Tom Lehrer Quotes
The audiences like to think that satire is doing something. But, in fact, it is mostly to leave themselves satisfied. Satisfied rather than angry, which is what they should be.
Quotes to Explore
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We need fundamental change. In the past, national development led to people's happiness but now the link between national growth and improvement in people's lives has been severed.
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It is a profound and necessary truth that the deep things in science are not found because they are useful; they were found because it was possible to find them.
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It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.
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There are parts of me that I feel are beautiful, but they don't have anything to do with my nose.
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Most people are unable to write because they are unable to think, and they are unable to think because they congenitally lack the equipment to do so, just as they congenitally lack the equipment to fly over the moon.
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Cats are the runes of beauty, invincibility, wonder, pride, freedom, coldness, self-sufficiency, and dainty individuality - the qualities of sensitive, enlightened, mentally developed, pagan, cynical, poetic, philosophic, dispassionate, reserved, independent, Nietzschean, unbroken, civilised, master-class men.
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Strip away the phony tinsel of Hollywood and you'll find the real tinsel underneath.
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I grew up in a culturally radical home, where strong emotions were forbidden.
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My first time to Rome was when I was backpacking with my best friend around Europe for a month at 18 years old, so I remember that excitement of being away from home properly for the first time.
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For a long time, I so badly wanted to work with Jeremy Piven, and I ended up on 'Mr. Selfridge' with him. He was such a character - so brilliant to work with.
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I have the responsibility of over four million people, and I am in a position to do good, to be able to bring about a new life for my people, and I will continue to move in that direction. It's a burden, but it needs to be done, and you have to have the courage and wisdom to see it through.
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I never thought I'd get a chance to sing with Wilson Pickett but we did.
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My whole life, I feel so blessed. I met my wife: I can't get over that I got so lucky. I have two incredible children. I can't believe that I've been so blessed. I've had a career that is way past anything that I've ever dreamed. I get to work in all these different areas with such extraordinary people on every level.
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I don't view my memory as accurate or static - and, in autobiographical fiction, my focus is still on creating an effect, not on documenting reality - so 'autobiographical,' to me, is closer in meaning to 'fiction' than 'autobiography.'
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As much as I appreciate people putting me in the category of these very acrobatic belters, I feel like my strength is my... interpretation and my truthfulness with songs, and I don't want young people to think it's all about the high notes that they have to hit.
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I'm not a self-promoter. I'm not on TV all the time.
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If I wasn't a golfer, I would still be miserable - but not as miserable.
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I had never danced all my life until I shot for my first song in 'Chirutha.'
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So with the end of the Cold War, it became increasingly obvious that there was no basis upon which any decision was being made, not in the White House, and certainly because of that, not in the Congress.
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Writers have to be very careful and discerning because so much of the machine is out of their control.
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I cannot be angry at God, in whom I do not believe.
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The audiences like to think that satire is doing something. But, in fact, it is mostly to leave themselves satisfied. Satisfied rather than angry, which is what they should be.
