CURATED COLLECTION

Laughing at Life's Absurdity

When you look directly at existence and find it completely ridiculous, the only sane response is laughter.

113 quotes found

“
The report of my death was an exaggeration.

—Mark TwainNovelist & Humorist

Industrial Age ERA • North America

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I can resist everything except temptation.

—Oscar WildePlaywright & Poet

Industrial Age ERA • Western Europe

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A tailor without a needle is like a general without a sword.

—Sholem AleichemAuthor

Early Modern ERA • Eastern Europe

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Nothing can be worse than a man who goes on and on. What is he talking about?

—Sei ShonagonAuthor

Medieval ERA • East Asia

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A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.

—Winston ChurchillStatesman & Writer

Early Modern ERA • Western Europe

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Brevity is the soul of wit.

—William ShakespearePlaywright & Poet

Renaissance ERA • Western Europe

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Kings and philosophers defecate, and so do ladies.

—Michel de MontaignePhilosopher & Writer

Renaissance ERA • Western Europe

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The man who is too shy to say what he thinks is a bore.

—Sei ShonagonAuthor

Medieval ERA • East Asia

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Laughter is healing. You gotta laugh at everything, even the pain.

—Tiffany HaddishScholar & Thinker

Digital Age ERA • North America

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I lost my key inside the house, but I'm looking for it here because there's light.

—Nasreddin HodjaPhilosopher & Satirist

Medieval ERA • MENA

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Go to heaven for the climate, hell for the company.

—Mark TwainNovelist & Humorist

Industrial Age ERA • North America

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A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.

—Roald DahlNovelist

Post-War ERA • Western Europe

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It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

—Jane AustenNovelist

Industrial Age ERA • Western Europe

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The future is uncertain. Eat your soup while it's hot.

—Nasreddin HodjaPhilosopher & Satirist

Medieval ERA • MENA

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A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who has never learned to walk forward.

—Franklin D. RooseveltPresident

Early Modern ERA • North America

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He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals.

—Benjamin FranklinPolymath & Statesman

Enlightenment ERA • North America

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A classic is a book which people praise and do not read.

—Mark TwainNovelist & Humorist

Industrial Age ERA • North America

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Humor is a way of not becoming the prisoner of your own ideas.

—Rosario CastellanosPoet, Novelist & Diplomat

Post-War ERA • Latin America

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Medical science has made such tremendous advances that there is hardly a healthy human left.

—Aldous HuxleyWriter & Philosopher

Post-War ERA • Western Europe

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Common sense is not so common.

—VoltaireWriter, Historian & Philosopher

Enlightenment ERA • Western Europe

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