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

Comedy, like sodomy, is an unnatural act.

It is easy to distinguish between the joking that reflects good breeding and that which is coarse—the one, if aired at an apposite moment of mental relaxation, is becoming in the most serious of men, whereas the other is unworthy of any free person, if the content is indecent or the expression obscene.

There is nothing sillier than a silly laugh.

Wit enables us to act rudely with impunity.

Jokes are grievances.

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

A jest breaks no bones.

Jesters do oft prove prophets.

Some things are privileged from jest—namely, religion, matters of state, great persons, all men’s present business of importance, and any case that deserves pity.

Laughter always arises from a gaiety of disposition, absolutely incompatible with contempt and indignation.

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

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