“Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the Gods made for fun.”

The sentiment that “life should not be taken too seriously” is a sort of dry, crusty sponge of a cliché—a statement that seems to have had every drop of nourishing value squeezed from it after ten trillion uses.

And yet like so many lifeless platitudes, it contains a certain amount of wisdom—practical wisdom that is damn easy to forget in the day-to-day trenches and tangles of our lives.

So, in the spirit of revitalizing a Saharan truism and reflecting upon the real importance of retaining levity in the face of frustration, I dug up this brief collection of (hopefully) poignant quotes on approaching life a bit more playfully.

Thoughts on the Wisdom of Levity

From Fyodor Dostoevsky:

“The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month.”

Joseph Campbell in the book Reflections on the Art of Living: A Joseph Campbell Companion:

“As you proceed through life, following your own path, birds will shit on you. Don’t bother to brush it off. Getting a comedic view of your situation gives you spiritual distance. Having a sense of humor saves you.”

Alan Watts’ ever-charming perspective:

“Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the Gods made for fun.”

Kurt Vonnegut in his novel Breakfast of Champions:

“‘I can’t tell if you’re serious or not,’ said the driver.

‘I won’t know myself until I find out if life is serious or not,’ said Trout. ‘It’s dangerous, I know, and it can hurt a lot. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s serious, too.’”

A sentiment of Charles Bukowski’s:

“Sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning and you think, I’m not going to make it, but you laugh inside — remembering all the times you’ve felt that way.”

Ray Bradbury in Twice 22: The Golden Apples of the Sun and a Medicine for Melancholy:

“I always figured we were born to fly, one way or other, so I couldn’t stand most men shuffling along with all the iron of the earth in their blood. I never met a man who weighed less than nine hundred pounds.”

The illustrious Friedrich Nietzsche weighs in:

“The certain prospect of death could sweeten every life with a precious and fragrant drop of levity; and now you strange apothecary souls have turned it into an ill-tasting drop of poison that makes the whole of life repulsive.”

From the immortal William Shakespeare:

“Frame your mind to mirth and merriment

which bars a thousand harms

and lengthens life.”

Finally, Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, as quoted in Dr. Seuss: American Icon:

“Nonsense wakes up the brain cells. And it helps develop a sense of humor, which is awfully important in this day and age. Humor has a tremendous place in this sordid world. It’s more than just a matter of laughing. If you can see things out of whack, then you can see how things can be in whack.”

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