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Home  »  Respectfully Quoted  »  Aubrey Menen (1912–89)

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: AUBREY MENEN, Rama Retold, p. 231 (1954).

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