A day without laughter is a day wasted.
A man’s true character comes out when he’s drunk.
A tramp, a gentleman, a poet, a dreamer, a lonely fellow, always hopeful of romance and adventure.
Actors search for rejection. If they don’t get it they reject themselves.
All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl.
All my pictures are built around the idea of getting in trouble and so giving me the chance to be desperately serious in my attempt to appear as a normal little gentleman.
Brunettes are troublemakers. They’re worse than the Jews.
Despair is a narcotic. It lulls the mind into indifference.
Dictators free themselves, but they enslave the people.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself.
I am at peace with God. My conflict is with Man.
I am for people. I can’t help it.
I do not have much patience with a thing of beauty that must be explained to be understood. If it does need additional interpretation by someone other than the creator, then I question whether it has fulfilled its purpose.
I don’t believe that the public knows what it wants; this is the conclusion that I have drawn from my career.
I had no idea of the character. But the moment I was dressed, the clothes and the make-up made me feel the person he was. I began to know him, and by the time I walked onto the stage he was fully born.
I have no further use for America. I wouldn’t go back there if Jesus Christ was President.
I remain just one thing, and one thing only, and that is a clown. It places me on a far higher plane than any politician.
I suppose that’s one of the ironies of life doing the wrong thing at the right moment.
I thought I would dress in baggy pants, big shoes, a cane and a derby hat. everything a contradiction: the pants baggy, the coat tight, the hat small and the shoes large.
I went into the business for the money, and the art grew out of it. If people are disillusioned by that remark, I can’t help it. It’s the truth.
I’d sooner be called a successful crook than a destitute monarch.
In the end, everything is a gag.
Laughter is the tonic, the relief, the surcease for pain.
Life could be wonderful if people would leave you alone.
Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.
Man as an individual is a genius. But men in the mass form the headless monster, a great, brutish idiot that goes where prodded.
Movies are a fad. Audiences really want to see live actors on a stage.
Nothing is permanent in this wicked world – not even our troubles.
Remember, you can always stoop and pick up nothing.
That is why, no matter how desperate the predicament is, I am always very much in earnest about clutching my cane, straightening my derby hat and fixing my tie, even though I have just landed on my head.
The glamour of it all! New York! America!
The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.
The saddest thing I can imagine is to get used to luxury.
This is a ruthless world and one must be ruthless to cope with it.
To help a friend in need is easy, but to give him your time is not always opportune.
To truly laugh, you must be able to take your pain, and play with it!
We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness, not by each other’s misery.
We might as well die as to go on living like this.
We think too much and feel too little.
What do you want a meaning for? Life is a desire, not a meaning.
Why should poetry have to make sense?
Words are cheap. The biggest thing you can say is ‘elephant’.
