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Humorists Quotes

Browse 190 quotes about Humorists.

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Humorists Quotes

“ZANY, n. A popular character in old Italian plays, who imitated with ludicrous incompetence the _buffone_, or clown, and was therefore the ape of an ape; for the clown himself imitated the serious characters of the play. The zany was progenitor to the specialist in humor, as we to-day have the unhappiness to know him. In the zany we see an example of creation; in the humorist, of transmission. Another excellent specimen of the modern zany is the curate, who apes the rector, who apes the bishop, who apes the archbishop, who apes the devil.”

KnowsPlayCharacterModernExampleCreationSeriousDevilExcellentUnhappinessItalianClownApesBishopsIncompetenceSpecialistsHumoristsTransmission
Book:The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World
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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.”

IfsMenWayGivingSaidStatesEnoughAbleJoyVirtueHumourStrangeMastersLaughterDown AndTiredExtremesRecoveryThemeStayingYieldWornPausesHumoristsPrecious ThingsJesterConsecutiveStaying Power
Book:And Even Now
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“Humorists are not humorous twenty-four hours a day. In fact, when you get to know them well, they are often not humorous at all. They tend to be hypersensitive, taut, neurotic creatures driven by God know what obscure compulsion to earn their living the hard way.”

KnowsWayWellsHardFactsHumorHoursFourCreaturesHumorousTwentiesDrivenObscureGod KnowsCompulsionNeuroticHumoristsHard Way
Book:Color blind: a white woman looks at the Negro
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“It is the will of God that we must have critics, and missionaries, and Congressmen, and humorists, and we must bear the burden. Meantime, I seem to have been drifting into criticism myself. But that is nothing. At the worst, criticism is nothing more than a crime, and I am not unused to that.”

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Book:Autobiography of Mark Twain: Reader's Edition
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“As the tragic writer rids us of what is petty and ignoble in our nature, so also the humorist rids us of what is cautious, calculating, and priggish--about half of our social conscience, indeed. Both of them permit us, in blessed moments of revelation, to soar above the common level of our lives.”

MomentsSocialLevelsCommonHalfOur LivesConscienceTragedyBlessedRevelationsTragicPermitSoarPettyCautiousHumoristsCalculatingIgnoble
Book:The Personal Art: Reading to Good Purpose
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“The audience is invisible and that's good. Somewhere my voice is drifting through a swine barn and the sound of it seems to perk up the sows' appetite. Or a lady is listening on headphones as she jogs along a beach, running to my cadence. Or a dog sits in front of the radio, head cocked, and the sibilants excite him in some mysterious way. A dog's humorist, that's me.”

WaySeemsRunningSoundVoiceAudienceDogFrontsListeningRadioInvisibleMysteriousBeachAppetiteDriftingHumoristsPerksBarnsCadenceSwineHeadphonesMysterious Ways
Author:Garrison Keillor
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“I'm a humorist. A guy like Paul Simon just makes my life so much simpler. When I was there, he had a hearing against hate. Steven Spielberg came and testified against hate. Paul Simon said hate was bad. Orrin Hatch was there, and he was against hate too. Everyone was opposed to hate. Is this really a wonderful way to spend our tax dollars, to have these men drone away about how against hate they are?”

MenWaySaidGuyHateWonderfulTaxesDollarsHearingDronesHumoristsTax Dollars
Author:Dave Barry
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“I don't think I was awake for much of my childhood. I did a lot of napping. This might have been a defensive measure against encroaching depression. Until about the age of eleven or twelve, I had zero interests other than trying to steal gumballs from supermarket gumball machines.”

ThinkingTryingHas BeensMightAgeInterestChildhoodDepressionMachinesDefenseStealingComedianAwakeZeroTwelveNot InterestedMight Have BeenElevenNapsSupermarketsHumoristsUnhappy ChildhoodGumballs
Author:Michael Ian Black
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“Walking companions, like heroes, are difficult to pluck out of the crowd of acquaintances. Good dispositions, ready wit, friendly conversation serve well enough by the fireside but they prove insufficient in the field. For there you need transcendentalists-nothing less; you need poets, sages, humorists and natural philosophers.”

NeedsWellsEnoughDifficultNaturalFieldsReadyPoetHeroWalkingConversationProvePhilosopherCrowdsWitFriendlyCompanionDispositionSageAcquaintanceHumoristsPluckInsufficient
Author:Brooks Atkinson
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“I don't want to be classed as a humorist. It makes me feel guilty. I've never read a good tough quotable female humorist, and I never was one myself. I couldn't do it. A "smartcracker" they called me, and that makes me sick and unhappy. There's a hell of a distance between wisecracking and wit. Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words.”

WantFeelsHellToughFemaleSickDistanceWitUnhappyGuiltyHumoristsCalisthenics
Author:Dorothy Parker
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