JOKE

Related Subjects: Epigram, Humor, Laughter, Merriment, Pun, Wit

1. Master, shall I begin with the usual jokes
   That the audience always laugh at?—ARISTOPHANES, The Frogs
   

2. He'd rather lose his dinner than his jest.—BEAUMONT & FLETCHER, Wit at Several Weapons
   

3. The ordinary and over-worn trade of jesting.—BEAUMONT & FLETCHER, The Woman Hater
   

4. There is no jesting with edge tools.—BEAUMONT & FLETCHER, The Little French Lawyer
   

5. Jests that give pain are no jests.—CERVANTES, Don Quixote
   

6. A good joke is the one ultimate and sacred thing which cannot be criticized. Our relations with a good joke are direct and even divine relations.—G. K. CHESTERTON, Preface to Pickwick Papers
   

7. My son was killed while laughing at some jest. I would I knew
   What it was, and it might serve me in a time when jests are few.—KIPLING, Epitaphs of the War
   

8. Suppress me if you can! I am a Merry Jest!—ANDREW LANG, Ballade of the Primitive Jest
   

9. The saddest ones are those that wear
   The jester's motley garb.—DON MARQUIS, The Tavern of Despair

10. Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee
    Jest and youthful Jollity,
    Quips and Cranks, and wanton Wiles,
    Nods, and Becks, and wreathed Smiles.—MILTON, L'Allegro
    

11. Joking decides great things,
    Stronglier, and better oft than earnest can.—MILTON, Imitation of Horace
    

12. Good jests bite like lambs, not like dogs.—Proverb
    

13. That's the cream of the jest.—Proverb
    

14. Many a true word is spoken in jest.—Proverb
    

15. The wise make jests and fools repeat them.—Proverb
    

16. A jest driven too far brings home hate.—Proverb
    

17. A jest loses its point when the jester laughs himself.—SCHILLER, Fiesco
    

18. Alas, poor Yorick ! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy.—SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet
    

19. It would be argument for a week, laughter f or a month, and a good jest for ever.—SHAKESPEARE, Henry IV
    

20. A jest's prosperity lies in the ear
    Of him that hears it, never in the tongue
    Of him that makes it.—SHAKESPEARE, Love's Labour's Lost
    

21. My way of joking is telling the truth.
    That is the funniest joke in the world.—BERNARD SHAW
    

22. You could read Kant by your­self, if you wanted; but you must share a joke with some one else.—STEVENSON, Virginibus Puerisque
    

23. A college joke to cure the dumps.—SWIFT, Cassinus and Peter
    

24. I tried him with mild jokes, then with severe ones.—MARK TWAIN, A Deception