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1
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It is better to write of laughter than of tears, for laughter is the property of man.
(Franηois Rabelais (1494-1553), French author, evangelist. Prefatory poem, p. 3, Pleiade edition (1995).
Author's apology for book.)
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Franηois Rabelais
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2
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Laughter would be bereaved if snobbery died.
(Peter Ustinov (b. 1921), British actor, writer, director. Quoted in Observer (London, March 13, 1955).)
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Peter Ustinov
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3
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Laughter scares off lust.
(Mason Cooley (b. 1927), U.S. aphorist. City Aphorisms, Ninth Selection, New York (1992).)
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Mason Cooley
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4
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[Humanity] has unquestionably one really effective weapon—laughter. Power, money, persuasion, supplication, persecution—these can lift at a colossal humbug—push it a little—weaken it a little, century by century; but only laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.
(Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835-1910), U.S. author. Satan, in The Mysterious Stranger, ch. 10 (1916).)
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Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens]
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5
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But you were everywhere beside me, masked,
As who was not, in laughter, pain, and love.
(James Merrill (b. 1926), U.S. poet. Days of 1964 (l. 73-74). . .
Norton Anthology of American Literature, The, Vols. I-II. Nina Baym and others, eds. (2d ed., 1985) W. W. Norton & Company.)
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James Merrill
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6
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Go, said the bird, for the leaves were full of children,
Hidden excitedly, containing laughter.
(T.S. (Thomas Stearns) Eliot (1888-1965), Anglo-American critic, poet. Burnt Norton (Four Quartets). . .
Norton Anthology of American Literature, The, Vols. I-II. Nina Baym and others, eds. (2d ed., 1985) W. W. Norton & Company.)
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T.S. (Thomas Stearns) Eliot
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7
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Most near, most dear, most loved and most far,
Under the window where I often found her
Sitting as huge as Asia, seismic with laughter,
(George Barker (b. 1913), British poet, novelist, playwright, scriptwriter. Sonnet to My Mother (l. 1-3). . .
Seven Centuries of Poetry; Chaucer to Dylan Thomas. A. N. Jeffares, ed. (1955) Longmans, Green & Company.)
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George Barker
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8
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image
of water, a brightness
not gold, not silver,
rippling
as if with laughter.
(Denise Levertov (b. 1923), Anglo-U.S. poet. "The Ripple.")
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Denise Levertov
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