The proverb means that 'laughter is the best way to recover'. The implication of this proverb is that 'laughter is better at curing us than other things (like pills)'. Medicine here means more generally a cure, or something that makes us feel better.
Origin: In The King James Version of the Bible, Proverbs 17: 22 says, “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.” This is the oldest version of the phrase (ca. 1611)
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Origin: In The King James Version of the Bible, Proverbs 17: 22 says, “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.” This is the oldest version of the phrase (ca. 1611)
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I felt a bit down on Friday, but reading Lin Yutang (林語堂）"The scamp as Ideal" , a section of his book "The Importance of Living" on Saturday morning lifted my mood. (btw, 7997's reading was wonderful!!!)
Lin said: "I call no man wise until he has made the progress from the wisdom of knowledge to the wisdom of foolishness, and become a laughing philosopher, feeling first life's tragedy and then life's comedy. For we must weep before we can laugh. Out of sadness comes the awakening and out of the awakening comes the laughter of the philosopher, with kindliness and tolerance to boot.”
Alright, I did enough weeping on Friday. Now I can laugh a bit, especially at myself, thus this proverb and my post of "the jokes on 西島".
Happy (another) Sunday!
