The beauty of the world, which is so soon to perish, has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder.

Give a child love, laughter and peace, not AIDS.

My life has been one great big joke, a dance that’s walked a song that’s spoke, I laugh so hard I almost choke when I think about myself.

What I have never been afraid of is to be a little silly, and you can engage people that way. My view is, first you get them to laugh, then you get them to listen.

Most of the stuff I do on the show comes out of me just trying to make my friends laugh.

We don’t laugh because we’re happy – we’re happy because we laugh.

There may be a great fire in our hearts, yet no one ever comes to warm himself at it, and the passers-by see only a wisp of smoke.

True humor springs not more from the head than from the heart. It is not contempt; its essence is love. It issues not in laughter, but in still smiles, which lie far deeper.

God is a comedian, playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.

It’s not catastrophes, murders, deaths, diseases, that age and kill us; it’s the way people look and laugh, and run up the steps of omnibuses.

It is not funny that anything else should fall down; only that a man should fall down. Why do we laugh? Because it is a gravely religious matter: it is the Fall of Man. Only man can be absurd: for only man can be dignified.

I love making people laugh. And I love laughing.

It’s no accident many accuse me of conducting public affairs with my heart instead of my head. Well, what if I do? Those who don’t know how to weep with their whole heart don’t know how to laugh either.

The child in you, like all children, loves to laugh, to be around people who can laugh at themselves and life. Children instinctively know that the more laughter we have in our lives, the better.

It is usually the imagination that is wounded first, rather than the heart; it being much more sensitive.

When people laugh at Mickey Mouse, it’s because he’s so human; and that is the secret of his popularity.

Anybody with a sense of humor is going to put on my album and laugh from beginning to end.

Isn’t it funny how babies laugh a lot? I read a toddler, a young child laughs 300 times a day. The average adult laughs, like, four times a day. God put it in them. He put the laugh in us, but I think sometimes we let life get us down, you know, have bad breaks, and we lose our breaks.

Laughter heals all wounds, and that’s one thing that everybody shares. No matter what you’re going through, it makes you forget about your problems. I think the world should keep laughing.

Whenever I want to laugh, I read a wonderful book, ‚Children’s Letters to God.‘ You can open it anywhere. One I read recently said, ‚Dear God, thank you for the baby brother, but what I prayed for was a puppy.‘

Racism and injustice and violence sweep our world, bringing a tragic harvest of heartache and death.

I laugh all the time – at things, people, stuff, whatever. But, I don’t laugh onstage because then it’s serious business.

No matter what, I always make it home for Christmas. I love to go to my Tennessee Mountain Home and invite all of my nieces and nephews and their spouses and kids and do what we all like to do – eat, laugh, trade presents and just enjoy each other… and sometimes I even dress up like Santa Claus!

But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.

Is everything funny? For me, yes. There’s a positive to every negative. Even my divorce? For me, yes. If you go back and look at it, why it happened or how it happened, there’s something in there that’ll make you laugh.

My philosophy is, it’s always very rewarding when you can make an audience laugh. I don’t mind making fun of myself. I like self-deprecating comedy. But I’d like you to laugh with me occasionally, too.

To a guy like me, a laugh is full of information.

Talent grips us. We are overtaken by the beauty of Michelangelo’s sculpture, riveted by Mariah Carey’s angelic voice, doubled over in laughter by the comedy of Robin Williams, and captivated by the on screen performances of Denzel Washington.

We must laugh at man to avoid crying for him.

Life is filled with detours and dead ends, trials and challenges of every kind. Each of us has likely had times when distress, anguish, and despair almost consumed us.

My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry; to get my work done and try to love somebody and have the courage to accept the love in return.

My heart aches for America and its deceived people.

Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one.

One can know a man from his laugh, and if you like a man’s laugh before you know anything of him, you may confidently say that he is a good man.

The Four Levels of Comedy: Make your friends laugh, Make strangers laugh, Get paid to make strangers laugh, and Make people talk like you because it’s so much fun.

A lot of times, you could play me just the laughs from my set, and I could tell you, from the laugh, what the joke was. Because they match.

Believe it or not, I make myself laugh. Sometimes when I have thoughts or say some things that are funny, it just makes me laugh, and I don’t mind laughing at it before you guys do.

From the moment I picked your book up until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Someday I intend reading it.

Since childhood, I’ve been a clown. I’ve always liked being very funny or trying to make people laugh. It’s my original self.

It is impossible for you to be angry and laugh at the same time. Anger and laughter are mutually exclusive and you have the power to choose either.

Attitude and enthusiasm play a big part in my life. I get excited about the things that inspire me. I also believe in laughing and having a good time.

Humor is mankind’s greatest blessing.

There’s different kinds of laughs. It’s like a baseball lineup: this guy’s your power hitter, this guy gets on base, this guy works out walks. If everybody does their job, we’re gonna win.

You make ‚em, I amuse ‚em.

I won’t do something unless I can get at least two or three good laughs out of it. If I can’t, it’s not gonna make the team.

To truly laugh, you must be able to take your pain, and play with it!

Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter could be said to remedy anything.

The two things in the world we all share in this world are laughter and pain. We’ve all got problems. The levels of those problems vary, but we’ve all got problems. When you can take things that are painful and make them funny, that’s a gift – to you and your audience.

My focus is to forget the pain of life. Forget the pain, mock the pain, reduce it. And laugh.

There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt.

You can’t deny laughter; when it comes, it plops down in your favorite chair and stays as long as it wants.

There is little success where there is little laughter.

Laughter is America’s most important export.

Analysis is like a lobotomy. Who wants to have all their edges shaved off?

She laughs at everything you say. Why? Because she has fine teeth.

A day without laughter is a day wasted.

The secret to humor is surprise.

Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter.

In the vain laughter of folly wisdom hears half its applause.

I love that I can tell the truth and have people laugh at it.

Those who don’t know how to weep with their whole heart, don’t know how to laugh either.