Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
| NUMBER: | 1095 |
| AUTHOR: | Aubrey Menen (1912–89) |
| QUOTATION: | There are three things which are real: God, human folly, and laughter. Since the first two pass our comprehension, we must do what we can with the third. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | This is a modern retelling of part of the Ramayana. President John F. Kennedy presented his friend, White House appointment secretary David Powers, with a silver beer mug for his birthday, April 26, 1963. The inscription on the mug was a slight variation on the lines above: There are three things which are real: God, human folly and laughter. The first two are beyond our comprehension So we must do what we can with the third. —The New York Times, April 29, 1963, p. 14. |
| SUBJECTS: | Life |