"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."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Boris Sidis, Psychology of Laughter (1913), p. 117
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Laughter
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Laughter
107 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Laughter →
Related Quotes
"Niemand wird tiefer traurig als wer zu viel lächelt."
"Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep really to sleep. Try as much as…"
"Put your prejudice aside, For, really, there's nothing here that's outrageous, Nothing sick, or bad — or contagious. …"
"Has he gone to the land of no laughter, The man who made mirth for us all?"
"Now everything is funny as long as it is happening to somebody Else, but when it happens to you, why it seems to lose…"
"Castigat ridendo mores."
"Nimium risus pretium est, si probitatis impendio constat."
"One inch of joy surmounts of grief a span, Because to laugh is proper to the man."
"Tel qui rit vendredi, dimanche pleurera."
"I have always been a laugher, disturbing people who are not laughers, upsetting whole audiences at theatres... I laug…"