Quotes By Charlie Chaplin

We might as well die as to go on living like this.

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.

Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.

Words are cheap. The biggest thing you can say is 'elephant'.

To truly laugh, you must be able to take your pain, and play with it!

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.

I'd sooner be called a successful crook than a destitute monarch.

I am at peace with God. My conflict is with Man.

The saddest thing I can imagine is to get used to luxury.

I don't believe that the public knows what it wants; this is the conclusion that I have drawn from my career.

Laughter is the tonic, the relief, the surcease for pain.

Brunettes are troublemakers. They're worse than the Jews.

Despair is a narcotic. It lulls the mind into indifference.

To help a friend in need is easy, but to give him your time is not always opportune.

Man as an individual is a genius. But men in the mass form the headless monster, a great, brutish idiot that goes where prodded.

Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself.

A man's true character comes out when he's drunk.

Actors search for rejection. If they don't get it they reject themselves.

In the end, everything is a gag.

Why should poetry have to make sense?

I suppose that's one of the ironies of life doing the wrong thing at the right moment.

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.

We think too much and feel too little.

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.

All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl.

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 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 have no further use for America. I wouldn't go back there if Jesus Christ was President.

This is a ruthless world and one must be ruthless to cope with it.

Dictators free themselves, but they enslave the people.