“The tears that you spill, the sorrowful, are sweeter than the laughter of snobs and the guffaws of scoffers.”
A Handful of Sand on the Shore
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Khalil Gibran111
Lebanese artist, poet, and writer 1883–1931Related quotes
“The pleasure that is in sorrow is sweeter than the pleasure of pleasure itself.”
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Romantic poet
A Defence of Poetry http://www.bartleby.com/27/23.html (1821)
“The source of all humor is not laughter, but sorrow.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
Variant: The secret source of humor is not joy but sorrow; there is no humor in heaven.
James Thurber (1894–1961) American cartoonist, author, journalist, playwright
New York Times Magazine (7 December 1958).
Letters and interviews
“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)
Francois Rabelais book Gargantua and Pantagruel
Source: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564)
Context: Readers, friends, if you turn these pages
Put your prejudice aside,
For, really, there's nothing here that's outrageous,
Nothing sick, or bad — or contagious.
Not that I sit here glowing with pride
For my book: all you'll find is laughter:
That's all the glory my heart is after,
Seeing how sorrow eats you, defeats you.
I'd rather write about laughing than crying,
For laughter makes men human, and courageous.