Humor was Lincoln's life-preserver, as it has been of thousands of
others. "If it were not for this," he used to say, "I should die." His
jests and quaint stories lighted the gloom of dark hours of national
peril.

"Next to virtue," said Agnes Strickland, "the fun in this world is what
we can least spare."

"When the harness is off," said Judge Haliburton, "a critter likes to
kick up his heels."

"I have fun from morning till night," said the editor Charles A. Dana to
a friend who was growing prematurely old. "Do you read novels, and play
billiards, and walk a great deal?"

Gladstone early formed a habit of looking on the bright side of things,
and never lost a moment's sleep by worrying about public business.

There are many out-of-door sports, and the very presence of nature is to
many a great joy. How true it is that, if we are cheerful and contented,
all nature smiles with us,--the air seems more balmy, the sky more
clear, the earth has a brighter green, the trees have a richer foliage,
the flowers are more fragrant, the birds sing more sweetly, and the sun,
moon, and stars all appear more beautiful. "It is a grand thing to
live,--to open the eyes in the morning and look out upon the world, to
drink in the pure air and enjoy the sweet sunshine, to feel the pulse
bound, and the being thrill with the consciousness of strength and power
in every nerve; it is a good thing simply to be alive, and it is a good
world we live in, in spite of the abuse we are fond of giving it."