Quotes about laugh
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“Will gave a short laugh. He was in gear as if he had just come from the practice room, and his hair curled damply against his temples. He was not looking at Tessa, but she had grown used to that. Will hardly ever looked at her unless he had to.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

“You're crazy, you know that?"
"Yes. But I'm a demon in the sack."
I laughed. "Okay then. That fixes everything."
"That's right, it does.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Breaks

“My Lord told me a joke. And seeing Him laugh has done more for me than any scripture I will ever read.”

Meister Eckhart (1260–1328) German theologian

Source: Selected Writings

Reading

“Save your rejections so that later when you are famous you can show them to people and laugh.”

Meg Cabot (1967) Novelist

People

“We must laugh and cry, enjoy and suffer, in a word, vibrate to our full capacity … I think that’s what being really human means.”

Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) French writer (1821–1880)

Thinking, Suffering, Cry

“If you cannot recognize the problem, there is no way that I could explain it to you."
He laughed, damn the man. "My goodness," he said, "that was an expert sidestep.”

Julia Quinn (1970) American novelist

Source: An Offer From a Gentleman

Way, Problem

“High school wasn't a trial by fire or some ordeal that had to be survived. It was all a big joke. You just had to provide the laugh track.”

Scott Westerfeld (1963) American science fiction writer

Source: Midnighters Manga #1

School

“If you can't make it better, you can laugh at it.”

Erma Bombeck (1927–1996) When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent le…

As quoted in TIME (1984), also in Meditations for Parents Who Do Too Much (1993) by Jonathon Lazear and Wendy Lazear, p. 22

“We must accept our pain
Change what we can
and laugh at the rest”

Camille Paglia (1947) American writer

Pain, Change

“You have to laugh at yourself sometimes, cause you'd cry your eyes out if you didn't.”

Emily Saliers (1963) singer-songwriter, restaurateur

Cry

“She laughed, and the desert sang.”

Jerry Spinelli book Stargirl

Source: Stargirl

“In the creation of comedy, it is paradoxical that tragedy stimulates the spirit of ridicule; because ridicule, I suppose is an attitude of defiance: we must laugh in the face of our helplessness against the forces of nature - or go insane”

Charlie Chaplin book My Autobiography

Source: My Autobiography

Nature

“… the face has limited space. My mother used to say, if you fill your face with laughing, there will be no more room for crying.”

Rohinton Mistry A Fine Balance

Variant: The human face has limited space. If you fill it with laughter there will be no room for crying.
Source: A Fine Balance

Cry

“The crazy ones only laugh when there is no reason to laugh.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

“The thing about creativity is, people are going to laugh at it. Get over it.”

Twyla Tharp (1941) American choreographer

People

“Of course, they're not clowning aroundto make me laugh. They're doing their best to live verylives, and they just happen to fall down sometimes. I think that's cool.”

Haruki Murakami book The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Source: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Thinking

“Darling" she said with a small laugh "Love doesn’t have anything to do with this."

"It has very thing to do with it!" I exclaimed.”

Richelle Mead book Silver Shadows

Source: Silver Shadows

Love

“Young men often laugh at the sensible girls whom they secretly respect, and affect to admire the silly ones whom they secretly despise, because earnestness, intelligence, and womanly dignity are not the fashion.”

Louisa May Alcott book An Old-Fashioned Girl

Source: An Old-Fashioned Girl

Men, Girl, Intelligence, Fashion

“Death isn't funny. Then why are there so many jokes about death? Jill, with us — us humans — death is so sad that we must laugh at it.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Stranger in a Strange Land

Source: Stranger in a Strange Land

Death, Sadness

“You know what my philosophy of life is? That it’s important to have some laughs, but you got to suffer a little too, because otherwise you miss the whole point to life.”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

Life, Suffering

“I wish everyone would stop crying, Tom. Uncle Joe would be so angry about it." But she's crying herself now. "He'd be so angry at us, Tom, for crying so much when all he did was laugh.”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: The Piper's Son

Cry

“Laughing and Love. They are both drugs.”

James Frey (1969) American screenwriter and media presenter

Love

“The earth laughs in flowers.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Flowers

“Stars aren’t supposed to cry. They’re supposed to laugh. (Zarek)
How can I laugh when I have no heart? (Astrid)
You have a heart. (He placed her hand over his.) One that only beats for you, princess. (Zarek)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon book Dance with the Devil

Source: Dance with the Devil

Star, Heart, Princess, Cry

“They signed the unwind order just to spite each other, but laugh, laugh, laugh, Hayden, because if you ever stop laughing, it might just tear you apart worse than a Chop Shop.”

Neal Shusterman (1962) American novelist

Source: UnWholly

Tear

“A good laugh heals a lot of hurts.”

Madeleine L'Engle A Ring of Endless Light

Source: A Ring of Endless Light

Hurt

“One more thing."
"What."
"I think we're dating now." As V barked out a laugh, the cop shrugged. "Come on…. I got you naked. You wore a damn corset. And don't get me started about the sponge bath afterward."
"Fucker."
"To the end.”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover Unleashed

Thinking

“What is existence for but to be laughed at if men in their twenties have already attained the utmost?”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Source: Either/Or: A Fragment of Life

Men

“Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the world's original sin. If cavemen had known how to laugh, history would have been different.”

Chuck Klosterman (1972) Author, Columnist

World, History

“The baby, a girl, is born at 6:24 a. m.
She weighs six pounds, ten ounces.
The mother takes the baby in her arms and asks her, "Who are you, my little one?"
And in response, this baby, who is Liz and not Liz at the same time, laughs.”

Gabrielle Zevin book Elsewhere

Source: Elsewhere

Girl, Time, Baby

“I laughed and said, Life is easy. What I meant was, Life is easy with you here, and when you leave, it will be hard again.”

Miranda July (1974) American performance artist, musician and writer

Source: No One Belongs Here More Than You

Life

“Throwing down your staff may sound like a sign of surrender, but in Egyptian magic, it's bad news. It usually means, 'Hey, I'm going to summon a big nasty thing to kill you while I stand safely inside my circle and laugh'.”

Rick Riordan book The Throne of Fire

Source: The Throne of Fire

“We can only feel sorry for ourselves when our misfortunes are still supportable. Once this limit is crossed, the only way to bear the unbearable is to laugh at it.”

Marjane Satrapi (1969) Artist

Source: The Complete Persepolis

Way, Feeling, Support

“He's trying not to laugh. I tell him I would have doomed mankind for him, and he's trying not to laugh.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Shadowfever

“Listen up. You're in trouble. Word is the Capitol's furious about you showing them up in the arena. The one thing they can't stand is being laughed at and they're the joke of Panem”

Suzanne Collins (1962) American television writer and novelist

“For in the end, he was trying to tell us what afflicted the people in 'Brave New World' was not that they were laughing instead of thinking, but that they did not know what they were laughing about and why they had stopped thinking.”

Neil Postman (1931–2003) American writer and academic

Source: Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business

People, World, Thinking, Affliction

“You've been avoiding me," he said, talking to the sandwich.

I laughed. He looked over at me. "Sorry. I just realized that you talk to a lot of inanimate objects.”

Rachel Hawthorne (1950) American author

Source: Snowed In

“Life is a play that does not allow testing. So, sing, cry, dance, laugh and live intensely, before the curtain closes and the piece ends with no applause.”

Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977) British comic actor and filmmaker

Source: Charlie Chaplin: Interviews

Life, Singing, Dance, Cry

“Pippa's laugh is bitter, tinged with tears. 'Ha! Why do girls think being beautiful will solve every problem? Being beautiful just creates problems. It's a misery. I wish I were someone else.”

Libba Bray A Great and Terrible Beauty

Source: A Great and Terrible Beauty

Beauty, Girl, Problem, Thinking

“I have seen what a laugh can do. It can transform almost unbearable tears into something bearable, even hopeful.”

Bob Hope (1903–2003) American comedian, actor, singer and dancer

Hope, Tear

“The stairs aren't challenging enough anymore?" he asked.

Antonio laughed. "Challenge has nothing to do with it, Jer. I'd say it's the big bad wolf huffing and puffing at her door up there.”

Kelley Armstrong book Bitten

Source: Bitten

Wolf

“We don’t laugh because we’re happy, we’re happy because we laugh.”

William James (1842–1910) American philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist

Variant: I don't sing because I'm happy. I'm happy because I sing.

Happiness

“Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone.
For this brave old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.”

Ella Wheeler Wilcox book Poems of Passion

Solitude
Poetry quotes
Source: Poems of Passion
Context: Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone.
For this brave old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
Sing, and the hills will answer;
Sigh, it is lost on the air.
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink from voicing care.

World

“Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Act V
1910s, The Doctor's Dilemma (1911)
Source: The Doctor's Dilemma: A Tragedy

Life, People

“A good story should make you laugh, and a moment later break your heart.”

Chuck Palahniuk (1962) American novelist, essayist

Source: Stranger than Fiction

Heart

“If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

God

“These days, most of the people you hear laughing are dead.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Lullaby

Source: Lullaby

People, Dead

“Enjoy the present, bid defiance to the future, laugh at all those reasonable beings who exercise their reason to avoid the misfortunes which they fear, destroying at the same time the pleasure that they might enjoy.”

Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798) Italian adventurer and author from the Republic of Venice

Pleasure, Fear, Exercises, Time

“I laid it all out for him: Eliza believes in me, she moves me, and she's moved BY me. She makes me happy, she makes me sad, she makes me try harder, she makes me laugh, and she makes me feel like I can fly. Isn't that the goddamn definition of Love?”

Tiffanie DeBartolo (1970) American writer

Source: How to Kill a Rock Star

Love, Happiness, Sadness, Feeling

“But fate, as Merlin always taught us, is inexorable. Life is a jest of the Gods, Merlin liked to claim, and there is no justice. You must learn to laugh, he once told me, or else you'll just weep yourself to death.”

Bernard Cornwell book The Winter King

Source: The Winter King

Life, Death, God, Fate

“No," he said, voice thick and husky. His fingers dug into the chair's arms. "You'd better not get too close."
I stopped, laughing softly. "You don't strike me as the assaulting type, Mortensen."
"Yeah, well, there's a first time for everything.”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

Source: Succubus on Top

Time

“And I could always set Coach Hedge on fire,” Leo volunteered. “Then he can be fire.” The thought of a blazing satyr screaming, “Die, scumbag!” as he attacked Gaea was almost enough to make Piper laugh— almost.”

Rick Riordan book The House of Hades

Source: The House of Hades

“It is understandable that the perspectives of men and women on safety are so different--men and women live in different worlds… at core, men are afraid women will laugh at them, while at core, women are afraid men will kill them.”

Gavin de Becker (1954) American engineer

Source: The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence

Women, Men, World, Understanding

“I'm gonna be a new kind of clown. I'm gonna stand in the middle of the ring and laugh at the folks.”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Pt. 2, ch. 22
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Context: "I think I'll be a clown when I get grown," said Dill. "Yes, sir, a clown.... There ain't one thing in this world I can do about folks except laugh, so I'm gonna join the circus and laugh my head off."
"You got it backwards, Dill," said Jem. "Clowns are sad, it's folks that laugh at them."
"Well, I'm gonna be a new kind of clown. I'm gonna stand in the middle of the ring and laugh at the folks."

“my 6 foot goddess
makes me laugh
the laughter of the mutilated
who still need
love…

she has saved me
from everything that is
not here”

Charles Bukowski book Love Is a Dog from Hell

Source: Love Is a Dog from Hell

Love, Laughter

“It's as if I'm Finnick, watching images of my life flash by. The mast of a boat, a silver parachute, Mags laughing, a pink sky, Beetee's trident, Annie in her wedding dress, waves breaking over rocks. Then its over.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

Life, Wedding

“The mirror is my best friend because when I cry it never laughs.”

Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977) British comic actor and filmmaker

Cry

“I find the humor in life, and laugh easily”

Doreen Virtue (1958) American writer

Life

“Why is everyone calling me Consort?"
"Jim designated you as Consort in official papers. You don't want to be called Mate, calling you Alpha is confusing, and 'Beast Lady' makes people laugh.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Slays

People

“It’s that I think Will is angry with me,” Tessa explained. “So whatever he told you—”
He laughed. “Will is angry with everyone,” he said. “I don’t let it color my judgment.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

Color, Thinking

“stand tall, smile bright, and let them wonder what secrets making you laugh!”

Dan Brown book Angels & Demons

Source: Angels & Demons

Secret, Smile

“I’ll stare the bastard in the face as he screams to God, and I’ll laugh harder when he whimpers like a baby. And when his eyes go dead, the hell I send him to will seem like heaven after what I’ve done to him.”

Frank Miller book The Hard Goodbye

Source: The Hard Goodbye

God, Hell, Baby, Dead

“Laughing is just another way of showing people your wise”

E.E. Cummings (1894–1962) American poet

Source: AnOther E.E. Cummings

People, Way

“Man makes plans… and God laughs.”

Michael Chabon (1963) Novelist, short story writer, essayist

God

“Once you start laughing, you start healing.”

Sherry Argov (1977) American writer

Source: Why Men Love Bitches: From Doormat to Dreamgirl—A Woman's Guide to Holding Her Own in a Relationship

“He's the sort of guy that gets a laugh out of people.”

Ken Kesey book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

People, Guy

“His laugh is made if porch swings and lemonade”

Augusten Burroughs book Dry

Source: Dry

“A moment passed, perhaps half a second when their faces said what they felt, and then Emma was smiling, laughing, her arms around his neck.”

David Nicholls book One Day

Source: One Day

Smile

“Laughing at the universe liberated my life. I escape its weight by laughing. I refuse any intellectual translations of this laughter, since my slavery would commrnce from that point on.”

Georges Bataille (1897–1962) French intellectual and literary figure

Source: Guilty

Life, Laughter, Universe

“I am moved by fancies that are curled
Around these images, and cling:
The notion of some infinitely gentle
Infinitely suffering thing.

Wipe your hand across your mouth, and laugh;
The worlds revolve like ancient women
Gathering fuel in vacant lots.”

T.S. Eliot book The Waste Land

Source: The Waste Land and Other Poems

Women, World, Suffering

“When you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.”

William Saroyan (1908–1981) American writer

Preface
The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze (1934)
Context: The most solid advice for a writer is this, I think: Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.

Hell, Dead

“He'd laugh in my face, then I'd slice him to ribbons and then he'd break my neck”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Bleeds

“You have splendid breasts, lass," he purred, cupping the plump mounds. "Splendid," he repeated stupidly, and she almost laughed. Men loved breasts any shape or form, they just loved them.

-Drustan to Gwen”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Kiss of the Highlander

Love, Men

“‎There's no way to cheat a sensualist like me, somebody who can die laughing for hours over the pattern of the carpet in a hotel lobby.”

Anne Rice book Memnoch the Devil

Source: Memnoch the Devil

Way, Cheating

“It isn't the big troubles in life that require character. Anybody can rise to a crisis and face a crushing tragedy with courage, but to meet the petty hazards of the day with a laugh—I really think that requires”

Jean Webster book Daddy-Long-Legs

Source: Daddy-Long-Legs

Life, Courage, Thinking

“So," Annabeth said, "are you going to argue about me coming along?"
"Nah. You'd just beat me up." Percy said.
She managed a laugh, which was good to hear”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

“Jace Herondale plays the piano very well.”
“And he knows it.”
“That sounds like a Herondale.” Tessa laughed.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Source: City of Heavenly Fire

“I know that when he has sex he laughs like the world is a perfect place. And when he did that, my hands curled into fists because I thought about touching his face like maybe I could catch joy in my hands and hold it.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Iced

World, Sex, Joy, Perfection

“The highlight of my childhood was making my brother laugh so hard that food came out his nose.”

Garrison Keillor (1942) American radio host and writer

Food, Childhood, Family

“Ah, life is a gate, a way, a path to Paradise anyway, why not live for fun and joy and love or some sort of girl by a fireside, why not go to your desire and LAUGH…”

Jack Kerouac book Big Sur

Big Sur (1962)

Love, Life, Way, Girl

“We'de have to get in and get out the hard way; and if we made a mistake, there was no telling what sort of curse we'de unleash: monster guardians, plagues, fires, exploding donkeys(don't laugh; they're bad news).”

Rick Riordan book The Throne of Fire

Source: The Throne of Fire

Way

“They laughed much harder than the memory was funny because it felt good to laugh.”

Shannon Hale Enna Burning

Source: Enna Burning

Memory

“Smiling with pleasure, they went through their memories, not sad, old people's memories, but poetic, youthful ones, those impressions from the very distant past where dream merges with reality, and they laughed softly, rejoicing at something.”

Leo Tolstoy book War and Peace

Source: War and Peace

People, Pleasure, Youth, Sadness

“You can't stay mad at someone who makes you laugh.”

Jay Leno (1950) American comedian, actor, writer, producer, voice actor and television host

Madness

“If you want to make God laugh, tell her your plans.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Source: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

God

“You think I led him on? For what? Kicks? I don't have enough exictement in my life, so maybe I'll tease a nice guy, get his hopes up, then laugh and skip away?”

Kelley Armstrong The Reckoning

Source: The Reckoning

Life, Hope, Guy, Thinking

“I find it rude to laugh at a man with a sword.”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: Mortal Coil

“We've got to laugh or break our hearts in this damnable world.”

Dorothy L. Sayers book Busman's Honeymoon

Source: Busman's Honeymoon

World, Heart

“They could laugh at him but they couldn't ignore him”

Ralph Ellison book Invisible Man

Source: Invisible Man

“Sometimes the Universe smiled. Mostly she kicked me in the face, stomped on my ribs once I fell down, and laughed at my pain, but once in a while she smiled.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Breaks

Pain, Smile, Universe

“You love me?"
He just looked at me for a moment. And then he reared back his head and laughed, a rich, mellow sound, unreserved and unashamed. " No, not at all. I regularly battle gods for women I dislike!”

Karen Chance American writer

Source: Hunt the Moon

Love, Women, God

“You ever laughed so hard
nobody in the world could hurt you for a minute,
no matter what they tried to do to you?”

Virginia Euwer Wolff book Make Lemonade

Source: Make Lemonade

World, Hurt

“Everyone is a comedy. If people are laughing at you, they just don't quite understand the joke that is themselves.”

Matt Haig (1975) British writer

Source: The Humans

People, Understanding

“When you slip on a banana peel, people laugh at you. But when you tell people you slipped on a banana peel, it's your laugh.”

Nora Ephron (1941–2012) Film director, author screenwriter

People

“You fell in love with someone because of the tilt of his smile, or because he could make you laugh, or in this case, because he made you believe that you were the only one who could save him.”

Jodi Picoult book Picture Perfect

Source: Picture Perfect

Love, Smile

“Most of the laugh tracks on television were recorded in the early 1950’s. These days, most of the people you hear laughing are dead.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Lullaby

Source: Lullaby (2002), Chapter 3
Context: The muffled thunder of dialogue comes through the walls, then a chorus of laughter. Then more thunder. Most of the laugh tracks on television were recorded in the early 1950s. These days, most of the people you hear laughing are dead.

People, Dead

“And then Mircea finally let me down, only to get his hands inside the coat and push me against the wall.
“I’m dirty,” I protested.
He waggled his eyebrows. “Promise?”
“Mircea!” I laughed in spite of myself…”

Karen Chance American writer

Source: Hunt the Moon

“How old are you Johnny" she asked.
Sixteen."
And what's that-a boy or a man?"
He laughed. "A boy in time of peace and a man in time of war.”

Esther Forbes book Johnny Tremain

Source: Johnny Tremain

War, Peace, Boy, Time