Charlie Chaplin Quotes (50 Quotes)



    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.

    What do you want a meaning for? Life is a desire, not a meaning.

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

    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.


    A tramp, a gentleman, a poet, a dreamer, a lonely fellow, always hopeful of romance and adventure.

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

    Thats the trouble with the world. We all despise ourselves.

    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.


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

    Rudolph Valentino had an air of sadness. He wore his success gracefully, appearing almost subdued by it. He was intelligent, quiet and without vanity, and had great allure for women, but had little success with them, and those whom he married treated him rather shabbily. . . No man had greater attraction for women than Valentino no man was more deceived by them.

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

    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.

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



    Billions of years its taken to evolve human conciousness and you want to wipe it out. Wipe out the miracle of all existence.

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

    You have to believe in yourself, that's the secret. Even when I was in the orphanage, when I was roaming the street trying to find enough to eat, even then I thought of myself as the greatest actor in the world.



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

    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.

    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.

    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.

    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!


    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.


    Thats what all we are. Amateurs. We dont live long enough to be anything else.

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

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

    I think people have heard the name Garbo, but I'm not sure that a lot of people out there know and appreciate what she meant as an actress, ... I love that her intelligence is very attractive. It's not just her face, which is gorgeous. It's that she's attractive in a much fuller way than that.

    Nothing is permanent in this wicked world - not even our troubles.

    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.

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

    The building is a special place because of its architecture, ... But it's people who make it special by participating in it.

    Movies are a fad. Audiences really want to see live actors on a stage.

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

    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.

    Life could be wonderful if people would leave you alone.

    Dictators free themselves, but they enslave the people.

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

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

    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.




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