“There was never yet an uninteresting life. Such a thing is an impossibility. Inside of the dullest exterior there is a drama, a comedy, and a tragedy.”

—  Mark Twain

Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

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American author and humorist 1835–1910

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“Life is a comedy to those who think and a tragedy for those who feel.”

Horace Walpole (1717–1797) English art historian, man of letters, antiquarian and Whig politician

Letter to Anne, Countess of Ossory, (16 August 1776)
A favourite saying of Walpole's, it is repeated in other of his letters, and might be derived from a similar statement attributed to Jean de La Bruyère, though unsourced: "Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think". An earlier form occurs in another published letter:
I have often said, and oftener think, that this world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel — a solution of why Democritus laughed and Heraclitus wept.
Letter to Sir Horace Mann (31 December 1769)
Variant: The world is a comedy to those that think; a tragedy to those that feel.

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“Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.”

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“Life is a tragedy for those who feel and a comedy for those who think.”

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“Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think.”

Jean de La Bruyère (1645–1696) 17th-century French writer and philosopher

La vie est une tragédie pour celui qui sent, et une comédie pour celui qui pense.
As quoted in Selected Thoughts from the French: XV Century-XX Century, with English Translations (1913), pp. 132-133, by James Raymond Solly. This may conceivably be a misattribution, because as yet no definite citation of a specific work by La Bruyère has been located, and the statement is very similar to one known to have been made by Horace Walpole in a letter of 31 December 1769: The world is a comedy to those that think; a tragedy to those that feel.

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“A tragedy can never suffer by delay: a comedy may, because the allusions or the manners represented in it maybe temporary.”

Horace Walpole (1717–1797) English art historian, man of letters, antiquarian and Whig politician

Letter 123 To Robert Jephson (13 July 1777)

“Comedy is tragedy that happens to other people.”

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