You cannot force people to laugh: you cannot give a reason why they should laugh: they must laugh of themselves, or not at all.
William Hazlitt
Where these words come from
- The sources checked so far agree on this one. The book or the speech it first came from hasn't turned up yet.
- https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/59506
More on play
For the comic spirit has a logic of its own, even in its wildest eccentricities.Henri BergsonThe first point to which attention should be called is that the comic does not exist outside the pale of what is strictly HUMAN.Henri BergsonA landscape may be beautiful, charming and sublime, or insignificant and ugly; it will never be laughable.Henri BergsonIt seems as though the comic could not produce its disturbing effect unless it fell, so to say, on the surface of a soul that is thoroughly calm and unruffled.Henri BergsonIndifference is its natural environment, for laughter has no greater foe than emotion.Henri BergsonNow step aside, look upon life as a disinterested spectator: many a drama will turn into a comedy.Henri Bergson
More inspiration
See allYou gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.
Eleanor RooseveltNo one can make you feel inferior without your consent.Eleanor RooseveltLittle strokes fell great oaks.
Benjamin FranklinEnergy and persistence conquer all things.Benjamin FranklinWell done is better than well said.Benjamin FranklinIf there is no struggle, there is no progress.
Frederick Douglass
Eleanor RooseveltNo one can make you feel inferior without your consent.Eleanor RooseveltLittle strokes fell great oaks.Benjamin FranklinEnergy and persistence conquer all things.Benjamin FranklinWell done is better than well said.Benjamin FranklinIf there is no struggle, there is no progress.Frederick Douglass