Education, the great mumbo jumbo and fraud of the age purports to equip us to live and is prescribed as a universal remedy for everything from juvenile delinquency to premature senility.
Malcolm MuggeridgeRead
Bad humor is an evasion of reality; good humor is an acceptance of it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Bad humor avoids confronting reality, while good humor embraces and acknowledges it.
This quote by Malcolm Muggeridge emphasizes the distinction between types of humor. Bad humor tends to gloss over or escape from reality, often avoiding the deeper truths of our experiences. In contrast, good humor recognizes and accepts the truths of life, providing a way to process and engage with reality in a constructive manner. It suggests that humor can be a powerful tool for coping with life's challenges by confronting them head-on rather than sidestepping them.
Themes
HumorRealityAcceptanceTruthLaughter
In practice
Example use cases
In a comedy show about the challenges of modern life, you might reflect on why 'bad humor is an evasion of reality; good humor is an acceptance of it.'
More from Malcolm Muggeridge
All quotes βThis life in us; however low it flickers or fiercely burns, is still a divine flame which no man dare presume to put out, be his motives never so humane and enlightened; To suppose otherwise is to countenance a death-wish; Either life is always and in all circumstances sacred, or intrinsically of no account; it is inconceivable that it should be in some cases the one, and in some the other.
Malcolm MuggeridgeRead
I never met a rich man who was happy, but I have only very occasionally met a poor man who did not want to become a rich man.
Malcolm MuggeridgeRead
It was a somber place, haunted by old jokes and lost laughter. Life, as I discovered, holds no more wretched occupation than trying to make the English laugh.
Malcolm MuggeridgeRead
The only ultimate disaster that can befall us is to feel ourselves at home on this earth.
Malcolm MuggeridgeRead
All happenings, great and small, are parables whereby God speaks. The art of life is to get the message. To see all that is offered us at the windows of the soul, and to reach out and receive what is offered, this is the art of living.
Malcolm MuggeridgeRead
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