Human life: to be laughed at or lamented?
Humanius est vitam deridere quam deplorare.
Seneca ascribed this view to Democritus (On Tranquility of Mind, 15. 2) But is it better to laugh at life than to lament it, given its miseries and absurdities?
Kohelet seems to disagree:
“It is better to enter a house of mourning than a house of feasting, since death is the end of every man, and the living should take this to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for a sad countenance is good for the heart. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.
–Ecclesiastes 7: 2-4