Jokes

Explore 10 quotes about Jokes

A jest's prosperity lies in the ear
Of him that hears it, never in the tongue
Of him that makes it.

William Shakespeare

Love's Labour's Lost

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Topic

Jokes Humor

Speaker

Rosaline

Author

William Shakespeare

Source

Love's Labour's Lost

Medium

Play

Genre

Comedy (play)

Language

English

Time

1597 1590s 16th century

Era

European Renaissance

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Shakespeare, William. Love's Labour's Lost. 1597, England, UK, act 5, sc. 2.

Current Citation

Shakespeare, William. "Love's Labour's Lost." The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, et al., 3rd ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2015, act 5, sc. 2.

Of all failures, to fail in a witticism is the worst, and the mishap is the more calamitous in a drawn-out and detailed one.

Walter Savage Landor

More information about this quote

Topic

Jokes Failure

Speaker

Chatham

Author

Walter Savage Landor

Language

English

Time

1825 1820s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Landor, Walter Savage. "Chesterfield and Chatham." Imaginary Conversations. c. 1825.

Perhaps it is indeed time I began to look at this whole matter of bantering more enthusiastically. After all, when one thinks about it, it is not such a foolish thing to indulge in-particularly if it is the case that in bantering lies the key to human warmth.

Kazuo Ishiguro

The Remains of the Day

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Topic

Jokes Conversation

Author

Kazuo Ishiguro

Source

The Remains of the Day

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1989 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Ishiguro, Kazuo. The Remains of the Day. Faber & Faber, 1989.

Whatever is funny is subversive, every joke is ultimately a custard pie...A dirty joke is not, of course, a serious attack upon morality, but it is a sort of mental rebellion, a momentary wish that things were otherwise.

George Orwell

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Topic

Jokes

Author

George Orwell

Source

The Art of Donald McGill

Language

English

Time

1941 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Orwell, George. "The Art of Donald McGill." Horizon, Sept. 1941.

Current Citation

Orwell, George. "The Art of Donald McGill." The Collected Essays, Journalism And Letters Of George Orwell, vol. 2: My Country Right or Left 1940-1943, edited by Sonia Orwell and Ian Angus. David R. Godine, 2007, no. 27, pt. 4.

A joke worth laughing at always has an idea behind it, and usually a subversive idea.

George Orwell

Read Charles Dickens at orwell.ru.

More information about this quote

Topic

Jokes Power of humor

Author

George Orwell

Source

Charles Dickins Inside the Whale and Other Essays

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1940 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Orwell, George. "Charles Dickens." Inside the Whale and Other Essays. Victor Gollancz, 1940, pt. 6.

The world has joked incessantly for over fifty centuries.
And every joke that's possible has long ago been made.

W.S. Gilbert

More information about this quote

Topic

Jokes Plus ça change

Author

W.S. Gilbert

Source

His Excellency

Medium

Opera

Genre

Comedy

Language

English

Time

1894 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Gilbert, William Schwenck. His Excellency. Composed by F. Osmond Carr. 1894, Lyric Theatre, London, England, UK.

I think no innocent species of wit or pleasantry should be suppressed; and that a good pun may be admitted among the smaller excellencies of lively conversation.

Samuel Johnson

Quoted in The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D, by James Boswell

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Topic

Jokes

Speaker

Samuel Johnson

Author

James Boswell

Source

The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D

Genre

Biography

Language

English

Time

1784 1780s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Johnson, Samuel. Quoted in journal entry, written by James Boswell. c. June 1784.

Current Citation

Johnson, Samuel. Quoted in The Life of Samuel Johnson, written by James Boswell, edited by David Womersley. Penguin Classics, 2008.

A pistol let off at the ear, not a feather to tickle the intellect.

Charles Lamb

On puns.

More information about this quote

Topic

Jokes

Author

Charles Lamb

Medium

Essay

Statement Type

Definition

Language

English

Time

1833 1830s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Lamb, Charles [published as Elia]. "Popular Fallacies: IX, That the Worst Puns Are the Best." The London Magazine, 1826.

Why should truth not be impress'd
Beneath the cover of a jest.

Horace

Satires

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Topic

Jokes Humor

Author

Horace

Source

Satires

Medium

Poem

Language

Latin

Time

34 BC 30s BC 1st century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Romulus. Quoted in Saturae [Satires], written by Horace. c. 35 BC, bk. 1.

Current Citation

Romulus. Quoted in Satires and Epistles, written by Horace, translated by John Davie. Oxford University Press, 2011, bk. 1.

There's a helluva distance between wise-cracking and wit. Wit has truth in it; wise-cracking is simply calisthenics with words.

Dorothy Parker

More information about this quote

Topic

Jokes

Author

Dorothy Parker

Source

Paris Review

Medium

Interview Magazine

Language

English

Time

1956 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Parker, Dorothy. "The Art of Fiction." The Paris Review, Summer 1956, Issue 13, p. 80.