“Humor is the most engaging cowardice.”
Letter http://books.google.com/books?id=R8ksAAAAIAAJ&q=%22I+own+any+form+of+humor+shows+fear+and+inferiority+Irony+is+simply+a+kind+of+guardedness+So+is+a+twinkle+It+keeps+the+reader+from+criticism%22+%22Humor+is+the+most+engaging+cowardice%22&pg=PA166#v=onepage to Louis Untermeyer (10 March 1924)
General sources
Context: I own any form of humor shows fear and inferiority. Irony is simply a kind of guardedness. So is a twinkle. It keeps the reader from criticism. Whittier, when he shows any style at all is probably a greater person than Longfellow as he is lifted priestlike above consideration of the scornful. Belief is better than anything else, and it is best when rapt, above paying its respects to anybody's doubt whatsoever. At bottom the world isn't a joke. We only joke about it to avoid an issue with someone to let someone know that we know he's there with his questions: to disarm him by seeming to have heard and done justice to this side of the standing argument. Humor is the most engaging cowardice.
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Robert Frost 265
American poet 1874–1963Related quotes
“If it is true that cowardice is the most grave vice, then the dog, at least, is not guilty of it.”
Book Two in 'Time to Go! Time to Go!', B/O, here Woland is speaking to the Master about Pontius Pilate
Source: The Master and Margarita (1967)
Context: They have read your novel... and they said only one thing, that, unfortunately, it is not finished. So I wanted to show you your hero. He has been sitting here for about two thousand years, sleeping, but, when the moon is full, he is tormented, as you see, by insomnia. And it torments not only him, but his faithful guardian, the dog. If it is true that cowardice is the most grave vice, then the dog, at least, is not guilty of it. The only thing that brave creature ever feared was thunderstorms. But what can be done, the one who loves must share the fate of the one who is loved.
BALIW
Source: The Manila Tribune. April 19, 1928.
Leslie Berger (January 28, 1982) "A Little Night Humor", The Washington Post, C1.
“Humor is the atmosphere in which grace most flourishes.”
Unjust Judgments (1874)
Miscellany
Context: Humor is, however, nearer right than any emotion we have. Humor is the atmosphere in which grace most flourishes.
“I find both humor and grimness in most issues.”
[NewsBank, E1, That science guy is back, in 'Eyes of Nye', Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle, Washington, April 5, 2005, Tom Paulson]
“Of all the secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood the most divine was humor.”
Source: Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
Book Two in 'The Burial', P/V, here Pontius Pilate responds to Yeshua
The Master and Margarita (1967)
“You are the most engaging mistake of my life.”
Original: (it) Sei l'errore più coinvolgente della mia vita.
Source: prevale.net
The trial of Charles B. Reynolds for blasphemy (1887)