C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917.
Good-Humor
Affability, mildness, tenderness, and a word which I would fain bring back to its original signification of virtue,—I mean good-nature, are of daily use: they are the bread of mankind and staff of life.
The sunshine of the mind.
Good-humor is the clear blue sky of the soul.
Good-humor makes all things tolerable.
Good-humor is always a success.
Good-nature is stronger than tomahawks.
Good-humor is goodness and wisdom combined.
Good-humor is the health of the soul, sadness its poison.
The good-humor of a man elated with success often displays itself towards enemies.
Good-humor will even go so far as often to supply the lack of wit.
Good-humor is allied to generosity, ill-humor to meanness.
Men naturally warm and heady are transported with the greatest flush of good-nature.
Learn good-humor, never to oppose without just reason; abate some degree of pride and moroseness.
Gayety is to good-humor as perfumes to vegetable fragrance: the one overpowers weak spirits; the other recreates and revives them.
Good-humor, gay spirits, are the liberators, the sure cure for spleen and melancholy. Deeper than tears, these irradiate the tophets with their glad heavens. Go laugh, vent the pits, transmuting imps into angels by the alchemy of smiles. The satans flee at the sight of these redeemers.
It is also important to guard against mistaking for good-nature what is properly good-humor,—a cheerful flow of spirits and easy temper not readily annoyed, which is compatible with great selfishness.
People are not aware of the very great force which pleasantry in company has upon all those with whom a man of that talent converses.
A cheerful temper, joined with innocence, will make beauty attractive, knowledge delightful, and wit good-natured.
Good-humor is a state between gayety and unconcern,—the act or emanation of a mind at leisure to regard the gratification of another.
When good-natured people leave us we look forward with extra pleasure to their return.
Good-humor will sometimes conquer ill-humor, but ill-humor will conquer it oftener; and for this plain reason, good-humor must operate on generosity, ill-humor on meanness.
Good sense and good-nature are never separated, though the ignorant world has thought otherwise. Good-nature, by which I mean beneficence and candor, is the product of right reason.