Court Jester Quotes

• He was the class clown, the court jester, because he'd learn early that if you cracked jokes and pretended you weren't scared, you usually didn't get beat up. Even the baddest gangster kids would tolerate you, keep you around for laughs. Plus, humor was a good way to hide the pain

  Rick Riordan

  Pain, Kids, Class

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• The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle; the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true!

  Danny Kaye

  Poison, Palaces, Chalice

  "Fictional character: Hubert Hawkins". "The Court Jester", www.imdb.com. January 27, 1956.

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• Humor was a good way to hide the pain.

  Rick Riordan

  Pain, Way, Hiding Pain

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• I'm the out-of-court jester who won't settle, I up the vigilante, I'm a law unto myself but break it anyway! I made a forced landing on the Moebius Strip and now I want to know, which side are you on?

  Bob Black

  Law, Want, Sides

  "I've Got A Nietzsche Trigger Finger!". Essay by Bob Black, 1986.

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• The advertiser is the overrewarded court jester and court pander at the democratic court.

  Joseph Wood Krutch

  Advertising, Court, Democratic

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• Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.

  Percy Bysshe Shelley

  Life, Poetry, World

  A Defence of Poetry (written 1821) See Auden 22; Auden 39; Andrew Fletcher 1; Samuel Johnson 22; Twain 104

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• I consider myself a court jester - motivator.

  Richard Simmons

  Court, Jester

  "Interview: Richard Simmons diet". AskMen Interview, www.askmen.com.

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• If poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world, science fiction writers are its court jesters. We are Wise Fools who can leap, caper, utter prophecies, and scratch ourselves in public. We can play with Big Ideas because the garish motley of our pulp origins make us seem harmless.

  Bruce Sterling

  Wise, Play, Ideas

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• Satire must always accompany any free society. It is an absolute necessity. Even in the most repressive medieval kingdoms, they understood the need for the court jester, the one soul allowed to tell the truth through laughter.

  Joe Randazzo

  Laughter, Soul, Needs

  "Former 'Onion' editor: Freedom of speech cannot be killed" by Joe Randazzo, www.msnbc.com. January 7, 2015.

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• When the king gets depressed, he doesn't call for his wife. He doesn't call for the cook. He calls for the court jester.

  Richard Simmons

  Kings, Wife, Court

  Interview with Eric Spitznagel, www.menshealth.com. April 25, 2012.

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• An art form requires genius. People of genius are always troublemakers, meaning they start from scratch, demolish accepted norms and rebuild a new world. The problem with cinema today is the dearth of troublemakers. There’s not a rabble-rouser in sight. There was still one, but he went beyond troublemaker to court jester. He clobbered the status quo. That’s Godard. We’re fresh out of ‘bad students.’ You’ll find students masquerading as bad ones, but you won’t find the real article, because a genuine bad student upends everything.

  Henri Langlois

  Art, Real, Sight

  "Henri Langlois: The Phantom of the Cinémathèque". Documentary, Biography, History, www.imdb.com. 2004.

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• Satire must always accompany any free society. It is an absolute necessity. Even in the most repressive medieval kingdoms, they understood the need for the court jester, the one soul allowed to tell the truth through laughter. It is, in many ways, the most powerful form of free speech because it is aimed at those in power, or those whose ideas would spread hate. It is the canary in the coalmine, a cultural thermometer, and it always has to push, push, push the boundaries of society to see how much it’s grown.

  Joe Randazzo

  Powerful, Laughter, Hate

  "Former 'Onion' editor: Freedom of speech cannot be killed" by Joe Randazzo, www.msnbc.com. January 7, 2015.

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• Our society, like decadent Rome, has turned into an amusement society, with writers chief among the court jesters

  Saul Bellow

  Rome, Amusement, Our Society

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• There is this false perception that comedians can never be serious. It's like from like the era of court jesters.

  Jim Gaffigan

  Perception, Comedian, Eras

  "Jim Gaffigan talks Domino's, Law & Order, and having the gall to accept serious acting roles". Interview with Andy Seifert, www.avclub.com. January 28, 2010.

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• I'm ready to forgive him for the desire to be a king, but not for wanting to have 23 million court jesters.

  Minimaks

  Kings, Forgiving, Desire

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• There is no one force, no group, and no class that is the preserver of liberty. Liberty is preserved by those who are against the existing chief power. Oppositions which do not express genuine social forces are as trivial, in relation to entrenched power, as the old court jesters.

  James Burnham

  Class, Liberty, Groups

  "The Machiavellians, Defenders of Freedom" by James Burnham, (p. 280), 1987.

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• The court jester had the right to say the most outrageous things to the king. Everything was permitted during carnival, even the songs that the Roman legionnaires would sing, calling Julius Caesar "queen", alluding, in a very transparent way, to his real, or presumed, homosexual escapades.

  Umberto Eco

  Song, Kings, Queens

  "Don't smile when you say that" by Umberto Eco, www.theguardian.com. June 21, 2002.

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• Oftentimes, actors are looked at as court jesters. They are not looked at as deep-thinking, smart people who do many other things or have gifts in other areas.

  Goldie

  Smart, Thinking, People

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• I try to be the clown and court jester and make people laugh. At the same time, you have people in the hospital who have had gastric bypass or lap-band surgery and they still have to work out. If you don't work out and eat healthy, you'll look like a melted candle.

  Richard Simmons

  People, Work Out, Laughing

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

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• I'm a real paradox. Because I'm a very serious person, and I take my work very seriously. But I wrap it up in a court jester and a clown and make people laugh and make them feel good about themselves.

  Richard Simmons

  Real, Serious Person, People

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• It is unpardonable conceit not to laugh at your own jokes. Joking is undignified; that is why it is so good for one's soul. Do not fancy you can be a detached wit and avoid being a buffoon; you cannot. If you are the Court Jester you must be the Court Fool.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Laughing, Soul, Fancy

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• The artist is still a little like the old court jester. He's supposed to speak his vicious paradoxes with some sense in them, but he isn't part of whatever the fabric is that makes a nation.

  William Faulkner

  Artist, Fabric, Littles

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• My father was a small claims court jester.

  Steven Wright

  Funny, Father, Humor

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• People need the court jester, so I keep that smile on and keep going out there to do what I do.

  Richard Simmons

  People, Needs, Going Out

  Interview with Eric Spitznagel, www.menshealth.com. April 25, 2012.

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• I do consider myself a clown and a court jester, and I do love to make people laugh, whether they're laughing with me or at me.

  Richard Simmons

  People, Laughing, Clown

  Interview with Eric Spitznagel, www.menshealth.com. April 25, 2012.

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