Laughter

Like a knight in glittering armor,
Laughter
Stood up at his side.
~ William Rose Benét, The Last Ally

I hate scarce smiles. I love laughing.
~ William Blake, Annotations to Lavater (1788).

[L]ook up into the heavens & laugh in the bright air.
~ William Blake, America a Prophecy (1793).

Rich or beggar'd, chain'd or free,
Let me live and laugh with thee.
~ William Cliffton, in Poems, Chiefly Occasional (1800). To Fancy

I am tipsy with laughing.
~ William Congreve, The Way of the World (1700). Act IV, scene viii

[T]here is nothing more unbecoming a man of quality, than to laugh; 'tis such a vulgar expression of the passion! every body can laugh.
~ William Congreve, The Double Dealer. Act I, scene iv (1694).

Laughter is but a mask of feeling, and he who can remove it will discover the features of melancholy.
~ William John Courthope (of irony), Ludibria Lunae: or, The Wars of the Women and the Gods (1869). Preface

[L]augh at all you trembled at before.
~ William Cowper, from Poems by William Cowper of the Inner Temple, Esq. (1782). The Progress of Error

It's okay to laugh in the bedroom so long as you don't point.
~ Will Durst

If I can make them laugh and through that laughter make this old world seem just a little brighter, then I am satisfied.
~ W.C. Fields

In every big city there is always one surefire laugh, and that lies in hanging some piece of idiocy upon the people of a nearby city or town.
~ W.C. Fields, quoted in W.C. Fields: His Follies and Fortunes (1949).

The first thing any comedian does on getting an unscheduled laugh is to verify the state of his buttons.
~ W.C. Fields, The Saturday Evening Post (1949). W.C. Fields: Rowdy King of Comedy

The funniest thing about comedy is that you never know why people laugh. I know what makes them laugh but trying to get your hands on the why of it is like trying to pick an eel out of a tub of water.
~ W.C. Fields, in A Flask of Fields (1972).

Laughing 100 times a day is a good, healthful goal.
~ William F. Fry, Jr., MD

When we laugh, muscles are activated. When we stop laughing, these muscles relax. Since muscle tension magnifies pain, many people with arthritis, rheumatism and other painful conditions benefit greatly from a healthy dose of laughter.
~ William F. Fry, Jr., MD

Educate your laugh if you can, to ring often and sweet, that you may be able to radiate widely your pleasure and health.
~ William Channing Gannett, A Recipe for Good Cheer (1899).

Nothing is so impenetrable as laughter in a language you don't understand.
~ William Golding, An Egyptian Journal (1985).

The genius of laughter to all.
~ William Ernest (W.E.) Henley, from A Book of Verses (1888). Life and Death (Echoes). XXXIX

We like to be laughed at for our wit, but not for our folly.
~ (Col.) William C. Hunter, Brass Tacks (1910).

One hearty laugh together will bring enemies into a closer communion of heart than hours spent on both sides in inward wrestling with the mental demon of uncharitable feeling.
~ William James, Talks to Teachers on Psychology: and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals (1899). The Gospel of Relaxation

She will promise you more
Than the Garden of Eden
Then she'll carelessly cut you
And laugh while you're bleeding.
~ Billy Joel, in The Stranger (1977 album). She's Always a Woman

We might be laughing a bit too loud
But that never hurt no one.
~ Billy Joel, in The Stranger (1977 album). Only the Good Die Young

He laughs best who is cheerful all the time.
~ Will M. Maupin, from The Commoner Condensed (1902). XXI. Whether Common or Not. Brain Leaks

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.
~ William McIlvanney

I can usually judge a fellow by what he laughs at.
~ Wilson Mizner

And let that day be lost to us on which we did not dance once! And let that wisdom be false to us that brought no laughter with it!
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra (1885). Old and New Tablets

He who climbs upon the highest mountains laughs at all tragedies, real or imaginary.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra (1885).

He who laughs best to-day, will also laugh last.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, The Twilight of the Idols (1888). Maxims and Missiles

I live in my own place
Have never copied nobody even half,
And at any master who lacks the grace
To laugh at himself -- I laugh.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Laughter means: being Schadenfreude but with a good conscience. [Schadenfreude: the word is famous for being untranslatable; it signifies taking a malicious delight in the discomfort of another person.]
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, The Gay Science (1882). Book III

Not by wrath, but by laughter, do we kill. Come, let us kill the spirit of gravity!
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra (1885). Reading and Writing

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

Ten times must you laugh during the day, and be cheerful; otherwise your stomach, the father of affliction, will disturb you in the night.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra (1885). The Academic Chairs of Virtue

There is a form of laughter that springs from the heart, heard every day in the merry voice of childhood, the expression of a laughter -- loving spirit that defies analysis by the philosopher, which has nothing rigid or mechanical in it, and totally without social significance. Bubbling spontaneously from the heart of child or man.
~ William Osler, in The Life of Sir William Osler, Vol. II (1925).

[W]ithout egotism and full of feeling, laughter is the music of life.
~ William Osler, from Men and Books (1912). Two Frenchmen on Laughter

Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and they give you the laugh.
~ William Sydney Porter (O. Henry), from The Trimmed Lamp, and Other Stories of the Four Million (1907). The Count and the Wedding Guest

I have always noticed that people will never laugh at anything that is not based on truth.
~ Will Rogers

So get a few laughs and do the best you can. Don't have an ideal to work for. That's like riding towards the mirage of a lake.
~ Will Rogers

We are all here for a spell, get all the good laughs you can.
~ Will Rogers, quoted in Criswell Freeman The Wisdom of the West (1997).

You cannot hold back a good laugh any more than you can the tide. Both are forces of nature.
~ William Rotsler

I laugh, that's all. I love to laugh. Laugher to me is being alive. I have had rotten times, and I have laughed through them. Even in the midst of the very worst times I have laughed.
~ William Saroyan, Sons Come and Go, Mothers Hang in Forever (1976).

A chuckle a day may not keep the doctor away, but it sure does make those times in life's waiting room a little more bearable.
~ Anne Wilson Schaef

[A] man cannot make him laugh; but that's no marvel, he drinks no wine.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part II. Act IV, scene iii

And I did laugh sans intermission
An hour by his dial. O noble fool!
A worthy fool! Motley's the only wear.
~ William Shakespeare, As You Like It. Act II, scene vii

[L]aughter is by no means a solitary entertainment.
~ William Shenstone, in Works in Verse and Prose, Vol. II (1764). Essays on Men, Manners, and Things. Egotisms, from my own Sensations

He who has learned to laugh at himself is a near neighbor at happiness.
~ William Maberry (W.M.) Strickler, Essays on Human Nature (1906). Some Elements of Happiness

A good laugh is sunshine in a house.
~ William Makepeace Thackeray, from Sketches and Travels in London (1847). Mr. Brown's Letters to his Nephew: On Love, Marriage, Men, and Women

Life without laughing is a dreary blank.
~ William Makepeace Thackeray, from Sketches and Travels in London (1847). Mr. Brown's Letters to his Nephew: On Love, Marriage, Men, and Women

Stupid people, people who do not know how to laugh, are always pompous and self-conceited, that is, bigoted; that is, cruel; that is, ungentle, uncharitable, unchristian.
~ William Makepeace Thackeray, from Sketches and Travels in London (1847). Mr. Brown's Letters to his Nephew: On Love, Marriage, Men, and Women

I suppose if we couldn't laugh at things that don't make sense, we couldn't react to a lot of life.
~ Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes (3 March 1991).

Laugh with and not at people, and you will never get into trouble.
~ William Allen White

As I apply the burnt cork to my face, as I smear the black into my already sable skin, as I put on my lips, I am leaving behind Egbert Austin Williams. However, I can at any time, reclaim this man with soap and water and the rugged application of a course towel. I can reclaim him, but only later, after the laugher.
~ Egbert Austin "Bert" Williams, (1896).

You see, I like being funny. When I read the interviews back afterwards I make myself laugh.
~ Robbie Williams

They fall to twitting each other on the many ways of laughing.
~ William Carlos Williams, Kora in Hell: Improvisations (1920). XXV

I wake up laughing. Yes, I wake up in the morning and there I am just laughin' my head off.
~ Bruce Willis

Please, Lord, teach us to laugh again; but, God, don't ever let us forget that we cried.
~ Bill Wilson

With all the trouble black people have, they try to forget on weekends. You've got to be good to make them laugh.
~ Clerow "Flip" Wilson

What I want to do is make people laugh so that they'll see things seriously.
~ William K. Zinsser