Humor & Life Quote by George Burns

Burns lands the joke with the same relaxed confidence that made him seem immortal: he answers the question, then casually removes the need for the question. That second sentence is the punchline, but it also signals the persona - a man so unbothered by other people’s agendas that he’ll deliver his truth whether invited or not. Longevity, in his telling, isn’t just biology; it’s attitude, a cultivated refusal to get dragged into the daily panic.

The intent is half self-help, half sabotage of self-help. “Single most important key” sets up the kind of grand, one-weird-trick certainty Americans love. Burns supplies something almost aggressively unglamorous: not a supplement, not a discipline, just the absence of mental static. Then he undercuts the guru posture by admitting he’d say it anyway, puncturing the pomp with vaudeville timing. The wisdom arrives wearing a smirk.

Subtext: worry is a performance, stress a habit, tension a choice you can at least negotiate with. Coming from a comedian who lived through world wars, economic collapse, and the churn of show business, it reads less like platitude and more like a survival strategy. Burns’ whole brand was ease - cigar in hand, eyebrows raised, acting as if time itself was slightly ridiculous.

Culturally, the line anticipates today’s wellness talk while rejecting its anxious optimization. It’s not “fix yourself.” It’s “stop tightening your grip.” And the slyest implication is that humor itself is a tool for that: laughter as stress management, delivered in the oldest format there is - the one-liner that tells on us while pretending not to.