Farce Quotes

• Farce treats the improbable as probable, the impossible as possible.

  George P. Baker

  Impossible, Treats, Improbable

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• Comedy is unusual people in real situations; farce is real people in unusual situations.

  Chuck Jones

  Real, People, Comedy

  Chuck Jones (1999). “Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist”, p.166, Macmillan

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• All of Creation’s a farce. Man was born as a joke. In his head his reason is buffeted Like wind-blown smoke. Life is a game. Everyone ridicules everyone else. But he who has the last laugh Laughs longest.

  William Shakespeare

  Men, Wind, Games

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• Bring down the curtain, the farce is over

  Francois Rabelais

  Funny, Curtains

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• History repeats itself, the first as tragedy, then as farce.

  Karl Marx

  Funny, Sarcastic, Philosophy

  "The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon".

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• History that repeats itself turns to farce. Farce that repeats itself turns to history.

  Jean Baudrillard

  Turns, Repeats

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  Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.

  James Madison

  Education, Wisdom, Freedom

  1822; cited in U.S. Senate, Alleged Assassination Plots (1975).

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• There are times when one would like to hang the whole human race, and finish the farce.

  Mark Twain

  Art, Philosophy, Animal

  Mark Twain (1889). “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court”, p.291, Createspace Independent Pub

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• Life is the farce which everyone has to perform.

  Arthur Rimbaud

  Life, Life Is

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• Farce is tragedy played at a thousand revolutions per minute.

  John Mortimer

  Tragedy, Theatre, Revolution

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• Is it not a noble farce, wherein kings, republics, and emperors have for so many ages played their parts, and to which the whole vast universe serves for a theatre?

  Michel de Montaigne

  Kings, Age, Theatre

  "Bartlett's Familiar Quotations" by John Bartlett, 10th ed., 1919.

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• I always try to keep in mind that while the characters in a farce may find themselves in outrageous dilemmas, and may behave in a way that the audience finds amusing, the characters themselves don't have the consolation of knowing they're in a comedy.

  Rupert Holmes

  Character, Knowing, Mind

  "PLAYBILL BRIEF ENCOUNTER With Rupert Holmes, Lyricist-Librettist of The Nutty Professor". Interview with Kenneth Jones, www.playbill.com. August 4, 2012.

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• Hegel remarks somewhere that all great, world-historical facts and personages occur, as it were, twice. He has forgotten to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.

  Karl Marx

  Historical, Tragedy, Add

  Karl Marx (1935). “The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte”, New York : International publishers

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• The effort to understand the universe is one of the very few things that lifts human life a little above the level of farce, and gives it some of the grace of tragedy.

  Steven Weinberg

  Life, Education, Money

  Steven Weinberg (2012). “Facing Up”, p.42, Harvard University Press

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• As Karl Marx once noted: 'Hegel remarks somewhere that all great, world-historical facts and personages occur, as it were, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.' William Jennings Bryan and the Scopes trial was a tragedy. The creationists and intelligent design theorists are a farce.

  Michael Shermer

  Science, Intelligent, History

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• In fact, it is a farce to call any being virtuous whose virtues do not result from the exercise of its own reason.

  Mary Wollstonecraft

  Exercise, Atheism, Facts

  Mary Wollstonecraft (1796). “A vindication of the rights of woman: with strictures on political and moral subjects”, p.37

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• The farce is finished. I go to seek a vast perhaps.

  Francois Rabelais

  Life, Death, Insanity

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• You see, Africa makes a fool of our idea of justice. It makes a farce of our idea of equality. It mocks our pieties. It doubts our concern. It questions our commitment. Because there is no way we can look at what's happening in Africa, and if we're honest, conclude that it would ever be allowed to happen anywhere else.

  Bono

  Commitment, Equality, Ideas

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• Everyone knows the beautiful story of Abraham and the sacrifice of Isaac. How this noble father led his child to the slaughter; how Isaac meekly submitted; how the farce went on till the lad was bound and laid on the altar, and how God then stopped the murder, and blessed the intending murderer for his willingness to commit the crime.

  Annie Besant

  Beautiful, Children, Father

  Annie Besant (2012). “The Theosophical Writings of Annie Besant”, p.403, Jazzybee Verlag

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• You don't know what the Chinese expect in the way of beauty. The presentation is just a farce. You come into a room filled with 50 people and they don't talk to you. There's very little interaction.

  Helmut Jahn

  People, Chinese, Littles

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• The north remembers, Lord Davos. The north remembers, and the mummer’s farce is almost done. My son is home.

  George R. R. Martin

  Home, Son, Almost Done

  George R. R. Martin (2012). “George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones 5-Book Boxed Set (Song of Ice and Fire Series): A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, and and A Dance with Dragons”, p.3463, Bantam

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• When the Senate ceases to engage nominees in meaningful discussion of legal issues, the confirmation process takes on an air of vacuity and farce, and the Senate becomes incapable of evaluating nominees or appropriately educating the public.

  Elena Kagan

  Meaningful, Air, Issues

  "Panel on Obama's Nomination of Elena Kagan to Replace Justice Stevens on Supreme Court". "Special Report With Bret Baier", www.foxnews.com. May 10, 2010.

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• Royal Canadian Air Farce, and I was in three sketches there. And they wrote some really great stuff for me.

  Trish Stratus

  Air, Three, Stuff

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• A farce, or slapstick humor, does well universally.

  John Ratzenberger

  Humor, Doe, Slapstick

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• Parliament is the longest running farce in the West End.

  Cyril Smith

  Running, West, Ends

  On the House of Commons, in 'Big Cyril' (1977) ch. 8

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