On Laughter:
Is it a good thing or not
?
Don't do it
"Having mentioned laughing,
I must particularly warn you against it.... Frequent and loud
laughter is the characteristic of folly and ill manners; it is
the manner in which the mob express their silly joy at silly
things; and they call it being merry. In my mind, there is nothing
so illiberal, and so ill-bred, as audible laughter. True wit,
or sense, never yet made anybody laugh; they are above it, they
please the mind, and give a cheerfulness to the countenance.
But it is low buffoonery, or silly accidents, that always excite
laughter; and that is what people of sense and breeding should
show themselves above.... I am neither of a melancholy nor a
cynical disposition, and am as willing and apt to be pleased
as anybody; but I am sure that since I had full use of my reason,
nobody has ever heard me laugh."
- from
a letter by Lord Chesterfield to his son
Do it
"To laugh often and love much;
to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of
children; to earn the approbation of honest critics and to endure
the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find
the best in others; to give of one's self; to leave the world
a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or
a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with
enthusiasm and sing with exultation; to know that even one life
has breathed easier because you have lived -- this is to have
succeeded."
- Ralph
Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
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