Chapter 103அதிகாரம் 103 நகைச்சுவை Humour

Said without a smile, even good is enmity; said with a smile, even enmity is good.

Those who hear a word that unties knots find they tied the knot themselves: the joke is theirs.

What seemed so binding becomes something to laugh at.

For the man who laughs at himself, saying ‘I fell,’ there is no fall within his fall; for the man who laughs in triumph, saying ‘I have prospered,’ there is ruin.

He falls, but nothing within him falls with it. The second man’s laugh is self-satisfied; in Tamil, ‘laugh’ also means ‘mock’.

Once smoke has risen over it, no one can find where the fire is; laughter, rising, covers a fault.

Those who ease the pain of others with laughter have a pain of their own that laughter does not ease.

The door that laughter opened, anger’s bolt shuts: such is the way of things.

Onlookers laugh and say it has died down; their laughter is firewood for what has not died down.

Every laugh flung out with a pointing finger turns three fingers back on the one who laughs.

Laughter that covers a wound makes the wound grow; the wound that grows makes the laughter that covers it grow.

Churn and churn, and ghee rises to the top; churn and churn suffering, and laughter.