The only honest art form is laughter, comedy. You can't fake it...try to fake three laughs in an hour -- ha ha ha ha ha -- they'll take you away, man. You can't.
art comedy laughter

About This Quote

About Lenny Bruce

Lenny Bruce was a 20th-century American comedian and social critic. Leonard Alfred Schneider, better known by his stage name Lenny Bruce, was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, and satirist. He was renowned for his open, free-wheeling, and critical style of comedy that combined satire, politics, religion, sex, and vulgarity. Read more on Wikipedia →

Themes

  • Art — Creativity, expression, and the role of art in society

More quotes by Lenny Bruce

“There are never enough 'I love you's.”
— Lenny Bruce
humor inspiration

“Every day people are straying away from the church and going back to God.”
— Lenny Bruce
god jesus organized-religion religion

“If Jesus had been killed twenty years ago, Catholic school children would be wearing little electric chairs around their necks instead of crosses.”
— Lenny Bruce
anti-catholic anti-christian catholicism christianity

“Satire is tragedy plus time. You give it enough time, the public, the reviewers will allow you to satirize it. Which is rather ridiculous, when you think about it.”
— Lenny Bruce
comedy satire time tragedy

“The 'what should be' never did exist, but people keep trying to live up to it. There is no 'what should be,' there is only what is.”
— Lenny Bruce
nostalgia past present

“If you can't say "Fuck" you can't say, "Fuck the government.”
— Lenny Bruce
censorship fuck government profanity
View all quotes by Lenny Bruce →

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“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”
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“The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think.”
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“We look before and after,And pine for what is not;Our sincerest laughterWith some pain is fraught;Our sweetest songs are those that tell Of saddest thought.”
— Percy Bysshe Shelley
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“I know why we laugh. We laugh because it hurts, and it's the only thing to make it stop hurting.”
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“MARCUS ANDRONICUS: Now is a time to storm; why art thou still?TITUS ANDRONICUS: Ha, ha, ha!MARCUS ANDRONICUS: Why dost thou laugh? it fits not with this hour.TITUS ANDRONICUS: Why, I have not anoth...”
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laughter loss pain sadness