Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

From the Quotation of the day mailing list, 2006-11-18:

"No subject is ever too serious for humour. I think many people have a basic misunderstanding: There's a difference between being serious and being solemn.

"We could be talking about things that are extremely serious -- our marriages, the education of our children, politics, even the meaning of life -- and laughing quite a lot and that wouldn't make what we were talking about one bit less serious.

"But solemnity, on the other hand; I don't know what it's for. Solemnity serves pomposity, self-importance, and egotism. And the pompous and the self-important always know at some level that their egotism is going to be punctured by humour. That's why they always see humour as negative, as a threat to them personally. And so they dishonestly criticize it as frivolous and light-minded."

-- John Cleese, British comedian & satirist, formerly of Monty Python's Flying Circus.

(Submitted to the mailing list be dan meltz)