Laughter Quotes

“My body needs laughter as much as it needs tears. Both are cleansers of stress.

”
― Mahogany SilverRain, Ebony Encounters: A Trilogy of Erotic Tales

“Laughter is good for you. Nine out of ten stand-up comedians recommend laughter in the face of intense stupidity.”
― Jim Butcher, Proven Guilty

“The first time her laughter unfurled its wings in the wind, we knew that the world would never be the same”-”
― Brian Andreas

“I have done this—made the sad prince laugh. Made his grieving parents smile. None but me. Think you only kings have power? Stand on a stage and hold the hearts of men in your hands. Make them laugh with a gesture, cry with a word. Make them love you. And you will know what power is.”
― Jennifer Donnelly, Revolution

“Moderate strength is shown in violence, supreme strength is shown in levity.”
― G.K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare

“Some sleepers have intelligent faces even in sleep, while other faces, even intelligent ones, become very stupid in sleep and therefore ridiculous. I don't know what makes that happen; I only want to say that a laughing man, like a sleeping one, most often knows nothing about his face. A great many people don't know how to laugh at all. However, there's nothing to know here: it's a gift, and it can't be fabricated. It can only be fabricated by re-educating oneself, developing oneself for the better, and overcoming the bad instincts of one's character; then the laughter of such a person might quite possibly change for the better. A man can give himself away completely by his laughter, so that you suddenly learn all of his innermost secrets. Even indisputably intelligent laughter is sometimes repulsive. Laughter calls first of all for sincerity, and where does one find sincerity? Laughter calls for lack of spite, but people most often laugh spitefully. Sincere and unspiteful laughter is mirth. A man's mirth is a feature that gives away the whole man, from head to foot. Someone's character won't be cracked for a long time, then the man bursts out laughing somehow quite sincerely, and his whole character suddenly opens up as if on the flat of your hand. Only a man of the loftiest and happiest development knows how to be mirthful infectiously, that is, irresistibly and goodheartedly. I'm not speaking of his mental development, but of his character, of the whole man. And so, if you want to discern a man and know his soul, you must look, not at how he keeps silent, or how he speaks, or how he weeps, or even how he is stirred by the noblest ideas, but you had better look at him when he laughs. If a man has a good laugh, it means he's a good man. Note at the same time all the nuances: for instance, a man's laughter must in no case seem stupid to you, however merry and simplehearted it may be. The moment you notice the slightest trace of stupidity in someone's laughter, it undoubtedly means that the man is of limited intelligence, though he may do nothing but pour out ideas. Or if his laughter isn't stupid, but the man himself, when he laughs, for some reason suddenly seems ridiculous to you, even just slightly—know, then, that the man has no real sense of dignity, not fully in any case. Or finally, if his laughter is infectious, but for some reason still seems banal to you, know, then, that the man's nature is on the banal side as well, and all the noble and lofty that you noticed in him before is either deliberately affected or unconsciously borrowed, and later on the man is certain to change for the worse, to take up what's 'useful' and throw his noble ideas away without regret, as the errors and infatuations of youth.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Adolescent

“Lucas heard a strange sound, something he hadn’t heard in months. At first it didn’t seem real, it was something distant from the past. It was the first time in nearly a year he had heard himself laugh, and it momentarily stunned him”
― Mark A. Cooper, The Edelweiss Express

“You don't stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing.”
― Michael Pritchard

“Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are, and what they ought to be.”
― William Hazlitt

“I guess it can’t be too often that two people can laugh and make love, too, make love because they are laughing, laugh because they’re making love. The love and the laughter come from the same place: but not many people go there”
― James Baldwin, If Beale Street Could Talk

“He bursts out laughing. It's short, as if he regretted allowing me to make him laugh, but the satisfaction's already mine.”
― Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca

“You gotta laugh because if you didn't you'd cry”
― Craig Ferguson

“When it comes to death, we know that laughter and tears are pretty much the same thing.”
― Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

“The Skeleton

Chattering finch and water-fly
Are not merrier than I;
Here among the flowers I lie
Laughing everlastingly.
No: I may not tell the best;
Surely, friends, I might have guessed
Death was but the good King's jest,
It was hid so carefully.”
― G.K. Chesterton

“There is no greater power than that of a laugh and happiness is a force which can save a person from the horrors of the world.”
― Hillary DePiano, The Love Of Three Oranges: A Play For The Theatre That Takes The Commedia Dell'arte Of Carlo Gozzi And Updates It For The New Millennium

“Now,young lady,I suppose you're here for a work assignment."
Work?" Tally said.
They both looked down at her puzzled expression, and Shay burst into laughter.”
― Scott Westerfeld, Uglies

“Laugh now, cry later.”
― Erma Bombeck, The Grass Is Always Greener over the Septic Tank

“You shine like the sun and you move like water. Your eyes are the perfect mix of gray and brown, like fog in the woods, and you smell like lilacs in the summer. I think if you laughed, it would sound like music.”
― M. Leighton, For the Love of a Vampire

“A strange thing happened to me in my dream. I was rapt into the Seventh Heaven. There sat all the gods assembled. As a special dispensation I was granted the favor to have one wish. "Do you wish for youth," said Mercury, "or for beauty, or power, or a long life; or do you wish for the most beautiful woman, or any other of the many fine things we have in our treasure trove? Choose, but only one thing!" For a moment I was at a loss. Then I addressed the gods in this wise: "Most honorable contemporaries, I choose one thing — that I may always have the laughs on my side." Not one god made answer, but all began to laugh. From this I concluded that my wish had been granted and thought that the gods knew how to express themselves with good taste: for it would surely have been inappropriate to answer gravely: your wish has been granted.”
― Soren Kierkegaard

“If there is no laughter, Jesus has gone somewhere else. If there is no joy and freedom, it is not a church: it is simply a crowd of melancholy people basking in a religious neurosis. If there is no celebration, there is no real worship.”
― Steve Brown, Approaching God: Accepting the Invitation to Stand in the Presence of God

“...and when he thought about the way she laughed, as though she owned the air around her, his heart thundered inside his chest, a lonely rada.”
― Junot Díaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

“The only honest art form is laughter, comedy. You can't fake it...try to fake three laughs in an hour -- ha ha ha ha ha -- they'll take you away, man. You can't.”
― Lenny Bruce

“Halt eyed them balefully. They were all being so obvious about not mentioning his sudden reappearance that it was even worse than if they had commented on it...

'Oh, go on!' he said. 'Somebody say something! I know what you're thinking!'

'It's good to see you up and about, Halt,' Selethen said gravely...

Halt glared at the others and they quickly chorused their pleasure at seeing him back to his normal self. But he could see the grins they didn't quite manage to hide. He fixed a glare on Alyss.

'I'm surprised at you Alyss,' he said. 'I expected no better of Will and Evanlyn, of course. Heartless beasts, the pair of them. But you! I thought you had been better trained!'...

'Halt, I'm sorry! It's not funny, you're right... Shut up, Will.' This last was directed at Will as he tried, unsuccessfully, to smother a snigger.”
― John Flanagan, The Emperor of Nihon-Ja

“Kell managed an echo of her smile, and [Lila] gasped. "What's that on your face?"

The smile vanished. "What?"

"Never mind," she said, laughing. "It's gone.”
― Victoria Schwab, A Darker Shade of Magic

“In life, you can choose to cry about the bullshit that happens to you or you can choose to laugh about it.
I choose laughter.”
― Kevin Hart, I Can't Make This Up: Life Lessons

“Just thinking of your laughter gives me courage. . . ”
― Rosamund Lupton

“and our few good times will be rare because we have the critical sense
and are not easy to fool with laughter”
― Charles Bukowski

“And the little prince broke into a lovely peal of laughter, which irritated me very much. I like my misfortunes to be taken seriously.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

“There is thin line between smile and laughter.”
― Santosh Kalwar

“Boundaries are, in simple terms, the recognition of personal space.”
― Asa Don Brown, The Effects of Childhood Trauma on Adult Perception and Worldview