context: It is not given me to trace
The lovely laughter of that face,
Like a clear brook most full of light,
Or olives swaying on a height,
So silver they have wings, almost;
Like a great word once known and lost
And meaning all things. Nor her voice
A happy sound where larks rejoice,
Her body, that great loveliness,
The tender fashion of her dress,
I may not paint them.
These I see,
Blazing through all eternity,
A fire-winged sign, a glorious tree!

Love

„I'm struck by how laughter connects you with people. It's almost impossible to maintain any kind of distance or any sense of social hierarchy when you're just howling with laughter. Laughter is a force for democracy.“

— John Cleese actor from England 1939

From The Human Face, BBC Television (2001)

People, Democracy, Sense

„I make of my reproach and laughter a drumbeat sounding in the world beyond.“

— Franz Kafka author 1883 - 1924

(July 1910)
The Diaries of Franz Kafka 1910-1923 (1948)
Context: I can prove at any time that my education tried to make another person out of me than the one I became. It is for the harm, therefore, that my educators could have done me in accordance with their intentions that I reproach them; I demand from their hands the person I now am, and since they cannot give him to me, I make of my reproach and laughter a drumbeat sounding in the world beyond.

World

„Wearing their wits, which means their laughter,
As their crown. Set free upon the earth
By simple gifts of knowing how mere mirth can cut the bonds
And pull the blood spikes out“

— Ray Bradbury American writer 1920 - 2012

Christ, Old Student in a New School (1972)
Context: Ten thousand times a million sons of sons move
Through one great and towering town
Wearing their wits, which means their laughter,
As their crown. Set free upon the earth
By simple gifts of knowing how mere mirth can cut the bonds
And pull the blood spikes out;
Their conversation shouts of "Fool!"

„To say more than this would only cause weeping and laughter.“

— Milarepa Tibetan yogi 1052 - 1135

As quoted in The Life of Milarepa: A New Translation from the Tibetan (1977) by Tsangnyön Heruka, as translated by Lobsang P. Lhalungpa, p. 12
Context: In my youth I committed black deeds. In maturity I practised innocence. Now, released from both good and evil, I have destroyed the root of karmic action and shall have no reason for action in the future. To say more than this would only cause weeping and laughter. What good would it do to tell you? I am an old man. Leave me in peace.

„Love is enough: draw near and behold me
Ye who pass by the way to your rest and your laughter“

— William Morris author, designer, and craftsman 1834 - 1896

Love is Enough (1872), Song IV: Draw Near and Behold Me
Context: Love is enough: draw near and behold me
Ye who pass by the way to your rest and your laughter,
And are full of the hope of the dawn coming after;
For the strong of the world have bought me and sold me
And my house is all wasted from threshold to rafter.
— Pass by me, and hearken, and think of me not!

Love, Way, Drawing

„We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.“

— Clive Staples Lewis, book The Abolition of Man

The Abolition of Man (1943)
Context: And all the time — such is the tragi-comedy of our situation — we continue to clamor for those very qualities we are rendering impossible. You can hardly open a periodical without coming across the statement that what our civilization needs is more “drive”, or dynamism, or self-sacrifice, or “creativity”. In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.

„To make sure that my blasphemy is thoroughly expressed, I hereby state my opinion that the notion of a god is a basic superstition, that there is no evidence for the existence of any god(s), that devils, demons, angels and saints are myths, that there is no life after death, heaven nor hell, that the Pope is a dangerous, bigoted, medieval dinosaur, and that the Holy Ghost is a comic-book character worthy of laughter and derision. I accuse the Christian god of murder by allowing the Holocaust to take place -- not to mention the "ethnic cleansing" presently being performed by Christians in our world -- and I condemn and vilify this mythical deity for encouraging racial prejudice and commanding the degradation of women.“

— James Randi Canadian-American stage magician and scientific skeptic 1928

This comprehensive statement was arrived at by examining the statutes of those seven states that have remained in the Dark Ages, so that I might satisfy their definitions of blasphemy.
Skeptic Magazine, 1995 (Volume 3, No. 4) http://www.petting-zoo.net/~deadbeef/archive/383.html, stated in an unsuccessful effort to be officially charged with blasphemy http://www.celebatheists.com/?title=James_Randi.

Life, Death, Women, God

„The shedding of easy solutions, of comforting illusions, may be painful, but it leaves behind it a sense of freedom and relief. And that is why, in the last resort, the Theatre of the Absurd does not provoke tears of despair but the laughter of liberation.“

— Martin Esslin Playwright, theatre critic, scholar 1918 - 2002

Introduction to Absurd Drama (1965)
Context: The Theatre of the Absurd attacks the comfortable certainties of religious or political orthodoxy. It aims to shock its audience out of complacency, to bring it face to face with the harsh facts of the human situation as these writers see it. But the challenge behind this message is anything but one of despair. It is a challenge to accept the human condition as it is, in all its mystery and absurdity, and to bear it with dignity, nobly, responsibly; precisely because there are no easy solutions to the mysteries of existence, because ultimately man is alone in a meaningless world. The shedding of easy solutions, of comforting illusions, may be painful, but it leaves behind it a sense of freedom and relief. And that is why, in the last resort, the Theatre of the Absurd does not provoke tears of despair but the laughter of liberation.

Pain, Sense, Tear, Freedom

„You laughed for the marrow in their bones that was not yet ready for laughter;
And you wept for their eyes that yet were dry.“

— Khalil Gibran, book Jesus, The Son of Man

A Man From Lebanon: Nineteen Centuries Afterward
Jesus, The Son of Man (1928)
Context: You laughed for the marrow in their bones that was not yet ready for laughter;
And you wept for their eyes that yet were dry.
Your voice fathered their thoughts and their understanding.
Your voice mothered their words and their breath.

„A dreadful laugh at last escapes his lips;
The laughter sets him free.
A Fool lives in the Universe! he cries.
The Fool is me!“

— Ray Bradbury American writer 1920 - 2012

Christ, Old Student in a New School (1972)
Context: That so much time was wasted in this pain.
Ten thousand years ago he might have let off down
To not return again!
A dreadful laugh at last escapes his lips;
The laughter sets him free.
A Fool lives in the Universe! he cries.
The Fool is me!
And with one final shake of laughter
Breaks his bonds.
The nails fall skittering to marble floors.
And Christ, knelt at the rail, sees miracle
As Man steps down in amiable wisdom
To give himself what no one else can give:
His liberty.

Fools, Universe

„Jokes can be noble. Laughs are exactly as honorable as tears. Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion, to the futility of thinking and striving anymore.“

— Kurt Vonnegut, book Palm Sunday

"Palm Sunday", a sermon delivered at St. Clement's Church, New York City (ndg), originally published in The Nation as "Hypocrites You Always Have With You" (ndg)
Palm Sunday (1981)
Context: Jokes can be noble. Laughs are exactly as honorable as tears. Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion, to the futility of thinking and striving anymore. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward — and since I can start thinking and striving again that much sooner.

Thinking, Tear

„Sinngedichte III, 10, 8.“

— Friedrich von Logau German poet 1605 - 1655

Untranslated

„I pity people who can't find laughter or at least some bit of amusement in the little doings of the day. I believe I could find something ridiculous even in the saddest moment, if necessary. It has nothing to do with being superficial. It's a matter of joy in life.“

— Sophie Scholl White Rose member 1921 - 1943

As quoted in Christian Jazz Artists Newsletter (February/March 2005) http://www.songsofdavid.com/CJAFebMarch2005.htm; this source is disputed as it does not cite an original document for the quote.
Disputed

Life, People, Joy

„Back of every mistaken venture and defeat is the laughter of wisdom, if you listen.“

— Carl Sandburg American writer and editor 1878 - 1967

Incidentals (1904); this is sometimes paraphrased: "I am an idealist. I believe in everything — I am only looking for proofs."
Context: Back of every mistaken venture and defeat is the laughter of wisdom, if you listen. Every blunder behind us is giving a cheer for us, and only for those who were willing to fail are the dangers and splendors of life. To be a good loser is to learn how to win. I was sure there are ten men in me and I do not know or understand one of them. I could safely declare, I am an idealist. A Parisian cynic says "I believe in nothing. I am looking for clues." My statement would be : I believe in everything — I am only looking for proofs.

Wisdom

„Do not think that I am not sad, though I laugh. See, I have cried even when the laugh did choke me. But no more think that I am all sorry when I cry, for the laugh he come just the same. Keep it always with you that laughter who knock at your door and say, ‘May I come in?’ is not the true laughter.“

— Bram Stoker, book Dracula

Source: Dracula (1897), Chapter XIV, Dr. Seward's Diary entry for 22 September
Context: Van Helsing and I came on here. The moment we were alone in the carriage he gave way to a regular fit of hysterics. He has denied to me since that it was hysterics, and insisted that it was only his sense of humour asserting itself under very terrible conditions. He laughed till he cried, and I had to draw down the blinds lest any one should see us and misjudge; and then he cried, till he laughed again; and laughed and cried together, just as a woman does. I tried to be stern with him, as one is to a woman under the circumstances; but it had no effect. Men and women are so different in manifestations of nervous strength or weakness! Then when his face grew grave and stern again I asked him why his mirth, and why at such a time. His reply was in a way characteristic of him, for it was logical and forceful and mysterious. He said:—
“Ah, you don't comprehend, friend John. Do not think that I am not sad, though I laugh. See, I have cried even when the laugh did choke me. But no more think that I am all sorry when I cry, for the laugh he come just the same. Keep it always with you that laughter who knock at your door and say, ‘May I come in?’ is not the true laughter. No! he is a king, and he come when and how he like. He ask no person; he choose no time of suitability. He say, ‘I am here.’ Behold, in example I grieve my heart out for that so sweet young girl; I give my blood for her, though I am old and worn; I give my time, my skill, my sleep; I let my other sufferers want that so she may have all. And yet I can laugh at her very grave — laugh when the clay from the spade of the sexton drop upon her coffin and say ‘Thud, thud!’ to my heart, till it send back the blood from my cheek. My heart bleed for that poor boy — that dear boy, so of the age of mine own boy had I been so blessed that he live, and with his hair and eyes the same. There, you know now why I love him so. And yet when he say things that touch my husband-heart to the quick, and make my father-heart yearn to him as to no other man — not even you, friend John, for we are more level in experiences than father and son — yet even at such a moment King Laugh he come to me and shout and bellow in my ear, ‘Here I am! here I am!’ till the blood come dance back and bring some of the sunshine that he carry with him to my cheek. Oh, friend John, it is a strange world, a sad world, a world full of miseries, and woes, and troubles; and yet when King Laugh come, he make them all dance to the tune he play. Bleeding hearts, and dry bones of the churchyard, and tears that burn as they fall — all dance together to the music that he make with that smileless mouth of him. And believe me, friend John, that he is good to come, and kind. Ah, we men and women are like ropes drawn tight with strain that pull us different ways. Then tears come; and, like the rain on the ropes, they brace us up, until perhaps the strain become too great, and we break. But King Laugh he come like the sunshine, and he ease off the strain again; and we bear to go on with our labour, what it may be.”

Sadness, Thinking, Cry

„Talking of white supremacist violent types, I was in America, recently… [Wild laughter and applause from audience]“

— Bill Bailey English comedian, musician, actor, TV and radio presenter and author 1965

Part Troll (2004)

„I miss only, and then only a little, in the late afternoon, the sudden white laughter that like heat lightning bursts in an atmosphere where souls are trying to serve the impossible.“

— John Updike, book The Centaur

The Centaur (1963)
Context: I miss only, and then only a little, in the late afternoon, the sudden white laughter that like heat lightning bursts in an atmosphere where souls are trying to serve the impossible. My father for all his mourning moved in the atmosphere of such laughter. He would have puzzled you. He puzzled me. His upper half was hidden from me, I knew best his legs.

Soul

„I recall the sudden arpeggios of laughter lilting across the tender, springtime grass — gay-welling, far-floating, fluent, spontaneous, a bell-like feminine fluting, then suppressed; as though snuffed swiftly and irrevocably beneath the quiet solemnity of the vespered air now vibrant with somber chapel bells.“

— Ralph Ellison, book Invisible Man

Source: Invisible Man (1952), Chapter 5.

Grass

„Directly the mulberry tree begins to make you circle, break off. Pelt the tree with laughter.“

— Virginia Woolf, book Three Guineas

Source: Three Guineas (1938), Ch. 2, p. 80

Tree

„The laughter came
When the tears stopped falling.
Now all I do is just call your name
(When I say lover)
You walked in and my heart discovered
That my life would never be the same.
Oh, you are my destiny.
You are my one and only.
You gave that joy to me
When my whole life was lonely.“

— Lionel Richie American singer-songwriter, musician, record producer and actor 1949

My Destiny.
Song lyrics, Back to Front (1992)

Life, Lovers, Tear, Heart

„Laughter shall drown the raucous shout;
And, though these shelt’ring walls are thin,
May they be strong to keep hate out
And hold love in.“

— Louis Untermeyer American poet 1885 - 1977

Poem, Prayer for This House
Other

Love, Hate, Strong

„Sometimes tears make more good than laughter.“

— Pedro Muñoz Seca Spanish writer 1879 - 1936

Tear

„Like the East Side tenement, our house was seldom without the sound of music or laughter or questions being asked or stories being told.“

— Harpo Marx American comedian 1888 - 1964

book, Harpo Speaks

Music, Question, Housing

„If I woke up tomorrow morning and it was just a dream, it would be the best dream I've ever had, and I would be ― I would not be happy to be waking up!“

— Leona Lewis British singer-songwriter 1985

laughter
The Xtra Factor: Winner's Story 2006
Upon winning The X-Factor

Dreams, Happiness

„Jewish folk music has made a most powerful impression on me. I never tire of delighting in it, it's multifaceted, it can appear to be happy while it is tragic. It's almost always laughter through tears. This quality of Jewish folk music is close to my ideas of what music should be. There should always be two layers in music. Jews were tormented for so long that they learned to hide their despair. They express despair in dance music.“

— Dmitri Shostakovich, book Testimony

Page 156
Testimony (1979)

Music, Idea, Tear, Learning

„Life after all is made up of eating and sleeping, of meeting and saying good-by to friends, of reunions and farewell parties, of tears and laughter, of having a haircut once in two weeks, of watering a potted flower and watching one’s neighbor fall off his roof.“

— Lin Yutang, book The Importance of Living

Source: The Importance of Living (1937), p. 202

Life, Flowers, Tear, Sleep

„Comparing Jews to termites is anti-Semitic, wrong and dangerous. The responsive laughter makes my skin crawl. For everyone who rightly condemned President Trump’s rhetoric when he spoke about immigrants “infesting our country,” this rhetoric should be equally unacceptable to you:“

— Chelsea Clinton daughter of Bill and Hillary Clinton 1980

17 October 2018 https://twitter.com/ChelseaClinton/status/1052565799934849024 response to Louis Farrakhan highlighted by The Hill https://thehill.com/policy/technology/411950-twitter-says-it-wont-suspend-louis-farrakhan-over-tweet-comparing-jews-to

Country

„The great thing about people with intellectual disabilities is that they’re not people who discuss philosophy… What they want is fun and laughter, to do things together and fool around, and laughter is at the heart of community.“

— Jean Vanier Canadian humanitarian 1928 - 2019

The Gift of Living With the Not Gifted http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-gift-of-living-with-the-not-gifted-1428103079 Wall Street Journal, April 3, 2015
From interviews and talks

People, Fools, Communication, Heart

„A sense of humor is a measurement of the extent to which we realize that we are trapped in a world almost totally devoid of reason. Laughter is how we express the anxiety we feel at this knowledge.“

— Dave Barry American writer 1947

Originally published in "Encyclopedia Tropicana: A Reference Book for the Modern World, Volume 1" by Joel Achenbach, The Miami Herald, May 4, 1986; quoted by Bryan Curtis, " Dave Barry: Elegy for the humorist http://slate.msn.com/id/2112218," Slate, January 12, 2005
Columns and articles

World, Feeling, Knowledge, Sense

„Jazz today can be spiritual, cerebral, motivating or moving. It can evoke tension, relaxation, laughter, tears. Surely jazz is truly the music of the era, combining stature, dignity and emotion with the highest musical ideals.“

— John Dankworth British musician 1927 - 2010

Jazz in Revolution (1998), concluding words.

Music, Motivation, Tear

„What can be considered human emotions? Surely not only lyricism, sadness, tragedy? Doesn't laughter also have a claim to that lofty title? I want to fight for the legitimate right of laughter in "serious" music.“

— Dmitri Shostakovich Russian composer and pianist 1906 - 1975

From an article in Sovetskoye Iskusstvo, November 5, 1934; translation from Laurel Fay Shostakovich: A Life (2000) p. 77.

Sadness, Music, Fight

„I was not in full control of myself, and it seemed that I knew her name from before. The evil in her eyes, her color, her scent and her movements were all familiar to me. It was as though my souls, in the life before this, in the world of imagination, had bordered on her soul and that both souls, of the same essence and substance, were destined for union. I must have lived this life very close to her. I had no desire to touch her; the invisible beams that emanated from our bodies and mingled were sufficient for me. Isn't this terrifying experience which seemed so familiar to met quite the same as the feelings of two lovers who feel that they have known each other before and that a mysterious relationship has previously existed between them? Was it possible that someone else could affect me? The dry, repulsive and ominous laughter of the old man, however, tore our bonds asunder.“

— Sadegh Hedayat, book The Blind Owl

The Blind Owl

Life, World, Color, Feeling

„Laughter is a form of internal jogging. It moves your internal organs around. It enhances respiration. It is an igniter of great expectations.“

— Norman Cousins American journalist 1915 - 1990

http://books.google.com/books?id=feWS3EhzaRwC&q=%22laughter+is+a+form+of+internal+jogging+It+moves+your+internal+organs+around+It+enhances+respiration+It+is+an+igniter+of+great+expectations%22&pg=PA217#v=onepage
Human Options (1981)

„Writer-director John Roecker's debut, Live Freaky! Die Freaky! will have you convulsing on the floor … with nausea, laughter, or both.“

— John Roecker American film director 1966

[Freaky deaky: gay music video director John Roecker takes stop-motion animation to bizarre places in his debut feature Live Freaky! Die Freaky!, The Advocate, February 14, 2006, Kurt B., Reighley]
About

„“Philosophical” ideology critique is truly the heir of a great satirical tradition, in which the motif of unmasking, exposing, baring has served for aeons now as a weapon. But modern ideology critique—according to our thesis has ominously cut itself off from the powerful traditions of laughter in satirical knowledge.“

— Peter Sloterdijk German philosopher 1947

Source: Kritik der zynischen Vernunft [Critique of Cynical Reason] (1983), p. 16

Knowledge

„If books were sold as software and online recordings are, they would have this legalese up front:
The content of this book is distributed on an 'as is' basis, without warranty as to accuracy of content, quality of writing, punctuation, usefulness of the ideas presented, merchantability, correctness or readability of formulae, charts, and figures, or correspondence of (a) the table of contents with the actual contents, (2) page references in the index (if any) with the actual page numbering (if present), and (iii) any illustration with its adjacent caption. Illustrations may have been printed reversed or inverted, the publisher accepts no responsibility for orientation or chirality. Any resemblance of the author or his or her likeness or name to any person, living or dead, or their heirs or assigns, is coincidental; all references to people, places, or events have been or should have been fictionalized and may or may not have any factual basis, even if reported as factual. Similarities to existing works of art, literature, song, or television or movie scripts is pure happenstance. References have been chosen at random from our own catalog. Neither the author(s) nor the publisher shall have any liability whatever to any person, corporation, animal whether feral or domesticated, or other corporeal or incorporeal entity with respect to any loss, damage, misunderstanding, or death from choking with laughter or apoplexy at or due to, respectively, the contents; that is caused or is alleged to be caused by any party, whether directly or indirectly due to the information or lack of information that may or may not be found in this alleged work. No representation is made as to the correctness of the ISBN or date of publication as our typist isn't good with numbers and errors of spelling and usage are attributable solely to bugs in the spelling and grammar checker in Microsoft Word. If sold without a cover, this book will be thinner than those sold with a cover. You do not own this book, but have acquired only a revocable non-exclusive license to read the material contained herein. You may not read it aloud to any third party. This disclaimer is a copyrighted work of Jef Raskin, first published in 2004, and is distributed 'as is', without warranty as to quality of humor, incisiveness of commentary, sharpness of taunt, or aptness of jibe.“

— Jef Raskin American computer scientist 1943 - 2005

"If Books Were Sold as Software" http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&dateissued=20040818#11200, NewsScan.com (18 August 2004)
If Books Were Sold as Software (2004)

Death, People, Books, Art

„The house of laughter makes a house of woe.“

— Edward Young, Night-Thoughts

Source: Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night VIII, Line 757.

Housing

„There is no rose without a thorn
No rain without the storm
There is no laughter without tears
No wisdom without years
In a world gone crazy
Torn between the roads that we must choose
Win or lose.“

— Anastacia American singer-songwriter 1968

Who's Gonna Stop the Rain
Not That Kind (2000)

Wisdom, World, Tear

„I am what I am
I was made this way
When I want to laugh
Yes I shriek with laughter
I love those who love me
It's my fault
If they're not the same
That I love everytime
I am what I am
I was made this way
What more do you want
What do you want from me“

— Jacques Prevért French poet, screenwriter 1900 - 1977

Je Suis Comme Je Suis - I Am What I Am

Love, Way

„They did not talk or want to talk. It was as if they were afraid to talk for fear of spoiling something beautiful. But Anne had never felt so near Katherine Brooke before. By some magic of its own the winter night had brought them together... almost together but not quite.
When they came out to the main road and a sleigh flashed by, bells ringing, laughter tinkling, both girls gave an involuntary sigh. It seemed to both that they were leaving behind a world that had nothing in common with the one to which they were returning... a world where time was not... which was young with immortal youth... where souls communed with each other in some medium that needed nothing so crude as words.“

— Lucy Maud Montgomery, book Anne of Windy Poplars

Part 2, Ch. 5
Anne of Windy Poplars (1936)

Youth, World, Fear, Beauty

„And then, all of a sudden, it was as though through those dark eyes an electrical circuit had been struck. She sat fascinated. Snake-and-bird fascinated. Afterwards she could not recall the details of what he had said. She remembered only that she had been absorbed, rapt, lost, for over ten minutes by the clock. She had perceived images conjured up from the dead past: a hand trailed in clear river water, deliciously cool, while the sun smiled and a shoal of tiny fishes darted between her fingers; the crisp flesh of a ripe apple straight from the tree, so juicy it ran down her chin; grass between her bare toes, the turf like springs so that she seemed not to bear the whole of her weight on her soles but to be floating, dreamlike, in slow motion, instantly transported to the moon; the western sky painted with vast heart-tearing slapdash streaks of red below the bright steel-blue of clouds, and stars coming snap-snap into view against the eastern dark; wind gentle in her hair and on her cheeks, bearing flower perfumes, dusting her with petals; snow cold to the palm as it was shaped into a ball; laughter echoing from a dark lane where only lovers walked, not thieves and muggers; butter like an ingot of soft gold; ocean spray sharp and clean as the edge of an axe; with the same sense of safe, provided rightly used; round pebbles polychrome beside a pool; rain to which a thirsty mouth could open, distilling the taste of a continent of air... And under, and through, and in, and around all this, a conviction: “Something can be done to get that back!”
She was crying. Small tears like ants had itched their paths down her cheeks. She said, when she realized he had fallen silent, “But I never knew that! None of it! I was born and raised right here in New York!”“

— John Brunner, book The Sheep Look Up

”But don’t you think you should have known it?” Austin Train inquired gently.
September “MINE ENEMIES ARE DELIVERED INTO MY HAND”
The Sheep Look Up (1972)

Smile, Star, Spring, Flowers

„To be conservative, then, is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried, fact to mystery, the actual to the possible, the limited to the unbounded, the near to the distant, the sufficient to the superabundant, the convenient to the perfect, present laughter to utopian bliss.“

— Michael Oakeshott British philosopher 1901 - 1990

Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays (1962)

Distant, Perfection

„There's great value in being able to step back and laugh at yourself, at life and at attitudes. Laughter helps you put everything into perspective.“

— Jim Henson American puppeteer 1936 - 1990

Interview with The Boston Globe (1989)

Life, Help

„Tears are as sweet as laughter to some natures.“

— Jerome K. Jerome, book Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow

Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886)

Nature, Tear

„Hearing has its own memory. It registers the dog whose sudden barking startled me as a child. The folk songs my nanny used to sing. The dadaism of a cabaret song from Berlin: ‘I tear out one of my eyelashes and stab you dead with it,’ innocently sung by my mother. Hitler conjuring up the Almighty. The crowing voice of little Goebbels. Alarm sirens, the roar of aircraft, the blast of bombs. Ljuba Welitsch being Salome. The sonorities of Edwin Fischer’s piano playing. María Casares as Lady Macbeth in Avignon. Ralph Kirkpatrick’s two Scarlatti recitals. Gré Brouwenstijn as Leonore in Fidelio. The epiphany of Ligeti’s Aventures et Nouvelles Aventures. The magic application of noise in Peter Brook’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. All sorts of laughter.“

— Alfred Brendel Austrian pianist, poet, and author 1931

quoted in Alan Rusbridger, "Music, Sense and Nonsense by Alfred Brendel review – a great pianist’s thoughts on his art", The Guardian, 24 September 2015

Dogs, Dreams, Tear, Memory

„Last week, Mr President, I seemed to hear a strange sound emanating from Blackpool. And I thought at first it was seagulls. [laughter] Then I remembered that Labour was holding its annual Conference there. And I realised it wasn't seagulls, it was chickens—[laughter and applause] chickens being counted before they were hatched—[laughter and applause] except for Labour's call to enter the ERM and cut interest rates. That was a case of counting chickens after they'd flown the coop. Then, I heard voices getting all worked up about someone they kept calling the “Prime Minister in Waiting”. [laughter] It occurs to me, Mr President, that he might have quite a wait. [applause] I can see him now, like the people queuing up for the Winter sales. All got up with his camp bed, hot thermos, woolly balaclava, CND badge… [laughter and applause] Waiting, waiting, waiting… And then when the doors open, in he rushes—only to find that, as always, there's “that woman” ahead of him again. [applause and laughter] I gather there may be an adjective between “that” and “woman” [laughter] only no-one will tell me what it is. [laughter and applause]“

— Margaret Thatcher British stateswoman and politician 1925 - 2013

Speech to Conservative Party Conference (12 October 1990) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/108217
Third term as Prime Minister

People, Winter, Waiting

„This leads to the paradox, that because the disease is only in the poor countries, there is not much investment. For example, there is more money put into baldness drugs, than are put into malaria. Now, baldness, it is a terrible thing [audience laughter] and rich men are afflicted, so that is why that priority is set.“

— Bill Gates American business magnate and philanthropist 1955

Video may be viewed here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppDWD3VwxVg.
TED, February (2009)

Men, Money, Disease, Affliction

„I was so enchanted with the open possibilities and the power of being able to choose my part. Who was the child now? I decided I’d be a Japanese businessman because it would be less predictable. Even when I was alone, I was so filled with excitement and laughter at the thought of my task. This was joyful children’s play!“

— Piper Laurie actress 1932

About her role in Twin Peaks. Learning to Live Out Loud: A Memoir (2011), quoted in Word and Film, Piper Laurie: On Twin Peaks and a New Identity, October 31, 2011 http://www.wordandfilm.com/2011/10/piper-laurie-on-twin-peaks-and-a-new-identity/

Children, Parting

„Although the mutual laughter may seem six of one and half-a-dozen of the other, it is not. The Christian is profoundly mad merely by the standards of the world. To the world the wicked seem wise, but are mad in the sight of God. The Christian is touched by the Infinite and will not only have the last laugh at the end of time: even now he laughs more insanely than the worldlings.“

— Michael Andrew Screech 1926 - 2018

Source: Laughter at the Foot of the Cross (1998), p. 73

God, World, Time, Madness