Hang out our banners on the outward walls;

The cry is still, "They come!" our castle's strength

Will laugh a siege to scorn.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 5.

An atheist's laugh's a poor exchange

For Deity offended!

Robert Burns (1759-1796): Epistle to a Young Friend.

Laugh and be fat.

John Taylor (1580?-1684). Title of a Tract, 1615.

And if I laugh at any mortal thing,

'T is that I may not weep.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Don Juan. Canto iv. Stanza 4.

I laugh, for hope hath happy place with me;

If my bark sinks, 't is to another sea.

William Ellery Channing (1817-1901): A Poet's Hope.

In bed we laugh, in bed we cry;

And, born in bed, in bed we die.

The near approach a bed may show

Of human bliss to human woe.

The watch-dog's voice that bay'd the whispering wind,

And the loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind.

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774): The Deserted Village. Line 121.

One inch of joy surmounts of grief a span,

Because to laugh is proper to the man.

Martin Luther (1483-1546): To the Reader.

My lungs began to crow like chanticleer,

That fools should be so deep-contemplative;

And I did laugh sans intermission

An hour by his dial.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 7.

And if I laugh at any mortal thing,

'T is that I may not weep.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Don Juan. Canto iv. Stanza 4.

They laugh that win.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Othello. Act iv. Sc. 1.

You hear that boy laughing?—you think he's all fun;

But the angels laugh, too, at the good he has done;

The children laugh loud as they troop to his call,

And the poor man that knows him laughs loudest of all.

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894): The Boys.

So on the tip of his subduing tongue

All kinds of arguments and questions deep,

All replication prompt, and reason strong,

For his advantage still did wake and sleep.

To make the weeper laugh, the laugher weep,

He had the dialect and different skill,

Catching all passion in his craft of will.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): A Lover's Complaint. Line 120.

The horn, the horn, the lusty horn

Is not a thing to laugh to scorn.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): As You Like It. Act iv. Sc. 2.

The landlord's laugh was ready chorus.

Robert Burns (1759-1796): Tam o' Shanter.

Eye Nature's walks, shoot folly as it flies,

And catch the manners living as they rise;

Laugh where we must, be candid where we can,

But vindicate the ways of God to man.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 13.

Who but must laugh, if such a man there be?

Who would not weep, if Atticus were he?

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot. Prologue to the Satires. Line 213.

For still the world prevail'd, and its dread laugh,

Which scarce the firm philosopher can scorn.

James Thomson (1700-1748): The Seasons. Autumn. Line 233.