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Joseph Addison Quotes about Laughter

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Man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter.

Man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter.

Joseph Addison
Laughter, Men, Mirth
'The Spectator' no. 494, 26 September 1712

If we may believe our logicians, man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter. He has a heart capable of mirth, and naturally disposed to it.

Joseph Addison
Laughter, Believe, Heart
'The Spectator' no. 494, 26 September 1712

Laughter, while it lasts, slackens and unbraces the mind, weakens the faculties, and causes a kind of remissness and dissolution in all the powers of the soul.

Joseph Addison
Laughter, Soul, Mind
Joseph Addison, Richard Steele (1854). “The Spectator”, p.294

Ridicule is generally made use of to laugh men out of virtue and good sense, by attacking everything praiseworthy in human life.

Joseph Addison
Life, Laughter, Humor

The talent of turning men into ridicule, and exposing to laughter those one converses with, is the qualification of little ungenerous tempers.

Joseph Addison
Laughter, Men, Littles
Joseph Addison (1856). “The works of ... Joseph Addison, with notes by R. Hurd”, p.147

It is very wonderful to see persons of the best sense passing hours together in shuffling and dividing a pack of cards with no conversation but what is made up of a few game-phrases, and no other ideas but those of black or red spots arranged together in different figures. Would not a man laugh to hear any one of his species complaining that life is short?

Joseph Addison
Life, Laughter, Men

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