DON'T TAKE YOURSELF TOO SERIOUSLY!

• By: Louis Ochiel
• Date: September 01, 2025

One of the enriching blessings of growing older is that it often improves one’s sense of humor—or at least it should. The person without a good sense of humor is a person to avoid, as though he were a known carrier of the bubonic plague.

Horace Walpole once said, “I have never yet seen or heard anything serious that was not ridiculous.” Now take your time with that one, but the longer you think about it, the truer—and the funnier—it becomes. It’s worth repeating: "I have never yet seen or heard anything serious that was not ridiculous."

Samuel Butler said, “The one serious conviction that a man should have is that nothing is to be taken seriously.” It has also been said that seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow. Oscar Wilde remarked, “It’s a curious fact that the worst work is always done with the best intentions, and that people are never so trivial as when they take themselves very seriously.”

I remember when I was in the service—the toughest job I had was keeping from laughing at the wrong times. During an admiral’s inspection, for example, there was nothing funnier than the seriousness of the military, especially high-ranking officers: the fancy costumes, the pomp, the shining sabers, the serious faces. To me, it was hilariously funny.

We can be serious about situations—when a youngster is ill or hurt, or when somebody says the wrong thing to your wife, you can get very serious in a hurry. But that’s not the same as taking ourselves seriously. That’s different.

The thing that bothered me about Hemingway, as much as I admired his work and still do, was that he tended to take himself too seriously. He didn’t seem able to laugh at himself, and I think both he and his work suffered for it.

I’ve found it a good rule of thumb to be slightly suspicious of anyone who takes himself too seriously—there’s usually something fishy there somewhere. I think this is why we love children so much: life is a game to them. They’ll do their best at whatever work is given them, but they never seem to lose their ebullient sense of humor. There’s always a sparkle of humor in their eyes. When a child lacks this, he’s usually very sick or in need of help.

Dictators are famous for their lack of humor. The mark of the cruel person is that he doesn’t seem to see anything funny in the world. And speaking of a sense of humor—this was what was so great about Mark Twain: no matter how serious the subject, he could find the humor in it and bring it out. Will Rogers, too. All the great comedians have this ability to see what’s funny in so-called serious situations. They can poke fun at themselves.

The study of humor is one of the most interesting. What makes people laugh? For those who believe, a sense of humor is the only thing that has kept the human race from totally extinguishing itself. So keep your sense of humor at all costs.

As the saying goes: "You wouldn’t be as concerned about what other people think of you if you realized how seldom they do."