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Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are, and what they ought to be.

— William Hazlitt Lectures on the English Comic Writers (1819)

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More quotes by William Hazlitt

The true barbarian is he who thinks every thing barbarous but his own tastes and prejudices.

Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)

The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves.

Political Essays (1819)

The art of life is to know how to enjoy a little and to endure much.

Those who aim at faultless regularity will only produce mediocrity, and no one ever approaches perfection except by stealth, and unknown to themselves.

Man is a make-believe animal — he is never so truly himself as when he is acting a part.

Notes of a Journey through France and Italy (1824)

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Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.

Albert Einstein Essay to Leo Baeck (1953)

Laughter is the closest thing to the grace of God.

Karl Barth The Harper Book of Quotations (1993)

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

John Wolcot

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.

Bert Williams

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: William Hazlitt (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.