Excess of sorrow laughs. Excess of joy weeps.

And if I laugh at any mortal thing, Tis that I may not weep.

We are the only creatures that both laugh and weep. I think it's because we are the only creatures that see the difference between the way things are and the way they might be.

The mad also laugh, or is that what Freud and the others discovered perhaps, that only the mad laugh?

The laughter of man is more terrible than his tears, and takes more forms-hollow, heartless, mirthless, maniacal.

We laugh and laugh. Then cry and cry- Then feebler laugh, Then die.

Do you know what laughter is? I'll tell you. It's God's mistake. When God made man in order to bend him to his wishes he carelessly gave him the gift of laughter.

Laugh, and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone; For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth, But has trouble enough of its own.