“Tears and laughter, they are so much Gaelic to me.”

—  Samuel Beckett , book Molloy

Molloy (1951)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update May 22, 2020. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Tears and laughter, they are so much Gaelic to me." by Samuel Beckett?
Samuel Beckett photo
Samuel Beckett 122
Irish novelist, playwright, and poet 1906–1989

Related quotes

Sherman Alexie photo
Laura Ingalls Wilder photo

“Remember me with smiles and laughter, for that is how I will remember you all. If you can only remember me with tears, then don't remember me at all.”

Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867–1957) American children's writer, diarist, and journalist

Michael Landon, in Little House on the Prairie (TV series), Season 2, Ep 8 (5 November 1975) "Remember Me", Part 1
Misattributed

Pedro Muñoz Seca photo
Sören Kierkegaard photo
Khalil Gibran photo

“The tears that you spill, the sorrowful, are sweeter than the laughter of snobs and the guffaws of scoffers.”

Khalil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese artist, poet, and writer

A Handful of Sand on the Shore

James Thurber photo

“Humor and pathos, tears and laughter are, in the highest expression of human character and achievement, inseparable.”

James Thurber (1894–1961) American cartoonist, author, journalist, playwright

"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

Kurt Vonnegut photo

“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.”

"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.

Related topics