Robert Benchley - Bill Hicks - Woody Allen TV - Richard Pryor - Frankie Howerd - Oscar Wilde - They Shall Not Grow Old TV - Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais - Michael Crichton - The Latter-Day Saints’ Messenger 1836 - Scarlett Street 1945 - Blackadder Goes Forth TV - Philip Sidney - Will Durst - Norman Wisdom - Ken Dodd - Bertolt Brecht - Groucho Marx - Mark Twain - Friedrich Nietzsche - Ella Wheeler Wilcox - Proverbs - Thomas Hobbes - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - Lord Byron - Voltaire - Shirley MacLaine - e e cummings - Hugh Sidey - Bob Newhart - Elsa Maxwell - Joseph Addison - Robert Plant - Rafael Sabatini - Francoise Sagan - Peter Ustinov - The Young Ones TV - The Catherine Tate Show TV - Abu'l-Ala-Al-Ma’arri - Proverbs 14:13 - Ecclesiasticus 7:11 - Percy Bysshe Shelley - John Betjeman - Robert Frost - J D Salinger - Fyodor Dostoyevsky - John Steinbeck - Robert A Heinlein - Jack Kerouac - Richard Feynman - Graham Greene - Jane Austen - Charles Dickens – Henry Root - Horizon TV - The Office US TV - In Search of … TV - Bob Monkhouse - Bob Monkhouse: Master of Laughter TV - J R R Tolkien - The Corbett Report -
Some laughter was heard in the back rows. Someone must have been telling jokes back there. Robert Benchley
The best kind of comedy to me is when you make people laugh at things they’ve never laughed at, and also take a light into the darkened corners of people’s minds, exposing them to the light. Bill Hicks
If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans. Woody Allen
I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose. Woody Allen
You know what my philosophy of life is? That it’s important to have some laughs – there’s no question of it – but you gotta suffer a little too. Broadway Danny Rose 1984 starring Woody Allen & Mia Farrow & Nick Apollo Forte & Sandy Baron & Corbett Monica & Jackie Gayle & Morty Gunty & Will Jordan & Howard Storm & Gloria Parker et al, director Woody Allen
The laugh is over, and then it’s a panic. Richard Pryor
‘Ye may titter. Titter ye may.’ Frankie Howerd, cited Comedy Legends s1e2: Frankie Howerd, Sky Arts 2019
If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you. Oscar Wilde, The Nightingale and the Rose
You laughed at the slightest things. They Shall Not Grow Old, soldier, BBC 2018
I hurry to laugh at everything, for fear of having to weep at it. Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, 1732-1799, Le Babier de Seville
It’s better to die laughing than to live each moment in fear. Michael Crichton
... but we would have you forsake all your loud laughter which is always indicative of an empty mind, and as we have before remarked, is calculated to grieve the Holy Spirit and make it withdraw, leaving you to the influence of that spirit which lures but to destroy. The Latter-Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate May vol 2 no 8 p306 May 1836
I’m not crying, you fool, I’m laughing. Scarlett Street 1945 starring Edward G Robinson & Joan Bennett & Dan Duryea & Margaret Lindsay & Jess Barker & Rosalind Ivan & Arthur Loft & Charles Kemper & Russell Hicks & Samuel S Hinds et al, director Fritz Lang, her to him
George: I mean we’ve had some good times. We’ve had some damnably good laughs, eh.
Blackadder: Yes, can’t think of any specific ones. Blackadder Goes Forth: Plan F – Goodbyeee, BBC 1989
Laughter almost ever cometh of things most disproportionate to our selves, and nature. Delight hath a joy in it either permanent or present. Laughter hath only a scornful tickling. Philip Sidney, The Defence of Poetry
Comedy is defiance. It’s a snort of contempt in the face of fear and anxiety. And it’s the laughter that allows hope to creep back on the inhale. Will Durst
Don’t Laugh At Me. Norman Wisdom, sung Royal Variety Performance 1959
‘Why does the human being laugh?’ Ken Dodd, interview Ken Dodd’s Happiness: Arena
Laughter is the greatest music in the world and audiences come to my shows to escape the cares of life. They don’t want to be embarrassed or insulted. They want to laugh and so do I – which is probably why it works. Ken Dodd
He who laughs has not yet heard the bad news. Bertolt Brecht
The only real laughter comes from despair. Groucho Marx, The Groucho Letters
The source of all humour is not laughter, but sorrow. Mark Twain
The human race has only one effective weapon and that is laughter. Mark Twain
Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand. Mark Twain
Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter. Friedrich Nietzsche
Laugh and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone;
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own. Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Solitude
He laughs best who laughs last. Early 17th century proverb
Laughter is nothing else but sudden glory arising from some sudden conception of some eminency in ourselves, by comparison with the infirmity of others, or with our own formerly. Thomas Hobbes, 1588-1679, Human Nature
Nothing shows a man’s character more that what he laughs at. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
And if I laugh at any mortal thing,
’Tis that I may not weep. Lord Byron, Don Juan
Nothing can confound a wise man more than laughter from a dunce. Lord Byron
God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh. Voltaire
The person who knows how to laugh at himself will never cease to be amused. Shirley MacLaine
The most wasted of all days is one without laughter. e e cummings
Carry laughter with you wherever you go. Hugh Sidey
Laughter gives us distance. It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it and then move on. Bob Newhart
Laugh at yourself first, before anyone else can. Elsa Maxwell
Man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter. Joseph Addison, The Spectator September, 1712
Does anyone remember laughter? Robert Plant
He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad. And that was all his patrimony. Rafael Sabatini, Scaramouche, 1921
To jealousy, nothing is more frightful than laughter. Francoise Sagan, La Chamade, 1965
Laughter ... the most civilised music in the world. Peter Ustinov, Dear Me, 1977