Krassner Paul Quotes & Sayings

The more repression there is, the more need there is for irreverence toward those who are responsible for that repression. But too often sarcasm passes for irony, name-calling passes for insight, bleeped-out four-letter words pass for wit, and lowest-common-denominator jokes pass for analysis. Satire should have a point of view. It doesn't have to get a belly laugh. It does have to present criticism. — Paul Krassner

A man could be content with bread alone if he'd never tasted anything else. But one taste of sugar and John knew he'd never know such sweetness again. — Inez Kelley

There is indeed a business like show business. It's the news. — Paul Krassner

English is my second language. Laughter is my first. — Paul Krassner

I think [audiences are] more aware now of the contradictions in mainstream culture, the phony piety that permeates society, the inhumane hypocrisy. — Paul Krassner

I guess I'm a spiritual secularist, if that's not an oxymoron. My paths of secularism and spirituality are the same: I try to do the appropriate thing at each moment. — Paul Krassner

Thought and action can be perceived as two different dimensions of who you are: the mental you and the physical you — Steve Pavlina

Avoid internalizing society's sexism, racism, ageism - pick an ism, any ism. — Paul Krassner

As long as the government can arbitrarily decide which substances are legal and which are illegal, then those who remain behind bars for illegal substances are political prisoners — Paul Krassner

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. — Benjamin Franklin

Since I was both an atheist and an absurdist, I had decided that the most absurd thing I could do would be to develop an intimate relationship with the God I didn't believe in. — Paul Krassner

Great is the rose That challenges the crypt, And quotes milleniums Against the grave. — Nathalia Crane

I just love thinking about what makes people tick — Jessica Ennis

I Used To Believe In Reincarnation, But That Was In a Past Life. — Paul Krassner

The real story of our times is seldom told in the horse-puckey-filled memoirs of dopey, self-serving presidents or generals, but in the outrageous, demented lives of guys like Lenny Bruce, Giordano Bruno, Scott Fitzgerald - and Paul Krassner. The burrs under society's saddle. The pains in the ass. — Harlan Ellison

Now, I want to explain something to you guys. I don't have an ending joke, because I don't tell jokes. I tell real-life stories and make them funny. So, I'm not like the average comedian. They have an ending joke; they always holler Peace! I'm out of here, and walk off stage. So, basically, when I get through performing on stage, I just walk off. — Bruce Bruce

This is a difficult country to look too different in - the United States of Advertising, as Paul Krassner puts it - and if you are too skinny or too tall or dark or weird or short or frizzy or homely or poor or nearsighted, you get crucified. I did. But — Anne Lamott

I had become an atheist at the age of thirteen, when atomic bombs were dropped on Japan. — Paul Krassner

False humility is better than no humility at all. — Paul Krassner

You don't ask a man, 'Do you want to be in control [of your job]?' You assume he wants control. Why would a woman be any different? — Barbra Streisand

One - about cigarettes - I was pleased to see that anticigarette ad on the back issue of Hustler. I'm more offended by seeing ads for cigarettes in magazines than pictures of vaginas, because one kills and the other gives life - and I think that's an important difference. — Paul Krassner

I felt a confusion unspeakable at again seeing him, from the recollection of the ridotto adventure: nor did my situation lessen it; for I was seated between Madame Duval and Sir Clement, who seemed as little as myself to desire Lord Orville's presence. Indeed, — Fanny Burney

For years, reality has been nipping at the heels of satire. Now, it's finally caught up. I don't need to make this stuff up. — Paul Krassner

The state of rest is as important as the state of motion. Motion may lead to progress, but motion also leads to collisions and conflict. Motion requires effort and energy. Rest is effortless and undemanding. — Biju Vasudevan

I believe that in the end that it is kindness and accommodation that are all the catalysts for real change. — Nelson Mandela

I am neither for conformity nor non-conformity. I am for individuality. If one's individuality is in effect non-conformity, then so be it. But basically, one's individuality consists of conformity
to one's self. — Paul Krassner

Irreverence is our only sacred cow. — Paul Krassner

Watch yourself as though you were observing a Martian. — Paul Krassner

Listen to the speeches, one after another telling the audience what it already knows, evoking applause with necessary cliches, no longer shocking anybody with the shocking facts of the war because you can become so jaded with horror that you develop an emotional callous. — Paul Krassner

People don't like to be lectured to, but if you can make them laugh, their defenses come down, and for the time being they've accepted whatever truth is embedded in your humor. — Paul Krassner

If you must give me a label, then label me a human being. I have no pride in being a human, though, because I have nothing to do with my becoming one.
But, whereas animals don't have a rational code of ethics, I like to think I do. Which is where I am partisan. Moral partisanship is the reason for my "anger." And if I don't protest what needed to be protested, I might just as well be an animal. — Paul Krassner

Pope John Paul would be more popular if he called himself Pope John Paul George and Ringo. — Paul Krassner

Choice or freedom of choice is just an existential concern. But for photographers, it's a lifetime's preoccupation. — Marc Riboud