Quotes about humor

Purvis looked at him as though seeing something that had no right to be around in a world that had invented penicillin.

Somewhere back at the beginning I was chosen to be Jester, and there is only one Jester at a time in Diaspar. Most people think that is one too many.

He saw the humorous aspect of everything, which is the real test of the tragic sense.

The proverbial German phenomenon of the verb-at-the-end about which droll tales of absentminded professors who would begin a sentence, ramble on for an entire lecture, and then finish up by rattling off a string of verbs by which their audience, for whom the stack had long since lost its coherence, would be totally nonplussed, are told, is an excellent example of linguistic recursion.

After being alive, the next hardest work is having sex. Of course, for some people it isn't work because they need the exercise and they've got the energy for the sex and the sex gives them even more energy. Some people get energy from sex and some people lose energy from sex. I have found that it's too much work. But if you have the time for it, and if you need that exercise—then you should do it. But you could really save yourself a lot of trouble either way by first figuring out whether you're an energy-getter or an energy-loser. As I said, I'm an energy-loser. But I can understand it when I see people running around trying to get some.

Jury — A group of twelve men who, having lied to the judge about their hearing, health and business engagements, have failed to fool him.

Lawyer — One who protects us against robbers by taking away the temptation.

Human life is basically a comedy. Even its tragedies often seem comic to the spectator, and not infrequently they actually have comic touches to the victim. Happiness probably consists largely in the capacity to detect and relish them. A man who can laugh, if only at himself, is never really miserable.

In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for. As for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican.

Judge — A law student who marks his own examination-papers.

Readers, friends, if you turn these pages

Put your prejudice aside,

For, really, there's nothing here that's outrageous,

Nothing sick, or bad — or contagious.

Not that I sit here glowing with pride

For my book: all you'll find is laughter:

That's all the glory my heart is after,

Seeing how sorrow eats you, defeats you.

I'd rather write about laughing than crying,

For laughter makes men human, and courageous.

The Australian language is easier to learn than boat talk. It has a vocabulary of about six words.