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Mirth Quotes

Browse 192 quotes about Mirth.

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Mirth Quotes

“I am metaphysical being, mystical and emotional, skeptical and cynical, happy and boisterous, loud and bawdy, quiet and melancholy, tender and cruel, full of mirth and despair. Inherent inconsistences mark me as part of nature, which is neither cruel nor fair, or reliable or predictable.”

Human NatureEmotionalSadQuietDespairSelf AwarenessHappyLoudMelancholyCynicalSkepticismSelf KnowledgeSkepticalPredictableSkepticInconsistentMirthCynicInconsistencySelf IdentityPsycheCruelPredictabilityTenderReliableBoisterousHuman Nature QuotesConflicting EmotionsBawdyHu Nature Quote
Book:Dead Toad Scrolls
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“As a matter of fact, with all his wit, humor, raillery, persiflage, he was the profoundest logician that ever appealed to the intellect of an American audience. There was logic even in his laughter. He passed the cup of mirth, and in its sparkling foam were found the gems of unanswerable truth. {Kittredge on the great Robert Ingersoll}”

HumorTruthLaughterRespectLogicPraiseProfoundIntellectWitAdmirationFactGemsAmericanMirthIngersollRobert G IngersollRobert IngersollRobert Green IngersollLogician
Book:Ingersoll: A Biographical Appreciation
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“In 1881, being on a visit to Boston, my wife and I found ourselves in the Parker House with the Ingersoll's, and went over to Charleston to hear him lecture. His subject was 'Some Mistakes of Moses,' and it was a memorable experience. Our lost leaders, -- Emerson, Thoreau, Theodore Parker, -- who had really spoken to disciples rather than to the nation, seemed to have contributed something to form this organ by which their voice could reach the people. Every variety of power was in this orator, -- logic and poetry, humor and imagination, simplicity and dramatic art, moral and boundless sympathy. The wonderful power which Washington's Attorney-general, Edmund Randolph, ascribed to Thomas Paine of insinuating his ideas equally into learned and unlearned had passed from Paine's pen to Ingersoll's tongue. The effect on the people was indescribable. The large theatre was crowded from pit to dome. The people were carried from plaudits of his argument to loud laughter at his humorous sentences, and his flexible voice carried the sympathies of the assembly with it, at times moving them to tears by his pathos. {Conway's thoughts on the great Robert Ingersoll}”

LoveInspirationalArtReasonWisdomHumorTruthPoetryVoiceFriendshipImaginationEmotionPowerTearsHonorMoralitySpeechLaughterRespectLogicPraiseSimplicityMemorableAdmirationSympathyBostonMirthPathosPaineLectureIngersollRobert G IngersollRobert IngersollRobert Green IngersollEmersonOratorThomas PaineThoreauRalph Waldo EmersonHenry David ThoreauRalph EmersonHenry D ThoreauHenry ThoreauRalph E EmersonSome Mistakes Of Moses
Book:My Pilgrimage to the Wise Men of the East
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“Laugh, and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone; For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth, But has trouble enough of its own. Sing, and the hills will answer; Sigh, it is lost on the air; The echoes bound to a joyful sound, But shrink from voicing care. Rejoice, and men will seek you; Grieve, and they turn and go; They want full measure of all your pleasure, But they do not need your woe. Be glad, and your friends are many; Be sad, and you lose them all,— There are none to decline your nectared wine, But alone you must drink life’s gall. Feast, and your halls are crowded; Fast, and the world goes by. Succeed and give, and it helps you live, But no man can help you die. There is room in the halls of pleasure For a large and lordly train, But one by one we must all file on Through the narrow aisles of pain.”

PainTroubleLaughMirthElla Wheeler Wilcox
Author:Ella Wheeler Wilcox
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“Sincere and unspiteful laughter is mirth, but where is there any mirth in our time, and do people know how to be mirthful?... A man's mirth is a feature that gives away the whole man, from head to foot. Someone's character won't be cracked for a long time then the man bursts out laughing somehow quite sincerely, and his whole character suddenly opens up as if on the flat of your hand. Only a man of the loftiest and happiest development knows how to be mirthful infectiously, that is, irresistibly and goodheartedly. I'm not speaking of his mental development, but of his character, of the whole man. And so, if you want to discern a man and know his soul, you must look, not at how he keeps silent, or how he speaks, or how we weeps, or even how he is stirred by the noblest ideas, but you had better look at him when he laughs. If a man has a good laugh, it means he's a good man.”

CharacterLaughterMirthDostoevsky
Book:The Adolescent
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“When Death, or adverse Fortune's ruthless gale, Tears our best hopes away, the wounded Heart Exhausted, leans on all that can impart The charm of Sympathy; her mutual wail How soothing! never can her warm tears fail To balm our bleeding grief's severest smart; Nor wholly vain feign'd Pity's solemn art, Tho' we should penetrate her sable veil. Concern, e'en known to be assum'd, our pains Respecting, kinder welcome far acquires Than cold Neglect, or Mirth that Grief profanes. Thus each faint Glow-worm of the Night conspires, Gleaming along the moss'd and darken'd lanes, To cheer the Gloom with her unreal fires.”

TearsSorrowConcernPityNeglectGrief And LossSoothingMirth
Book:Original sonnets on various subjects; and odes paraphrased from Horace
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“I couldn't come up with any words when we arrived- and knew that even if I had been able to paint it, nothing would have done it justice. It wasn't simply that it was the most beautiful place I'd ever been to, or that it filled me with both longing and mirth, but it just seemed... right. As if the colours and lights and patterns of the world had come together to form one perfect place- one true bit of beauty. After last night, it was exactly where I needed to be. We sat atop a grassy knoll, overlooking a glade of oaks so wide and high they could have been the pillars and spires of an ancient castle. Shimmering tufts of dandelion fluff drifted by, and the floor of the clearing was carpeted with swaying crocuses and snowdrops and bluebells. It was an hour or two past noon by the time we arrived, but the light was thick and golden. Though the three of us were alone, I could have sworn I heard singing. I hugged my knees and drank in the glen.”

BeautifulLongingSarah J MaasFeyreFeyre ArcheronFlowersA Court Of Thorns And RosesMirthGlenKnoll
Book:A Court of Thorns and Roses
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“Mirth,” Dr. Tuttle said. “I like it better than joy. Happiness isn’t a word I like to use in here. It’s very arresting, happiness. You should know that I'm someone who appreciates the subtleties of human experience. Being well rested is a precondition, of course. Do you know what mirth means? M-I-R-T-H?" "Yeah. Like The House of Mirth," I said. "A sad story," said Dr. Tuttle. "I haven't read it." "Better you don't.”

HumorHappinessWordsDialogueMirthConnotationWackyOttessa MoshfeghMy Year Of Rest And Relaxation
Book:My Year of Rest and Relaxation
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“A wounded deer leaps highest, I've heard the hunter tell; 'Tis but the ecstasy of death, And then the brake is still. The smitten rock that gushes, The trampled steel that springs,, A cheek is always redder Just where the hectic stings Mirth is mail of anguish, In which its cautious arm Lest anybody spy the blood And, you're hurt exclaim.”

StillsHurtHeardBloodRocksArmsHighestSpringAbuseLeapEcstasyMailCheeksWoundedSteelAnguishHuntersSpyCautiousDeerMirthBrakeHecticSmitten
Book:The Works of Emily Dickinson
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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.”

FeelsTryingLittlesActorsVoiceEffortQualityAudienceWallLaughterShadowResponseBoxesTheatreScreensIntimateCharmPerformersApplauseMirthAppreciativeOasis
Author:Robertson Davies
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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.”

ThinkingMenShouldAbilitySubjectsDutySacredWittyOccasionsMannersConsiderationMelancholyDaringSolemnPledgeAllegianceOathMirthJestHardenedDeluded
Book: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
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“A precious place is Paradise and none may know its worth, But Eden ever longeth for the knicknacks of the earth. The angels grow quite wistful over worldly things below; They hear the hurdy-gurdies in the Candle Makers Row. They listen for the laughter from the antics of the earth; They lower pails from heaven's walls to catch the milk-maids mirth.”

KnowsMayEarthHeavenGrowsWallLaughterAngelParadiseMakersMilkCandleWorldlyEdenMaidsMirthAnticsWorldly Things
Book:The Janitor's Boy and Other Poems
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“Amis is acutely, vibrantly sensitive to the different registers of laughter. He knows that it can be the most affirming and uniquely human sound, and also the most sinister and animalistic one. He understands every note of every octave that separates the liberating shout of mirth from the cackle of a bully or the snigger of a sadist.”

KnowsHumansBookDifferentLanguageSoundLaughterNotesSensitiveBullyLiberatingRegisterSinisterMirthAffirmingAnimalistic
Author:Martin Amis
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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?”

ThinkingKnowsUsePassionNamesReligiousWonderfulExpressionHolyOrdinaryPaidJewDiscourseMirthProfanityVeneration
Book:The Evidences of the Christian Religion: To which are Added, Several Discourses Against Atheism and Infidelity, and in Defence of the Christian Revelation
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“Near yonder thorn, that lifts its head on high, Where once the sign-post caught the passing eye, Low lies that house where nut-brown draughts inspired, Where graybeard mirth and smiling toil retired, Where village statesmen talk'd with looks profound, And news much older than their ale went round.”

LooksEyeLyingHouseNewsLowsProfoundInspiredRoundsCaughtPassingPassingsPostsLiftsBrownVillageNutsToilRetiredStatesmenMirthInnsAleDraught
Book:The miscellaneous works of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B.: with a biographical memoir of the author, written expressly for this edition
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