Laughter And Sayings About It

I really like laughing, I don’t know who doesn’t, however one needs to laugh when appropriate. How to discern between those times when one should laugh and when one shouldn’t is not necessarily difficult. Simply put yourself in the other’s shoes and "be glad with those who are glad and cry with those who cry." But more than a mood changer, laughter is also influential upon one’s health, especially one’s heart health.

Cardiologists at the University of Maryland Medical Center (Baltimore) have shown that an active sense of humor and a good portion of laughter is very likely to protect against heart attack.

The conclusion of their research is that people suffering from heart disease laugh 40% less than their counterparts. The test undertaken puts you in various situations with the aim of bringing to mind the circumstances where you are most/less likely to laugh.

"We don't know yet why laughing protects the heart, but we know that mental stress is associated with impairment of the endothelium, the protective barrier lining our blood vessels. This can cause a series of inflammatory reactions that lead to fat and cholesterol build-up in the coronary arteries and ultimately to a heart attack," says Dr. Miller.

Therefore, laughter is not just a pleasant pastime but a great medicine. I’ll let you laugh at the next joke and then discover what other important personalities have to say about laughter.

"The kids take a religious test. Out of the mouths of babes...

I was testing the children in my Sunday school class to see if they understood the concept of getting to heaven. I asked them, 'If I sold my house and my car, had a big garage sale and gave all my money to the church, Would that get me into Heaven?'

'NO!' the children answered.

'If I cleaned the church every day, mowed the yard, and kept everything neat and tidy, would that get me into Heaven?'

Again, the answer was, 'NO!' By now I was starting to smile. Hey, this was fun!

'Well, then, if I was kind to animals and gave candy to all the children, and loved my husband, would that get me into Heaven?' I asked them again.

Again, they all answered, 'NO!'

I was just bursting with pride for them.
'Well,' I continued, 'then how can I get into Heaven?'

A five-year-old boy shouted out, 'YOU GOTTA BE DEAD!'

The expected answer was another - namely that only through Jesus’ sacrifice one can enter Heaven - however, it is great to have a clean laughter.

"Honest good humor is the oil and wine of a merry meeting, and there is no jovial companionship equal to that where the jokes are rather small and laughter abundant." Washington Irving

"Laugh at yourself first, before anyone else can." Elsa Maxwell

"We cannot really love anybody with whom we never laugh." Agnes Repplier

"You can't stay mad at somebody who makes you laugh." Jay Leno

"If we can open your mind to laughter, we can slip in a little information." Virginia Tooper

"The most wasted day of all is that during which we have not laughed." Sebastian R. N. Chamfort

"If you don't learn to laugh at troubles, you won't have anything to laugh at when you grow old." Edward W. Howe

"Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine." Lord Byron

"I always knew looking back on my tears would bring me laughter, but I never knew looking back on my laughter would make me cry." Cat Stevens

"The tears that you spill, the sorrowful, are sweeter than the laughter of snobs and the guffaws of scoffers." Kahlil Gibran

"Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face." Victor Hugo

"The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter." Mark Twain

"You don't stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing." Michael Pritchard

"Men show their character in nothing more clearly than by what they find laughable." Anon.

"Laughter is the shortest distance between two people." Victor Borge

"In this life he laughs longest who laughs last." John Masefield

"Man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter." Joseph Addison

Therefore, don’t miss any opportunity to take a good laughter portion; laughing at yourself is a very good start too. As the sayings and proverbs above mentioned, the things you laugh about will show the things you are serious about, therefore your laughter mirrors your character. Good, clean humor is indeed a source of health and ease for the heart and even if much of the humor can be dirty, try to stay away from it because healing your heart and damaging your brain is not a good deal. So, keep your humor clean and laugh all you can!