Jests and scoffs do lessen majesty and greatness and should be far from great personages and men of wisdom.

There is nothing sillier than a silly laugh.

Comedy, like sodomy, is an unnatural act.

Laughter always arises from a gaiety of disposition, absolutely incompatible with contempt and indignation.

Jokes are grievances.

I used to think that everyone was just being funny. But now I don’t know. I mean, how can you tell?

Jesters do oft prove prophets.

A jest breaks no bones.

He who laugheth too much, hath the nature of a fool; he that laugheth not at all, hath the nature of an old cat.

Wit enables us to act rudely with impunity.

Some things are privileged from jest—namely, religion, matters of state, great persons, all men’s present business of importance, and any case that deserves pity.

It is easy to distinguish between the joking that reflects good breeding and that which is coarse—the one, if aired at an apposite moment of mental relaxation, is becoming in the most serious of men, whereas the other is unworthy of any free person, if the content is indecent or the expression obscene.

A difference of taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections.