Steve Allen Quotes

I'm somebody who believes in funny things, and laughing, but I do like for them to come from a place that addresses the human condition.

Knowing comedy is knowing human nature.

You know, funny can be universal.

I try to be funny and not ignorant.

Humor brings insight and tolerance. Irony brings a deeper and less friendly understanding.

The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the world; the humorist makes fun of himself, but in so doing, he identifies himself with people - that is, people everywhere, not for the purpose of taking them apart, but simply revealing their true nature.

I think comedy tells a lot; you can tell what people think by what they laugh at.

Humor is such a wonderful thing, helping you realize what a fool you are but how beautiful that is at the same time.

The man with the real sense of humor is the man who can put himself in the spectator's place and laugh at his own misfortune.

Laughter is the best way to get over something or get closer to something. It's one of the things I respect most about Amy Schumer. She's found a way to get us closer to ourselves and see the ugly side of humanity, but not in a way that's pointing a finger or that's angry. She does it in a way that makes us see the absurdity and laugh at it.

George Saunders is the funniest. He makes me laugh in the way I want to laugh - with so much empathy and deep understanding of people. He illuminates things and people I've never thought about - and I've dedicated my life to the study of people and their idiosyncrasies. He is light years ahead.

Comedy is the difference between how you see a person and how they see themselves.

Comedy is a universal language.

Humor is mankind's greatest blessing.

I want everything I do to have humor in it, because it seems to me that all of life has that.

Show me a person who doesn't like to laugh and I'll show you a person with a toe tag.

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

Sometimes the best way to make 'em laugh is to show 'em how you honestly feel.

I think comedy stems from being honest, often painfully so. I hope I can achieve that perspective in my own life and also have fun.

To me the goal of comedy is to just laugh, which is a really high hearted thing, visceral connection and reaction.

You cannot be mad at somebody who makes you laugh... it's as simple as that.

There is some humour in 'Family Values.' I don't want everyone to think it's not going to make them laugh. But there are quite a lot of poems there that aren't funny at all.

For some reason, people find me funny. It's quite hard to define why a thought is funny. It's even harder to define why a person would be funny. It's a word that I can't define at all. But whether I know quite what it is or not, I seem to be it.

Comedy is such a personal thing. Everybody can cry at the same thing, but it's a lot harder to get everyone to laugh at the same thing.

I think God gave us senses of humor, and we should use them.