
“When it comes to death, we know that laughter and tears are pretty much the same thing.”
Source: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
“When it comes to death, we know that laughter and tears are pretty much the same thing.”
Source: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Michael Landon, in Little House on the Prairie (TV series), Season 2, Ep 8 (5 November 1975) "Remember Me", Part 1
Misattributed
“I believe in the power of laughter and tears as an antidote to hatred and terror”
“What if everything in the world were a misunderstanding, what if laughter were really tears?”
"The Case for Comedy", Lanterns & Lances http://books.google.com/books?id=m0RZAAAAYAAJ&q=%22humor+and+pathos+tears+and+laughter+are+in+the+highest+expression+of+human+character+and+achievement+inseparable%22&pg=PA143#v=onepage (1961); previously appeared in The Atlantic Monthly November 1960 http://books.google.com/books?id=6q8GAQAAIAAJ&q=%22and+pathos+tears+and+laughter+are+in+the+highest+expression+of+human+character+and+achievement+inseparable%22&pg=PA98#v=onepage
From Lanterns and Lances
"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.