Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh.

-Auden,W(ystan) H(ugh)
  The Dyer's Hand,'Notes on the Comic'.

When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.

-Barrie, SirJ(ames) M(atthew)
  Peter Pan (published1928), act1.

Je me presse de rire de tout, de peur d'e"  tre oblige¤   d'en pleurer. I am quick to laugh at everything so as not to be obliged to cry.

-Beaumarchais, Pierre Augustin Caron de
  Le Barbier de Se¤  ville, act1, sc.2.

He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the L shall have them in derision.

-Bible (Old Testament)
ORDPsalms 2:4.

But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,HetrustedontheL that hewoulddeliverhim: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.

-Bible (Old Testament)
ORDPsalms 22:6^8.

Laugh no man to scorn in the bitterness of his soul: for there is one which humbleth and exalteth.

-Bible (Apocrypha)
Ecclesiasticus 7:11.

They love the Good; they worshipTruth; They laugh uproariously in youth; (And when they get to feeling old, They up and shoot themselves, I'm told).

-Brooke, Rupert Chawner
  'The Old Vicarage, Grantchester'.

   Nam risu inepto res ineptior nulla est. For there is nothing more ridiculous than a ridiculous laugh.

-Catullus full name  Gaius Valerius Catullus
Carmina, no.39.

   Thereisnothing moreunbecoming a manofquality than to laugh;Jesu,'tissuchavulgarexpressionofthepassion!

-Congreve,William
  Lord Froth to Brisk. The Double Dealer, act1, sc.4.

Laugh at all you trembled at before.

-Cowper,William
  Poems,'The Progress of Error', l.592.

Apeneck Sweeney spreads his knees Letting his arms hang down to laugh, The zebra stripes along his jaw Swelling to maculate giraffe.

-Eliot,T(homas) S(tearns)
  'Sweeney among the Nightingales'.

MissTwye was soaping her breasts in the bath When she heard behind her a meaning laugh And to her amazement she discovered A wicked man in the bathroom cupboard.

-Ewart, Gavin Buchanan
  'Miss Twye'.

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
Bouvard et Pe¤  cuchet avec un choix des sce¤  narios, du Sottisier, L'Album de la Marquise et Le Dictionnaire des ide¤  es re c° ues. (published1881, translated by Geoffrey Wall,1994).

A solitary laugh is often a laugh of superiority.

-Greene, (Henry) Graham
  Monsignor Quixote, pt.1, ch.9.

I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes. But I laugh And eat well, And grow strong.

-Hughes, (James Mercer) Langston
  'I, Too', in Survey Graphic, Mar.

Anything awful makes me laugh.

-Lamb, Charles
  Letter to Robert Southey, 9  Aug. Collected in E  W Marrs (ed) Letters of Charles and Mary Lamb, vol.3 (1978).

Will yer stop yer tickling, Jock! Oh, stop yer tickling, Jock! Dinna mak'me laugh so hearty, or you'll mak'me choke. Oh! I wish you'd stop yer nonsenseöjust look at all the folk. Will yer stop yer ticklingötickle-ickle-ickle-ingö Stop yer tickling, Jock!

-Lauder, Sir Harry (Hugh MacLennan)
  'StopYer Tickling,  Jock!', chorus.

If we didn't laugh at him, we'd cry our eyes out.

-Lloyd, Marie stage-name of  Matilda AliceVictoria Wood
c.1891 Of the singer andcomedian Dan Leno, who diedinsane in 1904.  Attributed.

Fun is fun but no girl wants to laugh all of the time.

-Loos, Anita
  Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, ch.4

A good laugh is the best pesticide.

-Nabokov,Vladimir
  Interview on BBC television. Reported in The Listener, 10 Oct.