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I'm struck by how laughter connects you with people. It's almost impossible to maintain any kind of distance or any sense of social hierarchy when you're just howling with laughter. Laughter is a force for democracy.

— John Cleese

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More quotes by John Cleese

All humans are stupid, but the smarter ones at least have a handle on their own ignorance.

Because these people are operating at a very very low level of mental health, they are incapable of understanding the teaching.

If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play.

Best New Games (2002)

Four hundred years ago, we would have been burnt for this film. Now, I'm suggesting that we've made an advance.

He who laughs most, learns best.

Creating Emotionally Safe Schools: A Guide for Educators and Parents‎ (2001)

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