"The glory which is built upon a lie soon becomes a most unpleasant incumbrance. … How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and how hard it is to undo that work again!"

"“I don’t think he (Branch Rickey) would lie,” said Red Smith, “but he was so good at evasion, at circumlocution, that he didn’t have to lie.”"

"If you want truth to go round the world you must hire an express train to pull it. But if you want a lie to go round the world, it will fly; it is light as a feather and a breath will carry it."

"As long as you live you should not increase evil by telling lies; for if you do, to succumb will be your lot."

"When liars enter by the city gate, in front of them there is a finger pointing at them, behind them there is a finger pointing at them."

"When hope lies dead—ah, when 'tis death to live, And wrongs remembered make the heart still bleed, Better are Sleep's kind lies for Life's blind need Than truth, if lies a little peace can give."

"Who dares think one thing, and another tell, My heart detests him as the gates of hell."

"I mean you lie—under a mistake."

"It is better to be poor and walk in integrity than to be stupid and speak lies."

"A lie never lives to be old."

"An occasional little white lie such as Weston's probably won't cause any lasting damage. And at times, telling the truth—particularly the whole truth to a child who's not at an age to handle it—may do more harm than good, they say."

"Tell a lie and then tell the truth: it will be considered a lie."

"Now all the truth is out, Be secret and take defeat From any brazen throat, For how can you compete, Being honor bred, with one Who, were it proved he lies, Were neither shamed in his own Nor in his neighbors’ eyes?"

"Urge him with truth to frame his fair replies; And sure he will; for wisdom never lies."

"Nimium risus pretium est, si probitatis impendio constat."

"The house of laughter makes a house of woe."

"Care to our coffin adds a nail, no doubt; And every Grin, so merry, draws one out."

"Your race, in its poverty, has unquestionably one really effective weapon—laughter. Power, Money, Persuasion, Supplication, Persecution—these can lift at a colossal humbug,—push it a little—crowd it a little—weaken it a little, century by century: but only Laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of Laughter nothing can stand."

"He laughs best who laughs last."

"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."

"Never laugh at live dragons."

"Stupid people, who do not know how to laugh, are always pompous and self-conceited; that is, ungentle, uncharitable, unchristian."

"For still the World prevail'd, and its dread laugh, Which scarce the firm Philosopher can scorn."

"There’s something out there and it’s laughing at us."

"Fight Virtue's cause, stand up in Wit's defence, Win us from vice and laugh us into sense."

"Society and its ideal average, normal mediocrity with its pleasing, mannerly, commonplace platitudes may have its fling of jeering at genius for not conforming to social usage and for breaking away from the well-trodden paths of social ruts. Far more effective and deadly are the stones of ridicule cast by the hand of genius at the Philistine Goliath, strong in his brute social power, but dull of wits. Social laughter is momentary, soon burns itself out and passes away like the fire and smokes of straw, but genius shakes the very skies with its lasting, inextinguishable laughter."

"Laughter almost ever cometh of things most disproportioned to ourselves and nature: delight hath a joy in it either permanent or present; laughter hath only a scornful tickling."

"In my mind, there is nothing so illiberal and so ill-bred, as audible laughter."

"They laugh that win."

"I think that wherever your journey takes you, there are new gods waiting there, with divine patience — and laughter."

"Laugh and be fat."

"The brain of this foolish-compounded clay, man, is not able to invent anything that tends to laughter, more than I invent or is invented on me."

"O, I am stabb'd with laughter."

"Castigat ridendo mores."

"Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough."

"I have always been a laugher, disturbing people who are not laughers, upsetting whole audiences at theatres... I laugh, that's all. I love to laugh. Laugher to me is being alive. I have had rotten times, and I have laughed through them. Even in the midst of the very worst times I have laughed."

"Now everything is funny as long as it is happening to somebody Else, but when it happens to you, why it seems to lose some of its Humor, and if it keeps on happening, why the entire laughter kinder Fades out of it."

"Tel qui rit vendredi, dimanche pleurera."

"Has he gone to the land of no laughter, The man who made mirth for us all?"

"With his eyes in flood with laughter."

"Niemand wird tiefer traurig als wer zu viel lächelt."

"One inch of joy surmounts of grief a span, Because to laugh is proper to the man."

"The man with the real sense of humor is the man who can put himself in the spectator's place and laugh at his own misfortunes. That is what I am called upon to do every day."

"Put your prejudice aside, For, really, there's nothing here that's outrageous, Nothing sick, or bad — or contagious. Not that I sit here glowing with pride For my book: all you'll find is laughter: That's all the glory my heart is after, Seeing how sorrow eats you, defeats you. I'd rather write about laughing than crying, For laughter makes men human, and courageous."