Max EastmanThinkers

Humor is the instinct for taking pain playfully.

A Joke is not a thing but a process, a trick one plays on the listener's mind. One starts him off toward a plausible goal, and then by a sudden twist one lands him nowhere at all or just where he didn't expect to go.

Laughter is after speech, the chief thing that holds society together.

A Poet is divine when in history, but a joke when in the next room.

Repartee is a dual fought with the points of jokes.

Robert Benchley is a writer whose style is so weak it lies down frequently to rest.

A Sense of humor is proved by one's ability to take a joke, not make one.

The Smile is the universal welcome.