“Humor is the great thing, the saving thing after all. The minute it crops up, all our hardnesses yield, all our irritations and resentments flit away, and a sunny spirit takes their place.”
Mark Twain
HumourKindness
Humor Quotes
200 FAMOUS QUOTES · HUMOR
Humor Quotes
Read the best humor quotes on laughter, wit and seeing the funny side of life from Mark Twain, Chesterton, Shaw, Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll and more.
“Humour can get in under the door while seriousness is still fumbling at the handle.”
G. K. Chesterton
HumourCommunication
“When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth.”
George Bernard Shaw
TruthWit
“Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine.”
Lord Byron
LaughterHealth
“A jest's prosperity lies in the ear of him that hears it, never in the tongue of him that makes it.”
William Shakespeare
JokesAudience
“I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men.”
William Shakespeare
WitFunny
“No mind is thoroughly well organised that is deficient in a sense of humour.”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Sense Of HumourMind
“The best humour is that which contains most humanity, that which is flavoured throughout with tenderness and kindness.”
William Makepeace Thackeray
KindnessHumour
“Wit is the salt of conversation, not the food.”
William Hazlitt
WitConversation
“No man who has once heartily and wholly laughed can be altogether irreclaimably bad.”
Thomas Carlyle
LaughterGoodness
“A laugh is worth a hundred groans in any market.”
Charles Lamb
LaughterPositivity
“The perception of the comic is a tie of sympathy with other men.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
ConnectionHumour
“A difference of taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections.”
George Eliot
RelationshipsFunny
“Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.”
George Bernard Shaw
LifeBalance
“Life is serious all the time, but living cannot be.”
G. K. Chesterton
LifeLightness
“Humor must not professedly teach and it must not professedly preach, but it must do both if it would live forever.”
Mark Twain
HumourTeaching
“Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs: he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
LaughterSuffering
“I hasten to laugh at everything, for fear of being obliged to weep.”
Pierre Beaumarchais
LaughterCoping
“And if I laugh at any mortal thing, 'tis that I may not weep.”
Lord Byron
LaughterSorrow
“Excess of sorrow laughs. Excess of joy weeps.”
William Blake
EmotionsParadox
“The duty of comedy is to correct men by amusing them.”
Moliere
ComedyLessons
“To laugh is proper to man.”
Francois Rabelais
LaughterHuman Nature
“No animal laughs save man.”
Aristotle
LaughterHuman Nature
“Serious things cannot be understood without laughable things, nor opposites at all without opposites.”
Plato
BalancePhilosophy
“What prevents one from telling the truth with a laugh?”
Horace
TruthHumour
Related Topics
About Humor Quotes
A sense of humour is one of life's greatest gifts. Laughter breaks the ice, softens hard days, brings friends closer and helps us see the truth in a lighter way. Great writers have always known that a good joke can teach more than a long lecture, and that the people who laugh the most are often the ones who have learned the most about life.
This collection brings together 200 of the best humor quotes from Mark Twain, G. K. Chesterton, George Bernard Shaw, William Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll and many more. Some explain why laughter matters, and some will simply make you smile. For more laughs, explore our [Funny Quotes](/topics/funny-quotes).
Frequently asked questions
Quick answers about Humor quotes.
What is a famous quote about humor?
Mark Twain called humor "the great thing, the saving thing after all." G. K. Chesterton said humour "can get in under the door while seriousness is still fumbling at the handle."
Why is a sense of humour important?
Samuel Taylor Coleridge believed that "no mind is thoroughly well organised that is deficient in a sense of humour." Humour helps us cope, connect with others and see problems more clearly.
What is the difference between humour and wit?
Thackeray said the best humour is full of "tenderness and kindness," while William Hazlitt called wit "the salt of conversation, not the food." Humour is warm; wit is quick and clever.
Why do people laugh?
Thinkers have argued about it for centuries. Kant said laughter comes from "a strained expectation" suddenly turning "into nothing," while Nietzsche believed humans invented laughter because they suffer so deeply.
Is laughter really good medicine?
Lord Byron advised, "Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine." The Yiddish proverb agrees: "What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul."
What are good short humor quotes?
Try "We're all mad here," "Jesters do oft prove prophets," "Fortune comes in by a merry gate," or "No animal laughs save man."