Mirth Quotes - Page 7

• We, in the ages lying
  In the buried past of the earth,
  Built Nineveh with our sighing,
  And Babel itself with our mirth;
  And o'erthrew them with prophesying
  To the old of the new world's worth;
  For each age is a dream that is dying,
  Or one that is coming to birth.

  Arthur O'Shaughnessy

  Dream, Lying, Past

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• No doubt hard work is a great police agent. If everybody were worked from morning till night, and then carefully locked up, the register of crime might be greatly diminished. But what would become of human nature? Where would be the room for growth in such a system of things? It is through sorrow and mirth, plenty and need, a variety of passions, circumstances, and temptations, even through sin and misery, that men's natures are developed.

  Arthur Helps

  Morning, Hard Work, Passion

  Sir Arthur Helps (1848). “Friends in Council: A Series of Readings and Discourse Thereon”, p.55

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• He's all my exercise, my mirth, my matter.

  William Shakespeare

  Exercise, Matter

  William Shakespeare, John Pitcher (2010). “The Winter's Tale: Third Series”, p.164, A&C Black

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• Few things surpass old wine; and they may preach Who please, the more because they preach in vain

  Lord Byron

  Wine, May, Soda

  Lord Byron (2013). “Don Juan”, p.83, Simon and Schuster

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• Actually, there are countless ways to live upon this tremorous sphere in mirth and good health, and probably only one way - the industrial, urbanized, herding way - to live here stupidly, and man has hit upon that one way.

  Tom Robbins

  Men, Way To Live, Spheres

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• Oh, good gigantic smile o' the brown old earth, This autumn morning! How he sets his bones To bask i' the sun, and thrusts out knees and feet. From the ripple to run over in its mirth

  Robert Browning

  Running, Morning, Autumn

  Robert Browning (1830). “An Introduction to the Study of Robert Browning's Poetry”, p.207

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• I am in no way facetious, nor disposed for the mirth and galliardize of company, yet in one dream I can compose a whole Comedy, behold the action, apprehend the jests, and laugh myself awake at the conceits thereof.

  Thomas Browne

  Dream, Laughing, Way

  Sir Thomas Browne (1844). “Religio Medici. Its sequel, Christian Morals ... With resemblant passages from Cowper's Task, and a verbal index. [Edited by John Peace.]”, p.121

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• Loud laughter is the mirth of the mob, who are only pleased with silly things; for true Wit or good Sense never excited a laugh since the creation of the world. A man of parts and fashion is therefore often seen to smile, but never heard to laugh.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Fashion, Laughter, Silly

  Lord Chesterfield (1998). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.145, OUP Oxford

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• Luck often raises vulgarity to a high position, to create mirth for the beholders.

  Juvenal

  Luck, Beholder, Raises

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• Only in the theatre was it possible to see the performers and to be warmed by their personal charm, to respond to their efforts and to feel their response to the applause and appreciative laughter of the audience. It had an intimate quality; audience and actors conspired to make a little oasis of happiness and mirth within the walls of the theatre. Try as we will, we cannot be intimate with a shadow on a screen, nor a voice from a box.

  Robertson Davies

  Laughter, Wall, Voice

  "Lew Fields". 1941.

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• It is a melancholy consideration that there should be several among us so hardened and deluded as to think an oath a proper subject for a jest; and to make this, which is one of the most solemn acts of religion, an occasion of mirth. Yet such is the depravation of our manners at present, that nothing is more frequent than to hear profligate men ridiculing, to the best of their abilities, these sacred pledges of their duty and allegiance; and endeavouring to be witty upon themselves, for daring to prevaricate with God and man.

  Joseph Addison

  Witty, Men, Thinking

  Joseph Addison (1837). “The Tatler. The Guardian. The Freeholder. The Whig-examiner. The lover. Dialogues upon the usefulness of ancient medals. Remarks on several parts of Italy, etc. The present state of the war. The late trial and conviction of Count Tariff. The evidences of the Christian religion. Essay on Virgil's Georgics. Poems on several occasions. Translations from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Notes on some of the foregoing stories in Ovid's Metamorphoses. Poemata. Rosamond. Cato. The drummer”, p.181

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• Man is the merriest species of the creation; all above or below him are serious.

  Joseph Addison

  Men, Serious, Creation

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• Every one knows the veneration which was paid by the Jews to a name so great, wonderful, and holy. They would not let it enter even into their religious discourses. What can we then think of those who make use of so tremendous a name, in the ordinary expression of their anger, mirth, and most impertinent passions?

  Joseph Addison

  Religious, Passion, Thinking

  Joseph Addison (1827). “The Evidences of the Christian Religion: To which are Added, Several Discourses Against Atheism and Infidelity, and in Defence of the Christian Revelation”, p.92

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• There is not a string attuned to mirth but has its chord of melancholy.

  Thomas Hood

  Melancholy, Chords, Strings

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• God made both tears and laughter, and both for kind purposes; for as laughter enables mirth and surprise to breathe freely, so tears enable sorrow to vent itself patiently. Tears hinder sorrow from becoming despair and madness.

  Leigh Hunt

  Laughter, Sorrow, Tears

  Leigh Hunt (1853). “The Religion of the Heart: A Manual of Faith and Duty”, p.62

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• The raillery which is consistent with good-breeding is a gentle animadversion of some foible, which, while it raises the laugh in the rest of the company, doth not put the person rallied out of countenance, or expose him to shame or contempt. On the contrary, the jest should be so delicate that the object of it should be capable of joining in the mirth it occasions.

  Henry Fielding

  Joining In, Laughing, Shame

  Henry Fielding, Thomas Roscoe (1851). “The Works of Henry Fielding: Complete in One Volume”, p.643

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• The hero is a mind of such balance that no disturbances can shake his will, but pleasantly, and, as it were, merrily, he advancesto his own music, alike in frightful alarms and in the tipsy mirth of universal dissoluteness.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Hero, Mind, Balance

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.374, Library of America

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• Rude poets of the tavern hearth,
  squandering your unquoted mirth,
  which keeps the ground, and never soars,
  while jake retorts, and reuben roars;
  tough and screaming, as birch-bark,
  goes like bullet to its mark;
  while the solid curse and jeer
  never balk the waiting ear.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Rude, Waiting, Jake

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1847). “Poems”, p.103

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• A third variety of drama ... begins as tragedy with scraps of fun in it ... and ends in comedy without mirth in it, the place of mirth being taken by a more or less bitter and critical irony.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Fun, Drama, Taken

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• Oh, Mirth and Innocence! Oh, Milk and Water! Ye happy mixture of more happy days!

  Lord Byron

  Happiness, Water, Mixtures

  Lord Byron, Donald A. Low (2013). “Byron: Selected Poetry and Prose”, p.100, Routledge

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• If we could make up our minds to spare our friends all details of ill health, of money losses, of domestic annoyances, of altercations, of committee work, of grievances, provocations, and anxieties, we should sin less against the world's good-humor. It may not be given us to add to the treasury of mirth; but there is considerable merit in not robbing it.

  Agnes Repplier

  Loss, Ill Health, Anxiety

  Agnes Repplier (1904). “Compromises”

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• it is not every tourist who bubbles over with mirth, and that unquenchable spirit of humor which turns a trial into a blessing.

  Agnes Repplier

  Travel, Blessing, Trials

  Agnes Repplier (1898). “Varia”

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• The greatness that would make us grave,
  Is but an empty thing.
  What more than mirth would mortals have?
  The cheerful man's a king.

  Isaac Bickerstaffe

  Kings, Greatness, Men

  Isaac BICKERSTAFFE (1814). “Love in a Village ... As performed at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. Printed ... from the prompt book. With remarks by Mrs. Inchbald”, p.14

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• There is a God! the sky his presence shares,
  His hand upheaves the billows in their mirth,
  Destroys the mighty, yet the humble spares
  And with contentment crowns the thought of worth.

  Charlotte Saunders Cushman

  God, Humble, Hands

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• In the voice of mirth there may be excitement, but in the tones of mourning there is consolation.

  Willis Gaylord Clark

  Voice, Mourning, Sorrow

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