Wonderful quotes and sayings

Witty quotes that make you chuckle without thinking

Keyboard playerSAKI
I’ve been playing the Electone since I was six, mainly performing Disney music, anime songs, and music from dramas and films. I post performance videos on YouTube and social media, and I also give concerts. Building on my Electone experience, I took up synthesizer and piano during my student years and performed at school-sponsored events. As a writer, I’ve covered not only music-related topics but a wide range of genres, so I hope to draw on my experience to deliver articles that make readers think, “I want to try that!” or “I want to listen to that!”
10 years as a kindergarten teacher / elementary school teacher / junior and senior high school teacher / childminderkepiko
Graduated from Kunitachi College of Music, Faculty of Music (now: Department of Music Culture and Education, Early Childhood Music Education major). In elementary school, my homeroom teacher was Jun Kusaba, a game researcher. After graduating from university, I worked as a kindergarten teacher for 10 years and as an after-school childcare instructor for 7 years, then took a position as a music teacher at an international school in Singapore. In addition to music education, I engaged in activities that introduced Japanese culture, traditional games, and recreational activities, working with many children. Later, through freelance writing, planning, and editing at Shogakukan, I met many delightful adults and experienced the joy of communicating and sharing. Drawing on the perspective cultivated in the field of education and my experience as an editor, I provide practical information with an emphasis on both input and output, mainly in areas related to music and children. My hobbies include instruments, singing, handicrafts, toys, drawing, traditional games, the outdoors, and books. My special skill is spinning-top tricks.

Have you ever found yourself smirking when you come across a quote that cuts to the essence of life? Great figures from various fields have left us not only weighty words, but also plenty of humorous and witty quotations.

These are the lines that remind us—often with a touch of cynical laughter—of life’s truths we know in our heads but tend to forget.

In this article, we introduce entertaining quotes that capture the essence of life—ones you’ll want to share with someone.

They’re sure to enrich your outlook on life, with a little chuckle along the way.

Ironic quotes about human relationships (1–10)

If you don’t want to meet any fools, the first thing to do is break your own mirror.François Rabelais

Within these biting, ironic words lies a hint for living rightly and straightforwardly.

It’s a razor-sharp retort to someone arrogantly saying, “I don’t want to meet fools,” as if to say, “You’re the fool.” The words are attributed to François Rabelais, a 16th-century French writer.

Striking though they are, they convey the message that what truly matters is to live modestly without arrogance or speaking ill of others.

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Since there isn’t much difference no matter which husband you choose, you might as well grab the first one.Adela Rogers St. Johns

These are words about marriage left by the American female journalist Adela Rogers St.

Johns.

It’s said she went through three divorces in her life, so when she says “every husband is the same,” it carries overwhelming persuasive power, doesn’t it? And since they’re all the same anyway, she says it’s best to stay with the first husband you married.

After all, divorce and remarriage both take time and effort, and since you once loved each other enough to marry, you want to cherish that bond.

It’s a remark that might make you do a double-take at first, but behind it there may be a lingering affection for her first husband.

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Why do beautiful women always marry boring men? Because smart men don’t marry beautiful women.Somerset Maugham

These are words laced with heavy irony that would draw intense criticism in today’s world.

They were said by Somerset Maugham, a British novelist active in the first half of the 1900s.

He suggested that the reason beautiful women somehow end up marrying dull men is that intelligent men don’t choose beauties—in other words, he was implicitly calling beautiful women foolish.

The remark is so barbed that perhaps Somerset Maugham had some bitter memories involving beautiful women.

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Ironic quotes about human relationships (11–20)

Doctors see humans as weak, lawyers see humans as bad, and priests see humans as foolish.Arthur Schopenhauer

Have you ever experienced how your perspective and way of thinking change depending on your position or role? This quote expresses a situation that many adults have likely gone through.

The speaker is the 19th-century Polish philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer.

Doctors mostly encounter people weakened by illness; lawyers meet many who have committed crimes; and priests often meet those who confess their sins.

There’s a term, “occupational hazard” or “occupational conditioning,” and this quote captures a feeling similar to that quite well in words.

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From space, no borders could be seen.Mamoru Mohri

From space, neither borders nor boundary lines are visible. (Mamoru Mohri)

From space, no borders could be seen. Mamoru Mohri

The words of Mamoru Mohri, the first Japanese astronaut—“From space, I couldn’t see any borders”—are grand in scope yet pose a sharp question to our everyday lives.

Borders that can spark conflict on the ground simply don’t exist from the perspective of space.

It’s a quietly ironic remark that confronts us with how small and absurd our fixation on human-drawn lines looks.

It’s a single sentence that makes us realize how narrow our so-called common sense is when we arbitrarily set boundaries between people and turn them into points of contention.

A quote that compels us to think on a vast scale.

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A friend is someone who skillfully lets your secrets slip.Katherine Anne Porter

Katherine Anne Porter carried many titles—journalist, essayist, fiction writer, poet, political activist—each reflecting a different facet of who she was.

Her hit work Ship of Fools was even made into a film starring the great Vivien Leigh.

This quote can be enjoyed from various angles depending on whose “secret” you take it to mean.

One interpretation is a slightly mischievous one: friends sometimes spill their own secrets with a “So, actually…” without your even asking—and you can smile at that from a teasing perspective.

Still, having a friend you can tell anything to is wonderful, isn’t it?

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They are getting married because neither of them has any other way to go in life.Anton Chekhov

The word “marriage” often evokes a happy atmosphere, doesn’t it? A famous quote by Anton Chekhov, the renowned Russian playwright, also gives a somewhat cool-headed impression of marriage.

Even so, the two people who decide to marry have surely spent time together up to that point.

During that time, weren’t there fun moments, difficult times, and even sorrows? By sharing time, their bond deepened.

When thinking about their future, you can sense from the quote a profound feeling behind their choice to marry.

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