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.

Tom Lehrer

• Audience
• Should
• Angry
• Facts
• Satisfied
• Satire

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Quotes to Explore

• 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.

  

  Park Geun-hye
  • People
  • Past
  • Change

• 'Lovejoy' has a special place in my heart because it was through my efforts that the series first came to the screen.

  

  Ian McShane
  • Heart
  • Place
  • Special

• 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.

  

  J. Robert Oppenheimer
  • Truth
  • Science
  • Deep

• It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.

  

  Joanne Rowling
  • Up
  • Great
  • Friends

• There are parts of me that I feel are beautiful, but they don't have anything to do with my nose.

  

  Sally Field
  • Beautiful
  • Feel
  • Parts

• 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.

  

  H. L. Mencken
  • People
  • Moon
  • Fly

• 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.

  

  H. P. Lovecraft
  • Men
  • Freedom
  • Wonder

• Strip away the phony tinsel of Hollywood and you'll find the real tinsel underneath.

  

  Oscar Levant
  • Real
  • You
  • Find

• I was doing a tour of the 'Batman' live stage production, and I challenged the cast to join me to run. One time, we were running in Switzerland just before Christmas, and it was heavy snow. Another time, we were running down the Seine in Paris on Christmas Day, and we all had Santa hats on.

  

  Sam Heughan
  • Time
  • Live
  • Running

• I grew up in a culturally radical home, where strong emotions were forbidden.

  

  Lars von Trier
  • Up
  • Home
  • Strong

• 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.

  

  Natalie Dormer
  • Time
  • Home
  • Remember

• 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.

  

  Oliver Jackson-Cohen
  • Up
  • Time
  • Work

• 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.

  

  Abdullah II of Jordan
  • People
  • Life
  • Good

• I never thought I'd get a chance to sing with Wilson Pickett but we did.

  

  Eddie Floyd
  • Never
  • Chance
  • Thought

• 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.

  

  Mandy Patinkin
  • People
  • Life
  • Work

• 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.'

  

  Tao Lin
  • Reality
  • Me
  • Focus

• 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.

  

  Idina Menzel
  • People
  • High
  • Think

• I'm not a self-promoter. I'm not on TV all the time.

  

  Carl Forti
  • Time
  • TV

• My idea of fast food is a mallard.

  

  Ted Nugent
  • Food
  • Idea
  • Fast

• Both the Winter and the Summer Solstices are expressions of love. They show us the opposition of light and dark, expansion and contraction, that characterize our experiences in the Earth school so that we can recognize our options as we move through our lives.

  

  Gary Zukav
  • Light
  • Dark
  • For Her

• I thought the Hall of Fame was for superstars, not just average players like me.

  

  Earle Combs
  • Me
  • Thought
  • Fame

• There was room for a Democrat to break with the interest groups and to vote for Roberts. (Hillary Clinton) could have because she has credentials of thirty-years standing.

  

  Calvin Jillson
  • Interest
  • Break
  • Groups

• Those who cry out that the government should 'do something' never even ask for data on what has actually happened when the government did something, compared to what actually happened when the government did nothing.

  

  Thomas Sowell
  • Government
  • Should
  • Happened

• 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.

  

  Tom Lehrer
  • Audience
  • Should
  • Angry