Comedy, like sodomy, is an unnatural act.

A joke is at most a temporary rebellion against virtue, and its aim is not to degrade the human being but to remind him that he is already degraded.

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.

I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?”

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

A jest breaks no bones.

Wit enables us to act rudely with impunity.

Big head, little wit.

Jesters do oft prove prophets.

Jokes are grievances.

Laughter almost ever cometh of things most disproportioned to ourselves and nature. Laughter hath only a scornful tickling.

No man ever distinguished himself who could not bear to be laughed at.

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.