How much lies in laughter; the cipher-key wherewith we decipher the whole man!
Some men wear an everlasting barren simper; in the smile of others lies the
cold glitter, as of ice; the fewest are able to laugh what can be called
laughing, but only shiff and titter and sniggle from the throat outwards, or at
least produce some whiffing, husky cachinnation, as if they were laughing
through wool; of none such comes good. The man who cannot laugh is only fit for
treasons, stratagems and spoils; but his own whole life is already a treason
and a stratagem.
-- Carlyle
