Quote collection
178 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"I am what I am: an individual, unique and different, with a lineal history of ancestral promptings and urgings, a history of dreams, desires, and of special experiences, all of which I am the sum total."
"Let us fight to free the world! To do away with national barriers! To do away with greed, with hate and intolerance! Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness."
"A tramp, a gentleman, a poet, a dreamer, a lonely fellow, always hopeful of romance and adventure."
"I don't think the real America is in New York or on the Pacific Coast; personally, I like the Middle West much better, places like North and South Dakota, Minneapolis and Saint Paul. There, I think, are the true Americans"
"Words are cheap. The biggest thing you can say is "elephant"."
"Despair is a narcotic. It lulls the mind into indifference."
"Laughter is the tonic, the relief, the surcease for pain."
"Beauty is an omnipresence of death and loveliness, a smiling sadness that we discern in nature and all things, a mystic communion that the poet feels."
"So when I cease to be I want to go back...to the sea! Oh for the life of a sardine! That is the life for me!"
"Tomorrow, the birds will sing. Be brave. Face life."
"Ability to think, like the violin or piano, requires daily practice"
"Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed."
"My character of the Tramp, the millions of workers symbolized in that one figure."
"Simplicity of approach is always best."
"I like friends as I like music - when I am in the mood."
"Sound has spoiled the most ancient of the world's arts, the art of pantomime, and has canceled out the great beauty that is silence."
"Dictators free themselves by enslaving others. They work not for your benefit, but their own."
"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."
"It isn't the ups and downs that make life difficult; it's the jerks."
"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."