Popular quotes about Humour! Wisdom and inspiration are here!
The true and lasting genius of humour does not drag you thus to boxes labelled 'pathos,' 'humour,' and show you all the mechanism of the inimitable puppets that are going to perform. How I used to laugh at Simon Tapperwit, and the Wellers, and a host more! But I can't do it now somehow; and time, it seems to me, is the true test of humour. It must be antiseptic.
Mark TwainAgain and again, I learn how much friendship enriches my life, bringing warmth, assurance, humour, inspiration, a sense of security. It depends on honesty, trust, loyalty. It's about giving. It's for sharing the good times, but also the tough times, hurt, grief, sadness.
Quentin BryceAmong all kinds of Writing, there is none in which Authors are more apt to miscarry than in Works of Humour, as there is none in which they are more ambitious to excel.
Joseph AddisonI consider myself something of a raconteur. I have a rather audacious sense of humour.
Sylvester StalloneWhile it is entirely untrue that Canadians lack a sense of humour, the funniest ones tend to head south: Dan Aykroyd, Jim Carrey, Michael J. Fox.
Simon HoggartWhen I look in the mirror, I am slightly reminded of self-portraits by Durer and by Rembrandt, because they both show a degree of introspection. I see some element of disappointment; I see a sense of humour, but also something that is faintly ridiculous; and I see somebody who is frightened of being found out and thought lightweight.
Robert WinstonThe reason I do what I do is that I find that Asian community gives me an endless source of humour. When I entered the filmmaking business, my whole purpose was to promote and make us visible because we were very much on the margins. So, I wanted to make us mainstream. My work has helped to mainstream-ise the Asian community.
Gurinder ChadhaMy career is chequered. Then I think I got pigeon-holed in humour; Shakespeare is not my thing.
Maggie SmithI think that my ideas of the world are that it's random and cruel but kind of quite comical really, and therefore the humour, in a sense, springs from that.
Alexei SayleA man must have something to grumble about; and if he cant complain that his wife harries him to death with her perversity and ill-humour, he must complain that she wears him out with her kindness and gentleness.
Anne BronteHumour and high seriousness... Perfect bedfellows, I think. Though I usually phrase it in terms of comedy and darkness. Comedy without darkness rapidly becomes trivial. And darkness without comedy rapidly becomes unbearable.
Mark HaddonYou could say that when you introduce humour to your work, you also step back a little from it. You create a distance
Lars von TrierThe naive was only a part of my fairy tales; humour was the real salt in them.
Hans Christian AndersenMy face hasn't matured as I've grown up, and neither has my sense of humour. In the mirror, I see an older version of myself as a child, although I do have more wrinkles and freckles.
Jasmine GuinnessReligion supposed Heaven and Hell, the word of God, and sacraments, and twenty other circumstances which, taken seriously, are a wonderful check to wit and humour.
Jonathan SwiftWhat's happened to humour? We're becoming American. Everyone gets so angry over everything.
Rupert EverettIt is only a novel... or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are conveyed to the world in the best-chosen language
Jane AustenYou've got to have a sense of humour about sex. When you look at it, it's all pretty ridiculous, isn't it?
Cat DeeleyI'm a diplomat by nature. I help find the middle ground. I crack a joke and use humour to help resolve potentially vicious situations quickly. It gets things in perspective and helps everyone to see that things aren't as bad as they seem.
Ronnie WoodWhen you sell a man a book you don't sell just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue - you sell him a whole new life. Love and friendship and humour and ships at sea by night - there's all heaven and earth in a book, a real book.
Christopher MorleyI get along really well with Lars [von Trier] but definitely during our first meetings I was feeling him out and he definitely says some things that are inappropriate and then you kind of get his sense of humour. I really enjoy him. He's one of my favourite people I've met now. So, he's pretty great.
Kirsten DunstShe had...the glimmerings of a sense of humour - which is simply another name for a sense of the fitness of things.
Lucy Maud MontgomeryWhen I was younger, I used humour as a tool to avoid getting too serious with people - if there was deep emotional stuff going on, then I would crack a joke to defuse the situation.
Matthew PerryNever say a humorous thing to a man who does not possess humour: he will always use it in evidence against you.
Herbert Beerbohm TreeI believe in tension and release, in that if you stay in the the same tone and mode and intensity for too long, it actually becomes monotonous. When you change up your pace or your humour level, then the release is welcome... I believe that's my biggest job: tone control, and maintaining enough unity so that it all feels like one movie and all the scenes belong together, and yet diversity so that emotional and narrative interest is maintained.
Patricia RozemaFor my part I think the Learned, and Unlearned Blockhead pretty equal; for 'tis all one to me, whether a Man talk Nonsense, or unintelligible Sense, I am diverted and edified alike by either; the one enjoys himself less, but suffers his Friends to do it more; the other enjoys himself and his own Humour enough, but will let no body else do it in his Company.
Mary AstellSometimes strident, often tender, never afraid and seldom without humour, Desmond Tutu's voice will always be the voice of the voiceless.
Nelson MandelaBut to the particular species of excellence men are directed, not by an ascendant planet or predominating humour, but by the first book which they read, some early conversation which they heard, or some accident which excited ardour and emulation.
Samuel JohnsonI think of myself as a writer with a sense of humour rather than a comedy writer. Happy to tell a story with lots of jokes in it - I wouldn't know how to do jokes without the story.
Steven MoffatI've always said, I thought the Sex Pistols was more Music Hall than anything else - because I think that really, more truths are said in humour than any other form.
John LydonThe sympathy of most people consists of a mixture of good-humour, curiosity, and self-importance.
Marie von Ebner-EschenbachHumour is like violence. They both come to you unexpectedly, and the more unpredictable they both are, the better it gets.
Takeshi KitanoI think that London is very much like that. I find there's humour in the air and people are interesting. And I think that it's a place which is constantly surprising. The worst thing about it? I think it can be smug and aggressive.
Colin FirthI think we need leadership that can gently and with affection remind us of what we Americans mostly agree upon: civility, kindness, tolerance, humour, et cetera. The current Trump administration seems to thrive on trying to enforce a very odd, fearful agenda, that it tries to disguise in a false garment of fondness for the working-class - despite the fact that its policies seem designed to continue the decades-long habit of marginalizing that group.
George SaundersI'm a big fan of shock value humour and I find myself being most comfortable when I make other people uncomfortable. Is that sick of me? I really like it.
Jason BiggsMy final word, before I'm done, Is "Cancer can be rather fun"- Provided one confronts the tumour with a sufficient sense of humour. I know that cancer often kills, But so do cars and sleeping pills; And it can hurt till one sweats, So can bad teeth and unpaid debts. A spot of laughter, I am sure, Often accelerates one's cure; So let us patients do our bit To help the surgeons make us fit.
John B. S. HaldaneHumour plays close to the big, hot fire, which is the truth, and the reader feels the heat.
E. B. White