Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Laughter can disarm potential violence by connecting people.
In plain terms
Laughter might save someone by stopping attackers.
What can you take from it?
Use humor to de-escalate tension.

Where it applies

  • confrontations
  • public spaces
  • negotiation

Putting it to work

  • conflict resolution
  • de-escalation

Questions to consider

  • Can humor stop violence?
  • When do you laugh under pressure?

Another view

Humor is not always safe in dangerous situations.

More from Graham Greene

  1. Success is more dangerous than failure, the ripples break over a wider coastline.

    Permalink to quote #18
  2. Its typical of Mexico, of the whole human race perhaps - violence in favour of an ideal and then the ideal lost but the violence just going on.

    Permalink to quote #20
  3. You think it more difficult to turn air into wine than to turn wine into blood?

    Permalink to quote #17

Related quotes

  1. What your soldier wants-- really, really wants -- is no-one shooting back at him.

    Terry PratchettTerry Pratchett quote #24
  2. I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.

    Albert EinsteinAlbert Einstein quote #81
  3. While we were being bombed in Dresden, sitting in a cellar with our arms over our heads in case the ceiling fell, one slider said as though he were a duchess i…

    Kurt VonnegutKurt Vonnegut quote #213