laughter

Er l a« chelte und sagte: 'Von mir willst du denWeg erfahren?' 'Ja,'sagte ich,'da ich ihn selbst nich finden kann.' 'Gibs auf, gibs auf,'sagte er und wandte sich mit einem groÞen Schwunge ab, so wie Leute, die mit ihrem Lachen allein sein wollen. Hesmiled and said: 'Youasking metheway?' 'Yes,'Isaid, 'since I cannot find it myself.' 'Give it up! Give it up!'said he, and turned with a sudden jerk, like someone who wants to be alone with his laughter.

—Kafka, Franz

Mieux est de ris que de larmes e¤  crire Pour ce que rire est le propre de l'homme. It is better to write of laughter than of tears For laughter is the basis of humankind.

—Rabelais, Fran c° ois

As long as our civilization is essentially one of property, of fences, of exclusiveness, it will be mocked by delusions.Our riches will leave us sick; there will be bitterness in our laughter; and our wine will burn our mouth.

—Emerson, RalphWaldo

If we may believe our logicians, man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter.

—Addison,Joseph

A feast ismade for laughter, and wine maketh merry: but money answereth all things.

—Bible (Old Testament)

The oldest griefs of summer seem less sad than drone of mowers on suburban lawns and girls'thin laughter, to the ears that hear the soft rain falling of the failing stars.

—Rickword, Edgell

Home'  re. Ce¤  le'  bre par sa fa c° on de rire: rire home¤  rique. N'a jamais existe¤  . Homer. Famous for his laugh.'Homeric laughter'. Never existed.

—Flaubert, Gustave

There is nothing so illiberal and so ill-bred, as audible laughter.

—Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of

   I am convinced that the history of so-called scientific work in our famous centers of European civilization will, in a couple of hundred years, represent an inexhaustible source of laughter and sorrow for future generations. The learned men of the small western part of our European continent lived for several centuries under the illusionthatthe eternal blessed life wastheWest'sfuture. They were interested in the problem of when and where this blessed life would come.But they never thought of how they were going to make their life better.

—Tolstoy, Leo Nikolayevich

   There is a kind of laughter people laugh at public events, as if a joke were a charity auction and they want to be seen to be bidding.

—McIlvanney,William Angus

He his fabric of the heavens Hath left to their disputes, perhaps to move His laughter at their quaint opinions wide Hereafter, when they come to model heaven And calculate the stars, how they will wield The mighty frame, how build, unbuild, contrive To save appearances, how gird the sphere With centric and eccentric scribbled o'er, Cycle and epicycle, orb in orb.

—Milton,John

   Laughter is much more important than applause. Applause is almost a duty. Laughter is a reward.Laughter means they trust and like you.

—Channing, Carol Elaine

Laughter ispleasant, butthe exertion istoomuchfor me.

—Peacock,Thomas Love

I said of laughter, It is mad: and of mirth,What doeth it?

—Bible (Old Testament)

Laughter need not be cut out of anything, since it improves everything.

—Thurber,James Grover

For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of a fool: this also is vanity.

—Bible (Old Testament)

   Ille mi par esse Deo videtur, ille, si fas est, superare Divos, qui sedens adversus identidem te spectat et audit dulce ridentem. He seems to me to be like a god, even superior to the Gods, if it is permitted to say so, the man who sits gazing on you all day and listens to your sweet laughter.

—Catullus full name  Gaius Valerius Catullus

   A little season of love and laughter, Of light and life, and pleasure and pain, And horror of outer darkness after, And dust returneth to dust again. Then the lesser life shall be as the greater, And the lover of life shall join the hater, And the one thing cometh sooner or later, And no one knoweth the loss or gain.

—Gordon, Adam Lindsay

R-E-M-O-R-S-E! Those dry Martinis did the work for me; Last night at twelve I felt immense, Today I feel like thirty cents. My eyes are blurred, my coppers hot, I'll try to eat, but I cannot. It is no time for mirth and laughter, The cold, grey dawn of the morning after.

—Ade, George

We look before and after, And pine for what is not: Our sincerest laughter With some pain is fraught: Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.

—Shelley, Percy Bysshe

You think this cruel? take it for a rule, No creature smarts so little as a fool. Let peals of laughter,Codrus! round thee break, Thou unconcerned canst hear the mighty crack. Pit, box, and gallery in convulsions hurled, Thou stand'st unshook amidst a bursting world.

—Pope, Alexander

  Players, Sir! I look upon them as no better than creatures set upon tables and joint stools to make faces and produce laughter, like dancing dogs.

—Johnson, Samuel known as Dr Johnson

There was scattered laughter in the rear of the theatre, leading to the belief that somebody was telling jokes back there.

—Kaufman, George S(imon)

Sitting as huge as Asia, seismic with laughter, Gin and chicken helpless in her Irish hand.

—Barker, George Granville

When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter, And when he cried the little children died in the streets.

—Auden,W(ystan) H(ugh)

The laughter of man is more terrible than his tears, and takes more formsöhollow, heartless, mirthless, maniacal.

—Thurber,James Grover

But when I plead, she bids me play my part, And when I weep, she says tears are but water: And when I sigh, she says I know the art, And when I wail, she turns herself to laughter.

—Spenser, Edmund

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days; I fled Him, down the arches of the years; I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways Of my own mind; and in the midst of tears I hid from Him, and under running laughter. 855

—Thompson, Francis

With weeping and with laughter Still is the story told, How well Horatius kept the bridge In the brave days of old.

—1st Baron