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On this hapless earth
There ’s small sincerity of mirth,
And laughter oft is but an art
To drown the outcry of the heart.

— Hartley Coleridge Poems (1851)

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More quotes by Hartley Coleridge

The soul of man is larger than the sky,
Deeper than ocean, or the abysmal dark
Of the unfathomed center.

Poems (1851)

Rising now, anon descending,
Swift and bright as shooting stars,
Thus we travel glad and free.

Poems (1851)

He grew, and grew,
A star-bright sign of fated empery;
And all conspiring omens led him on
To lofty purpose and pre-eminence.

Poems (1851)

Jove is not one half so merciless
As thou art to thyself. But fare thee well;
Our love is all as stubborn as thy pride,
And swift as firm.

Poems (1851)

The glad sons of the deliver'd earth
Shall yearly raise their multitudinous voice,
Hymning great Jove, the God of Liberty!

Poems (1851)

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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)

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)

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

Attribution

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