A good joke is the closest thing we have to divine revelation.

It is not funny that anything else should fall down; only that a man should fall down... Why do we laugh? Because it is a grave religious matter: it is the Fall of Man. Only man can be absurd: for only man can be dignified.

I have argued with him on almost every subject in the world, and we have always been on opposite sides, without affectation or animosity... It is necessary to disagree with him as much as I do, in order to admire him as I do; and I am proud of him as a foe even more than as a friend.

It is generally the man who is not ready to argue, who is ready to sneer.

The family is the test of freedom; because the family is the only thing that the free man makes for himself and by himself.

We are all in the same boat, in a stormy sea, and we owe each other a terrible loyalty.

What life and death may be to a turkey is not my business; but the soul of Scrooge and the body of Cratchit are my business.