“Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool, a comedy for the rich, a tragedy for the poor.”
Sholem Aleichem (1859–1916) Yiddish author and playwright
“Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.”
As quoted in his obituary in The Guardian (28 December 1977)
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Charlie Chaplin75
British comic actor and filmmaker 1889–1977Related quotes
“Life is a comedy to those who think and a tragedy for those who feel.”
Horace Walpole (1717–1797) English art historian, man of letters, antiquarian and Whig politician
Letter to Anne, Countess of Ossory, (16 August 1776)
A favourite saying of Walpole's, it is repeated in other of his letters, and might be derived from a similar statement attributed to Jean de La Bruyère, though unsourced: "Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think". An earlier form occurs in another published letter:
I have often said, and oftener think, that this world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel — a solution of why Democritus laughed and Heraclitus wept.
Letter to Sir Horace Mann (31 December 1769)
Variant: The world is a comedy to those that think; a tragedy to those that feel.
“Life is a tragedy for those who feel and a comedy for those who think.”
Margaret Cho (1968) American stand-up comedian
Source: I Have Chosen to Stay and Fight
“Life is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel.”
Jean Racine (1639–1699) French dramatist
“Life is a tragedy to those who feel and a comedy to those who think.”
Molière (1622–1673) French playwright and actor
“Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think.”
Jean de La Bruyère (1645–1696) 17th-century French writer and philosopher
La vie est une tragédie pour celui qui sent, et une comédie pour celui qui pense.
As quoted in Selected Thoughts from the French: XV Century-XX Century, with English Translations (1913), pp. 132-133, by James Raymond Solly. This may conceivably be a misattribution, because as yet no definite citation of a specific work by La Bruyère has been located, and the statement is very similar to one known to have been made by Horace Walpole in a letter of 31 December 1769: The world is a comedy to those that think; a tragedy to those that feel.
“Comedy is tragedy that happens to other people.”
Angela Carter book Wise Children
Source: Wise Children (1991), ch. 5 (p.213).
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher
Source: The World as Will and Representation, Vol 1