If we may believe our logicians, man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter. He has a heart capable of mirth, and naturally disposed to it. – Joseph Addison
We are always doing, says he, something for posterity, but I would see posterity do something for us. – Joseph Addison
A mans first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart, and his next to escape the censures of the world. – Joseph Addison
It is the privilege of posterity to set matters right between those antagonists who, by their rivalry for greatness, divided a whole age. – Joseph Addison
For one seldom hears a genuine laugh nowadays, and much of the phraseology of laughter is a mere fashion of speech. There are many people whose sides have never ached from over-indulgence in the outward expression of mirth…. With some persons a wheeze or a chuckle is the utmost they can compass. – “Laughter,” in The Spectator for the week ending Saturday, January 19, 1889