“I know why we laugh. We laugh because it hurts, and it's the only thing to make it stop hurting.”

— Robert A. Heinlein, book Stranger in a Strange Land

Variant: I've found out why people laugh. They laugh because it hurts so much... because it's the only thing that'll make it stop hurting.
Source: Stranger in a Strange Land

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Robert A. Heinlein557

American science fiction author 1907–1988

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“He knows that you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy.”

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Variant: Because he knows you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy.
Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962), Ch. 25
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