The enquiry shows the various uses of laughter, in a wide sense, in stoicism and epicureanism, linked together on that point by the figure of Democritus. They actually made quite different use of laughter. The Stoics associate the tranquillity of the soul with calmness of breath, which makes the smile the privileged sign of joyful manifestation. Laughing out loud, or derisive laughter, are suspicious manifestations, too close to those excessive swellings that are passions. The Epicureans, on the other hand, do not hesitate to use mocking laughter as a means of destroying false values. As an argumentative tool aiming at destruction, laughter can therefore be outrageous, which does not mean that the totality of Epicurean affectivity is reduced to this demystifying laughter.