Wit enables us to act rudely with impunity.

I used to think that everyone was just being funny. But now I don’t know. I mean, how can you tell?

There is nothing sillier than a silly laugh.

A joke is at most a temporary rebellion against virtue, and its aim is not to degrade the human being but to remind him that he is already degraded.

A difference of taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections.

Comedy, like sodomy, is an unnatural act.

He who laugheth too much, hath the nature of a fool; he that laugheth not at all, hath the nature of an old cat.

Jests and scoffs do lessen majesty and greatness and should be far from great personages and men of wisdom.

A jest breaks no bones.

I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?”

No man ever distinguished himself who could not bear to be laughed at.

Jesters do oft prove prophets.

Laughter almost ever cometh of things most disproportioned to ourselves and nature. Laughter hath only a scornful tickling.