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
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the difficulty and often sorrow of trying to bring joy through humor, particularly in a culture that may resist it.
Malcolm Muggeridge captures the essence of a serious and melancholic atmosphere, suggesting that the pursuit of humor can often feel futile, especially when it seems to confront a backdrop of sorrow and disbelief. This perspective highlights the challenges faced by comedians and humorists who seek to elicit laughter in environments where joy appears lost, emphasizing how humor can sometimes be a lonely and unappreciated endeavor.
Themes
HumorLaughterSorrowPursuitCulture
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a comedy workshop to discuss the challenges of making an audience laugh.
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
Bad humor is an evasion of reality; good humor is an acceptance of it.
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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