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Stupid people, who do not know how to laugh, are always pompous and self-conceited; that is, ungentle, uncharitable, unchristian.

— William Makepeace Thackeray Sketches and Travels in Londonm : Mr. Brown's Letters to His Nephew (1856)

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More quotes by William Makepeace Thackeray

There are a thousand thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up the pen to write.

The History of Henry Esmond (1852)

Good humour may be said to be one of the very best articles of dress one can wear in society.

Sketches and Travels in London (1847)

I never know whether to pity or congratulate a man on coming to his senses.

The Virginians (1857)

How hard it is to make an Englishman acknowledge that he is happy!

The History of Pendennis (1848)

It is best to love wisely, no doubt; but to love foolishly is better than not to be able to love at all. Some of us can't: and are proud of our impotence, too.

The History of Pendennis (1848)

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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: William Makepeace Thackeray (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.