quotes and quotations on laughter and humor

laughter

The perception of the Comic is a tie of sympathy
with other people, a pledge of sanity. We must
learn by laughter as well as by tears and terror.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

When we begin to take our failures non-seriously, it means we are ceasing
to be afraid of them. It is of immense importance to learn to laugh at ourselves.

Katherine Mansfield

It is time to come to your senses. You are to live and to learn to laugh. You are to learn to listen to the cursed radio music of life and to reverence the spirit behind it and to laugh at its distortions. So there you are. More will not be asked of you. Herman Hesse Total absence of humor renders life impossible. Colette

A sense of humor judges one's actions and the actions of others from a wider reference. . . it pardons shortcomings; it consoles failure. It recommends moderation. Thornton Wilder

Humor is the healthy way of feeling "distance" between one's self and the problem, a way of standing off and looking at one's problem with perspective. Rollo May

How do you find what's going to make everybody have this strange reaction in their bodies, this response that's sort of chemical and physical at once--this noise and emotion that changes how you sit? A laugh is a weird sound. . . . But when I can feel proud of myself for causing it, it's really great. Billy Crystal

A sense of humor can help you overlook the unattractive,
tolerate the unpleasant, cope with the unexpected,
and smile through the unbearable.

Moshe Waldoks

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A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon
without springs, jolted by every pebble in the road.

Henry Ward Beecher

Humor is my sword and my shield. It protects me. You can open a door
with humor and drive a truck right through.

Alan Simpson

Humor is an affirmation of dignity, a declaration of one's superiority
to all that befalls one.

Roman Gary

If I had no sense of humor, I should
long ago have committed suicide.

Mohandas Gandhi

laughter

Seriousness is equated with responsibility, when, in fact, I think we would
be much more responsible if we had more joy and laughter in our lives.

Deepak Chopra

The giggles in life usually come from little things. If we train ourselves
to look for them, see them, and then giggle with them or even at them,
we get a “perk.” Seeing these potential breaks from routine sometimes
requires that we adjust the lenses through which we see life. That
adjustment can be as simple as heightening our awareness of the quirky
and unusual around us. Giggle potential is everywhere; we just need
to slow down long enough to see it.

Marilyn Meberg

People who laugh actually live longer than those who don't laugh. Few persons
realize that health actually varies according to the amount of laughter.

James D. Walsh

Joyfulness keeps the heart and face young. A good laugh makes us
better friends with ourselves and everybody around us.

Orison Swett Marden

The child in you, like all children, loves to laugh, to be around
people who can laugh at themselves and life. Children instinctively
know that the more laughter we have in our lives, the better.

Wayne Dyer

I get many poems and letters containing healthy humor that
grows out of the author's affliction. These wise people are
seeing life in its fullest and not making the affliction the central
point of their existence. Laughter can always remove fear and
anxiety, no matter what the situation. You can't suffer when
you are laughing. The two just can't be experienced together.
It has to be one or the other, and joy always overcomes fear.
Love creates, but laughter is the cement that
holds our lives together.

Bernie Siegel

Wholehearted, ready laughter heals, encourages, relaxes anyone
within hearing distance. The laughter that springs from love makes
wide the space around it--gives room for the loved one to enter in.
Real laughter welcomes, and never shuts out.

Eugenia Price

If you're not allowed to laugh in Heaven, I don't want to go there.

Martin Luther

What frightens me possibly more than anything else in our culture is our lack
of humor. We take everything so damn seriously. We've forgotten how to laugh.
Think back, those of you who are my age and beyond, how much laughter there
used to be at home. I don't hear much laughter anymore. . . . We've forgotten
how to be joyous, and worse than that, we've forgotten and don't accept our
own madness. Let's face it: each of us is just a little cuckoo. Oh, the joy
of getting in touch with that cuckooness again!

Leo Buscaglia

Like all young men I set out to be a genius, but mercifully laughter intervened.

Laurence Durrell

Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly
cleanse and cool the earth, the air, and you.

Langston Hughes

All you need in the world is love and laughter. That's all anyone
needs. To have love in one hand and laughter in the other.

August Wilson

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And with my laughter all things will be reduced to their proper size.
I will laugh at my failures and they will vanish in clouds of new dreams;
I will laugh at my successes and they will shrink to their true value. I
will laugh at evil and it will die untasted; I will laugh at goodness and it
will thrive and abound. Each day will be triumphant only when my smiles
bring forth smiles from others and this I do in selfishness, for those on
whom I frown are those who purchase not my goods.

Og Mandino
The World's Greatest Salesman

laughter

If you could choose one characteristic that would get you through
life, choose a sense of humor. Any kind of humor--puns, dumb stuff,
gallows humor. A sense of the absurdity of life, even at your
darkest moments. . . . Let people find humor where they can and
join them. There will always be enough things in life to be
serious about.

Jennifer James
Success Is the Quality of Your Journey

How tremendously valuable is the power of joy and laughter to enliven our
soul as we go forward to meet our goals. Laughter can lift us over the high
ridges and lighten up the dark valleys in a way that makes life much easier.
A happy heart generates a forcefield of love and joy in which doubt, fear,
disaster, and dismay have no power to interrupt the universal flow of good.
And in some instances, laughter has been considered to be a high form of
prayer! Truly, when you are in the consciousness of the joy of spirit,
you are praying from the very heart of your being.

John Marks Templeton
Worldwide Laws of Life

Laughter is a tranquilizer with no side effects.

Arnold H. Glasow

Psychologists use the term cognitive reconstruction to describe our ability
to look at a situation from different perspectives. In difficult times and in
tough situations it can be beneficial for us to look at things from a new angle,
including seeing the humorous element—the lighter and brighter side—of our
troubles. Of course, there are times when solemnity and gravity are the
appropriate response, but more often than not we take ourselves—and
life—too seriously, and we miss out on the comical and the playful. Regaining
that spark of laughter and fun that we may have lost after childhood will make
life more pleasant, contribute to our psychological and physical health, and will,
of course, make us more pleasant to be around.

Tal Ben-Shahar
Choose the Life You Want

A keen sense of humor helps us to overlook the unbecoming, understand
the unconventional, tolerate the unpleasant, overcome the
unexpected, and outlast the unbearable.

Billy Graham

If you wish to get inside a human soul and get to know a person. . . just watch
that person laugh. If he or she laughs well, that person is a good person.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Laughter can be more satisfying than honor; more precious
than money; more heart cleansing than prayer.

Harriet Rochlin

From the spiritual side:

A good laugh is as good as a prayer sometimes.

Lucy Maud Montgomery

Don't take yourself too seriously. It just makes life all the harder.
It'll all come out in the wash anyway, because God's glory eventually
will eclipse everything that goes wrong on this earth. Lighten up
and learn to laugh at yourself. None of us is infallible. We make
mistakes in life, and more often than not they're funny.
Sometimes, being your own source of comedy is the most fun of all.

Luci Swindoll

Laughter is the language of the young at heart and the antidote to what ails us.
No drugstore prescription is required; laughter is available to anyone at any time.
Laughter's benefits are felt immediately. With large doses, the benefits show
on our face, on our body language, and in the spring in our step. God gave us
this capacity to be tickled way deep down inside. Giggles are as contagious
as a viral disease. And you know what? You don't have to be happy to laugh.
You become happy because you laugh.

Barbara Johnson

If I want to feel younger and look younger, then it's only
natural that part of my daily routine is to laugh more. Laughing
gives the muscles of my face, chest, and abdomen a workout.
A hearty laugh stimulates my heart rate, causes me to breathe
deeply, and releases happiness hormones, my endorphins.
Laughter is one of the ways I express my gratitude to God.
As I laugh, I release the gladness of my soul into the environment--
creating something that's good for me and good for all those around me.

unattributed