Humour Quotes - Page 21

• Sometimes I think war is God's way of teaching us geography.

  Paul Rodriguez

  Funny, War, Teaching

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• I like to think that even with some of the more intense ones sometimes there is humour in there, you try to make a complete human being, whether the guy is good or bad.

  Ray Liotta

  Thinking, Guy, Trying

  "Wild Hogs - Ray Liotta interview". Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

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• People still talk about a British sense of humour, or French slapstick or how the Germans have no sense of humour - and it's just rubbish. I do strongly feel that we are all the bloody same.

  Eddie Izzard

  People, Rubbish, Slapstick

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• Comedic actors can be looked at as a lower form because we have to put ourselves in a lower place than most of the audience. I think lofty emotions are somehow considered more special. The best stories in the world to me are the ones that elicit a real emotion, but have humour.

  Jim Carrey

  Real, Thinking, Special

  "This Much I Know". Interview with Tony Horkins, www.theguardian.com. October 19, 2008.

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• A stiff letter galls one like a stiff shirt collar -- whilst a sheet garnished here and there with a careless blot -- and here and there a dash -- but in the main full of excellent matter, is like a clever fellow in a dirty shirt whom we value for the good humour he brings with him and not for the garb he wears.

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Clever, Dirty, Letters

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• The humour of the Chinese people in inventing gunpowder and finding its best use in making firecrackers for their grandfathers' birthdays is merely symbolical of their inventiveness along merely pacific lines.

  Lin Yutang

  People, Chinese, Grandfather

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• Humour very often consists of shrewd perceptions about people. It's usually fun at someone's expense. Nowadays if you're funny at anybody's expense they run to the UN and say, "I must have an ombudsman to protect me." You hardly dare have a shrewd perception about anybody.

  Robertson Davies

  Running, Fun, People

  "Conversations with Robertson Davies". Book by Robertson Davies, "World of Wonders", 1989.

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• Few, as I have said, are the humorists who can induce this state. To master and dissolve us, to give us the joy of being worn down and tired out with laughter, is a success to be won by no man save in virtue of a rare staying-power. Laughter becomes extreme only if it be consecutive. There must be no pauses for recovery. Touch-and-go humour, however happy, is not enough. The jester must be able to grapple his theme and hang on to it, twisting it this way and that, and making it yield magically all manner of strange and precious things.

  Max Beerbohm

  Laughter, Tired, Recovery

  Max Beerbohm (2006). “And Even Now”, p.184, 1st World Publishing

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• All great humorists are sad... I cannot help seeing beyond the tinsel of humour, and recognising the pitiful basis of jest - the world is indeed comic, but the joke is on mankind.

  H. P. Lovecraft

  World, Helping, Comic

  "Collected Essays, Volume 5: Philosophy" edited by S. T. Joshi, (p. 54), 2006.

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• With the fall of the empire, Art, Philosophy and decent drains all vanished from the West.

  Bryan Ward-Perkins

  Art, Philosophy, Fall

  Bryan Ward-Perkins (2006). “The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization”, p.13, OUP Oxford

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• The first humans to come to Canada were the Indians. There is some mystery as to where the Indians came from. Some experts say that they came from the same place as the Eskimo. This doesn't help much because nobody knows where the Eskimo came from either. (Except the Eskimo, and they aren't talking.)

  Eric Nicol

  Talking, History, Canada

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• British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone spent his declining years trying to guess the answer to the Irish Question; unfortunately, whenever he was getting warm, the Irish secretly changed the Question.

  W. C. Sellar

  Years, History, Trying

  1066 and All That ch. 57 (1930). Coauthored with R. J. Yeatman.

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• By 1914, the royal families of Europe were inbred to the point of pantomine. You feel about them as you do about koalas. Nothing so stupid has any right to exist on the planet. On the other hand, they are rather cute, and in grave danger of extinction due to their specialised needs.

  Nancy Banks-Smith

  Cute, Stupid, Koalas

  "Last night's TV" by Nancy Banks-Smith, www.theguardian.com. December 15, 2006.

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• A good marriage is loving someone in a lot of different circumstances. Respect for them and their views and ideas and the life that they're leading with you. Shared values and interests. A good sense of humour. And a little volatility along the way.

  Edward Kennedy

  Views, Ideas, Loving Someone

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• Making art is like humour - very moment dependent.

  Michael Denton

  Art, Moments, Dependent

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• Humour plays close to the big, hot fire, which is the truth, and the reader feels the heat.

  E. B. White

  Fire, Play, Hot

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• For my part I think the Learned, and Unlearned Blockhead pretty equal; for 'tis all one to me, whether a Man talk Nonsense, or unintelligible Sense, I am diverted and edified alike by either; the one enjoys himself less, but suffers his Friends to do it more; the other enjoys himself and his own Humour enough, but will let no body else do it in his Company.

  Mary Astell

  Men, Thinking, Suffering

  Mary Astell (2002). “A Serious Proposal to the Ladies”, p.254, Broadview Press

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• I love inappropriate humour. What else are you going to do? You have to laugh.

  Bojana Novakovic

  Laughing, Inappropriate

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• It seems like it has kind of taken off where people are saying 'oh it's a female character' and it just kind of grew. But my intent in saying that was humour. You know, you have to show Link when you create a trailer for a Zelda announcement.

  Eiji Aonuma

  Taken, Character, People

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• A careful and sympathetic sense of humour can also be a great asset when there is need to get out of difficult situations gracefully.

  John Allen Fraser

  Difficult Situations, Needs, Assets

  John Allen Fraser (1993). “The House of Commons at Work”, Montréal : Éditions de la Chenelière

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• I love a girl with a good sense of humour, who is confident but who has a sweetness to her - that melts my heart.

  Gerard Butler

  Girl, Heart, Sweetness

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• I was trying for years to woo people through humour, but it seems flash cars are much easier.

  Stephen Merchant

  Years, People, Car

  Interview with Hannah Pool, www.theguardian.com. October 26, 2006.

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• I love to bring humour into my work. Because comedy is not a huge part of the art world. And big-business film takes itself very seriously.

  James Franco

  Art, World, Comedy

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• Because I was a shy and awkward child, I used humour to deflect attention. It was a controlling mechanism. Because I could use it to control my image.

  Catherine Tate

  Children, Awkward, Use

  "What I'm not is a cheery person". Interview with Simon Hattenstone, www.theguardian.com. April 5, 2008.

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• When I realised I had a facility for humour, I latched on to it, and it gave me confidence and I built my personality around it. So I subconsciously made myself become the funny one so that would be my label rather than the ginger one or the red-faced one.

  Catherine Tate

  Personality, Red, Would Be

  "What I'm not is a cheery person". Interview with Simon Hattenstone, www.theguardian.com. April 5, 2008.

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