Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Related Quotes

Sara Davidson

The ability to laugh at life is right at the top, with love and communication in the hierarchy of our needs. Humor has much to do with pain; it exaggerates the anxieties and absurdities we feel, so that we gain distance and through laughter, relief.

Ability | Character | Humor | Laughter | Life | Life | Love | Pain | Right | Wisdom |

Sinclair Lewis, fully Harry Sinclair Lewis

There are two insults no human will endure: the assertion that he has no sense of humor and the doubly impertinent assertion that he has never known trouble.

Assertion | Character | Humor | Sense | Will |

George Jean Nathan

It is the mask of a superior man that, left to himself, he is able endlessly to amuse, interest and entertain himself out of his personal stock of meditations, ideas, criticisms, memories, philosophy, humor and what not.

Character | Humor | Ideas | Man | Philosophy |

Ronald E. Osborn

No heart is empty of the humor of curiosity, the beggar being as attentive, in his station, to an increase of knowledge, as the prince.

Character | Curiosity | Heart | Humor | Knowledge |

Charles Simmons

Good humor is the best shield against the darts of satirical raillery.

Character | Good | Humor |

Victor Borge, born Børge Rosenbaum

Humor (is) something that thrives between man's aspirations and his limitations. There is more logic in humor than in anything else. Because, you see, humor is truth.

Humor | Logic | Man | Truth | Wisdom |

Melvin "Mel" Helitzer

Good humor is a paradox. The unexpected juxtaposition of the reasonable next to the unreasonable.

Good | Humor | Paradox | Wisdom |

Marya Mannes

Good-fellowship, unflagging, is the prime requisite for success in our society, and the man or woman who smiles only for reasons of humor or pleasure is a deviate.

Good | Humor | Man | Pleasure | Society | Success | Wisdom | Woman |

William Makepeace Thackeray

Good humor is one of the best articles of dress one can wear in society.

Good | Humor | Society | Wisdom |

William E. Blatz, fully William Emet Blatz

Parenting: Affection without sentiment, authority without cruelty, discipline without aggression, humor without ridicule, sacrifice without obligation, companionship without possessiveness.

Aggression | Authority | Cruelty | Discipline | Humor | Obligation | Ridicule | Sacrifice | Sentiment | Companionship |

Emmet Fox

You grow in grace and understanding by solving your daily problems as they arise, by the Practice of the Presence of God, by a tolerant attitude toward others, by plan horse sense (which is Divine Wisdom in you), by sincere and honest dealing at all times, and by cultivating a true sense of humor – which always brings us nearer to God. The great point is that life is to be met and mastered. Outer conditions and appearances are simply of no importance in themselves except as they supply material for growth.

God | Grace | Growth | Humor | Life | Life | Plan | Practice | Problems | Sense | Understanding | Wisdom |

Sam Ervin, fully Samuel James "Sam" Ervin, Jr.

Humor is one of God’s most marvelous gifts. Humor give us smiles, laughter, and gaiety. Humor reveals the roses and hides the thorns. Humor makes our heavy burden light and smooths the rough spots in our pathways. Humor endows us with the capacity to clarify the obscure, to simplify the complex, to deflate the pompous, to chastise the arrogant, to point a moral, and to adorn a tale.

Capacity | God | Humor | Laughter | Light |

Herman Hesse

All higher humor begins with ceasing to take oneself seriously.

Humor |

Roger Rosenblatt

I’m learning the difference between humor and comedy, between the laugh that lasts forever and the one that evaporates as soon as it hits the air. Humor is giving, and comedy is taking away. Humor is companionable, comedy cold. Humor is character, comedy personality.

Character | Comedy | Giving | Humor | Learning | Personality |

Moshe Waldoks

A sense of humor can help you overlook the unattractive, tolerate the unpleasant, cope with the unexpected, and smile through the unbearable.

Humor | Sense | Smile |