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.
