Charlie Chaplin Quotes

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.

- Charlie Chaplin

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.

- Charlie Chaplin

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

- Charlie Chaplin

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

- Charlie Chaplin

The glamour of it all! New York! America!

- Charlie Chaplin

In the end, everything is a gag.

- Charlie Chaplin

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

- Charlie Chaplin

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.

- Charlie Chaplin

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

- Charlie Chaplin

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

- Charlie Chaplin

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.

- Charlie Chaplin

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

- Charlie Chaplin

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.

- Charlie Chaplin

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

- Charlie Chaplin

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

- Charlie Chaplin

Only the unloved hate; the unloved and the unnatural.

- Charlie Chaplin

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

- Charlie Chaplin

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

- Charlie Chaplin

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.

- Charlie Chaplin

Dictators free themselves, but they enslave the people.

- Charlie Chaplin

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

- Charlie Chaplin

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.

- Charlie Chaplin

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.

- Charlie Chaplin

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.

- Charlie Chaplin

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

- Charlie Chaplin

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

- Charlie Chaplin

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

- Charlie Chaplin

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

- Charlie Chaplin

Remember, you can always stoop and pick up nothing.

- Charlie Chaplin

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

- Charlie Chaplin

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

- Charlie Chaplin

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

- Charlie Chaplin

A day without laughter is a day wasted.

- Charlie Chaplin

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

- Charlie Chaplin

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

- Charlie Chaplin

We think too much and feel too little.

- Charlie Chaplin

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

- Charlie Chaplin

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

- Charlie Chaplin

Life could be wonderful if people would leave you alone.

- Charlie Chaplin

I am for people. I can't help it.

- Charlie Chaplin

Why should poetry have to make sense?

- Charlie Chaplin