“It is indeed very possible, that the Persons we laugh at may in the main of their Characters be much wiser Men than our selves; but if they would have us laugh at them, they must fall short of us in those Respects which stir up this Passion.”
No. 47 (24 April 1711).
The Spectator (1711–1714)
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Joseph Addison 226
politician, writer and playwright 1672–1719Related quotes

“Those in power must spend a lot of their time laughing at us.”

Vol. XIII, p. 251
Posthumous publications, The Collected Works

Diary (11 March 1796), quoted in T. W. Moody, R. B. McDowell and C. J. Woods (eds.), The Writings of Theobold Wolfe Tone, 1763–98, Volume II: America, France and Bantry Bay, August 1795 to December 1796 (2001), p. 107

“It’s no use crying over spilt evils. It’s better to mop them up laughing.”
Gypsy and Ginger (1920)

“The men who cannot laugh at themselves frighten me even more than those who laugh at everything.”
Source: The Whitechapel Conspiracy

Foreign Policy Congress in Milan, June 1938. Quoted in "The decline of the intellectual" - Page 189 - by Thomas Molnar - 1994.

“God weeps with us so that we may one day laugh with him.”