Henry David Thoreau Quotations: Humor
Besides, humor does not wear well.—"Thomas Carlyle and His Works"
Especially the transcendental philosophy needs the leaven of humor to render it light and digestible.—"Thomas Carlyle and His Works"
He sketches first, with strong, practical English pencil, the essential features in outline, black on white, more faithfully that Dryasdust would have done, telling us wisely whom and what to mark, to save time, and then with a brush of camel's hair, or sometimes with more expeditious swab, he lays on the bright and fast colors of his humor everywhere.—"Thomas Carlyle and His Works"
His humor is always subordinate to a serious purpose, though often the real charm for the reader is not so much in the essential progress and final upshot of this chapter, as in this indirect side-light illustration of every hue.—"Thomas Carlyle and His Works"
I have been breaking silence these twenty three years and have hardly made a rent in it.—Journal, 9 February 1841
O how I laugh when I think of my vague, indefinite riches. No run on my bank can drain it—for my wealth is not possession but enjoyment.—Thoreau to H. G. O. Blake, 6 December 1856
The deepest humor will not keep.—"Thomas Carlyle and His Works"
To the thinker, all institutions of men, as all imperfection, viewed from the point of equanimity, are legitimate subjects of humor.—"Thomas Carlyle and His Works"
