A good laugh is a mighty good thing, and rather too scarce a good thing.
Interpretation
Laughter is important and valuable, yet it is often rare.
Herman Melville emphasizes the significance of laughter in life, suggesting that it is a powerful tool for joy and well-being. He implies that despite its value, genuine laughter is not common, highlighting the need for more moments of joy in our lives.
In practice
In a speech about mental health, I would quote Melville to emphasize the benefits of laughter.
A good laugh is a mighty good thing, and rather too scarce a good thing; the more's the pity. So, if any one man, in his own proper person, afford stuff for a good joke to anybody, let him not be backward, but let him cheerfully allow himself to spend and be spent in that way. And the man that has anything bountifully laughable about him, be sure there is more in that man than you perhaps think for.
The Marquesan girls dance all over; not only do their feet dance, but their arms, hands, fingers, ay, their very eyes seem to dance in their heads.
Dream tonight of peacock tails, Diamond fields and spouter whales. Ills are many, blessing few, But dreams tonight will shelter you.
Why did the old Persians hold the sea holy? Why did the Greeks give it a separate deity, and own brother Jove? Surely all this is not without meaning. And still deeper the meaning of that story of Narcissus, who because he could not grasp the tormenting mild image he saw in the fountain, plunged into it and was drowned. But that same image, we ourselves see in all rivers and oceans. It is the image of the ungraspable phantom of life; and this is the key to it all.
If some books are deemed most baneful and their sale forbid, how then with deadlier facts, not dreams of doting men? Those whom books will hurt will not be proof against events. Events, not books should be forbid.
You cannot spill a drop of American blood without spilling the blood of the whole world.... We are not a nation, so much as a world.
You're a monster, Mr. Grinch._x000D_ _x000D_ Your heart's an empty hole._x000D_ _x000D_ Your brain is full of spiders,_x000D_ _x000D_ You've got garlic in your soul.
She was, in fact, quite a pleasant looking girl, even if her bosom had clearly been intended for a girl two feet taller; but she was not Her. The Egregious Professor of Grammar and Usage would have corrected this to "she was not she," which would have caused the Professor of Logic to spit out his drink.
Some debts are fun while you are acquiring them, But none are fun when you set about retiring them.
He didn't look like a soldier at all. He looked like a filthy flamingo.
Seeing a murder on television can help work off one's antagonisms. And if you haven't any antagonisms, the commercials will give you some.
men are so conceited theyβll believe anything that flatters them
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.