Laughter almost ever cometh of things most disproportioned to ourselves and nature. Laughter hath only a scornful tickling.
—Philip Sidney, 1582
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Quotes
A jest breaks no bones.
—Samuel Johnson, 1781The only justification of rebellion is success.
—Thomas B. Reed, 1878I mean, why on earth (outside sickness and hangovers) aren’t people continually drunk? I want ecstasy of the mind all the time.
—Jack Kerouac, 1957He that will cheat you at play, will cheat you any way.
—Thomas Fuller, 1732The worship of opinion is, at this day, the established religion of the United States.
—Harriet Martineau, 1839Jokes are grievances.
—Marshall McLuhan, 1969A merchant may, perhaps, be a man of an enlarged mind, but there is nothing in trade connected with an enlarged mind.
—Samuel Johnson, 1773In psychoanalysis nothing is true except the exaggerations.
—Theodor Adorno, 1951If my books had been any worse I should not have been invited to Hollywood, and if they had been any better I should not have come.
—Raymond Chandler, 1945A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast.
—The BibleThey are trying to make me into a fixed star. I am an irregular planet.
—Martin Luther, c. 1530Reality is always the foe of famous names.
—Petrarch, 1337