Human Absurdity Quotes

Could anything be absurder than a man? The animal who knows everything about himself--except why he was born and the meaning of his unique existence.

The privilege of absurdity; to which no living creature is subject, but man only.

The dog has got more fun out of Man than Man has got out of the dog, for the clearly demonstrable reason that Man is the more laughable of the two animals.

Sex has the unparalleled power to make us absurd to ourselves. It also has the power to make us understand transcendence.

Oh, we are ridiculous animals; and if the angels have any fun in them, how we must divert them!

Only man can be absurd: for only man can be dignified.

It's one of the saving graces in a life, to be able to perceive one's own and others' absurdity, to notice our shared human frailties and be able, at least some of the time, to smile rather than grimace. Like most people, I must have started out with a comic worldview in my cupboard.

I've seen a look in dogs' eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt, and I am convinced that basically dogs think humans are nuts.

Young man, nature is not frightening, it's people who are frightening! You just need to get to know nature and it will become friendly. This creature known as man is of course highly intelligent, he's capable of manufacturing almost anything from rumours to test-tube babies and yet he destroys two to three species every day. This is the absurdity of man.

I love seeing somebody act real earnest and serious, like Jackie Gleason. He makes me laugh because he reflects back to me my own serious-mindedness and how ridiculous it all is. It's always easier to see somebody else in that position than yourself, and you laugh. It's like the classic slipping on the banana peel, or someone getting hit by a pie in the face. Why do those things make us laugh? Is it from relief, like: Thank God it wasn't me? Or is it something else: I'm being very serious now. I'm pontificating earnestly and solemnly about-POW! PIE IN THE FACE! The bust-up of certainty.

Why is the competition always so intense to set new records for maximum stupidity?

If the Martians ever find out how human beings think, they'll kill themselves laughing.