“If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide.”
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Probable attribution
This saying is widely associated with Mahatma Gandhi, but the attribution is not supported by a reliable primary source.
Likely origin: Attributed anecdotally to Gandhi; consistent with well-documented accounts of his sense of humour, but no primary citation, only secondary collections.
About this quote
Humor works as a pressure valve: laughing at a grim situation puts a little distance between you and the weight of it, just enough to keep going. It doesn't deny the hardship, it shrinks the thing to a size you can actually carry. People under long strain lean on it to stay upright.
When to use it
- Nurses on a brutal overnight shift trading dark jokes to get through it.
- A family facing a hard diagnosis still finding small moments to laugh together.
- A student joking about a failed exam so the setback doesn't flatten him completely.