Life is a desire not a meaning is a line taken from Charlie Chaplin’s 1952 blockbuster movie “Limelight“.
The comedy drama film is based on a novella by Chaplin titled “Footlights“, and stars Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Claire Bloom.
This part of the quote is from the dialogues between Chaplin as Calvero talking to dancer Thereza “Terry” Ambrose (Claire).
She says, all life is aimless, without meaning.
Charlie explains, “what do you want a meaning for? Life is a desire, not a meaning. Desire is the theme of all life!”
Here is the scene from the movie:
But, do you know the quote “A day without laughter is a day wasted” is NOT by Charlie Chaplin?
So far there isn’t any verified source which indicates that this line is by Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin.
Alas, you can find it in many established websites, that include Lifehack, Goodreads, Bartleby.com, Thoughtco.com, etc.
By the way, this quote is actually in French by writer Sébastien-Roch Nicolas or better known as Nicolas Chamfort.
The line in French is:
“La plus perdue de toutes les journées est celle où l’on n’a pas ri.” – Sébastien-Roch Nicolas
(Chamfort: Pensèes, Maximes, Ancecdotes Avec Étude Sur La Vie Et L’oeuvre De Chamfort, Par Charles Simond, Paris: Henri Gautier, 1796, Ch.1 Maximes Générales, P. 6) source
(Here is another source from the same book.)
According to Google English translation is: “The most lost of all days is the one where we did not laugh“.
The earliest English translation of: “La plus perdue de toutes les journées est celle où l’on n’a pas ri” is:
“…the most lost of all days, is that in which we have not laughed.”
(Flowers Of Literature For 1801 & 1802: Or Characteristic Sketches Of Human Nature and Modern Manners By The Rev. F. Prevost And F. Blagdon, Volume 1, London: B. Crosby And Co. Stationers’ Court, 1803, Laughing, P. 5) source
This is not the only misquote attributed to Charlie Chaplin.
Anyway, Charlie Chaplin was an English iconic comic actor and film director of the silent film era.
The greatest silent movie star who is best known as a wobbling tramp in a raggedy suit, a flexible cane and his small derby hat.
You have enjoyed his classic silent movies, from “The Tramp” to “City Lights” to “Modern Times“.
In 2018, Chaplin Archives released his long-lost film “The Professor“.
You can watch it, together with all his other movies curated below this blog post.
Life Is A Desire Not A Meaning
Now it is time to enjoy the many witty and profound Charlie Chaplin quotations from his autobiography, movies, and interviews.
“I am what I am: an individual, unique and different, with a lineal history of an ancestral promptings and urgings, a history of dreams, desires, and of special experiences, of all of which I am the sum total.” – Charlie Chaplin
(My Autobiography By Charlie Chaplin, London: Melville House Publishing, 2012, Seventeen, P. 262) source
“I believe that faith is a precursor of all our ideas. Without faith, there never could have evolved hypothesis, theory, science or mathematics. I believe that faith is an extension of the mind. It is the key that negates the impossible. To deny faith is to refute oneself and the spirit that generates all our creative forces.” – Charlie Chaplin
(My Autobiography By Charlie Chaplin, London: New York: Simon And Schuster, 1964, Eighteen; P. 291) source
(The quote is also found in: My Autobiography By Charlie Chaplin, New York: Simon And Schuster, 1964, Eighteen, P. 291)
“I think a very great deal of myself. Everything is perfect or imperfect, according to myself. I am the perfect standard.” – Charlie Chaplin
(Charlie Chaplin: Interviews By Charlie Chaplin, Charlie Chaplin, Edited By Kevin J. Hayes, Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2005, Philosopher, Has Serious Side: Frank Vreeland/192, P. 52)
“That’s one thing I do appreciate about success. It enables me to do what I please.” – Charlie Chaplin
(Charlie Chaplin: Interviews By Charlie Chaplin, Charlie Chaplin, Edited By Kevin J. Hayes, Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2005, Philosopher, Has Serious Side: Frank Vreeland/1921, P. 58)
“Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind.” – Charlie Chaplin
(From The 1940 Movie ‘The Great Dictator’, 0:44-0:50)
“This is an emotional moment for me, and words seem so futile, so feeble.” – Charlie Chaplin
(Speech At The 44th Academy Awards, Honorary Award, 10 April 1972, 4:15-4:20)
“A good talking picture is inferior to a good stage play, while a good silent picture is superior to a good stage play.” – Charlie Chaplin
(The Circleville Herald From Circleville, Ohio, February 5th 1930, P. 4)
“All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl.” – Charlie Chaplin
(My Autobiography By Charlie Chaplin, London: Melville House Publishing, 2012, Ten, P. 160) source
(The quote is also found in: Charlie Chaplin: Interviews By Charlie Chaplin, Edited By Kevin J. Hayes, Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2005, Backcover) source
(Another source: My Autobiography By Charlie Chaplin, New York: Simon And Schuster, 1964, Ten, P. 159)
“This is a ruthless world and one must be ruthless to cope with it.” – Charlie Chaplin
(Transcript from the movie ‘Monsieur Verdoux’) source
“Nothing is permanent in this wicked world – not even our troubles.” – Charlie Chaplin
(Transcript from the movie ‘Monsieur Verdoux’) source
“Remember, you can always stoop and pick up nothing” – Charlie Chaplin
(Transcript from the movie ‘Monsieur Verdoux’) source
(The quote is also found in: My Autobiography By Charlie Chaplin, London: Melville House Publishing, 2012, Four, P. 59) source
“Wars, conflict, it’s all business. “One murder makes a villain. Millions a hero”. Numbers sanctify.” – Charlie Chaplin
(Transcript from the movie ‘Monsieur Verdoux’) source
Note: The quote “One murder makes a villain. Millions a hero” is taken from Death: A Seatonian Prize Poem by Beilby Porteus.
The actual line is: “One murder makes a villain, Millions a hero.”
(Death: A Seatonian Prize Poem By Beilby Porteus, London: J. Spragg, 1803, Line 154, P. 18)
“Despair is a narcotic. It lulls the mind into indifference.” – Charlie Chaplin
(Transcript from the movie ‘Monsieur Verdoux’) source
“I am at peace with God. My conflict is with Man.” – Charlie Chaplin
(Transcript from the movie ‘Monsieur Verdoux’) source
“Business is a ruthless business.” – Charlie Chaplin
(Transcript from the movie ‘Monsieur Verdoux’) source
“We think too much and feel too little.” – Charlie Chaplin
(Transcript from the movie ‘The Great Dictator’) source
“We’re in this world to live — that’s enough.” – Charlie Chaplin
(Charlie Chaplin: Interviews By Charlie Chaplin, Edited By Kevin J. Hayes, Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2005, Philosopher, Has Serious Side: Frank Vreeland/1921, P. 54)
“What is the purpose of existence? I don’t know. I accept it as it is.” – Charlie Chaplin
(Charlie Chaplin: Interviews By Charlie Chaplin, Edited By Kevin J. Hayes, Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2005, Philosopher, Has Serious Side: Frank Vreeland/1921, P. 54) source
“I do not care what other people do, but I believe my silence is more eloquent than my voice.” – Charlie Chaplin
(Chaplin Again Denies He Will ever Make Sound Productions By United Press, San Bernardino Sun, Volume 65, Number 150, 28 January 1930, P. 17) source
“I don’t want perfection of detail in the acting. I’d hate a picture that was perfect, it would seem machine made. I want the human touch, so that you love the picture for its imperfections.” – Charlie Chaplin
(Charlie Chaplin: Interviews By Charlie Chaplin, Edited By Kevin J. Hayes, Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2005, Philosopher, Has Serious Side: Frank Vreeland/1921, P. 55) source
(The quote is also found in: Charlie Chaplin, Philosopher, Has Serious Side By Frank Vreeland, The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee, Sunday, September 11, 1921; P. 36)
“Whether it is tragedy or comedy depends on how you look at it. There is not a hair’s breadth between them.” – Charlie Chaplin
(Charlie Chaplin’s Own Story: Being A Faithful Recital Of A Romantic Career, Beginning With Early Recollections Of Boyhood In London And Closing With The Signing Of His Latest Motion-Picture Contract By Charlie Chaplin, Rose Wilder Lane, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1916, Ch. I, P. 11) source
“The public is like a child; it gets tired of its toys and throws them away. When that happens I shall do something else, and still be satisfied.” – Charlie Chaplain
(Charlie Chaplin’s Own Story: Being A Faithful Recital Of A Romantic Career, Beginning With Early Recollections Of Boyhood In London And Closing With The Signing Of His Latest Motion-Picture Contract By Charlie Chaplin, Rose Wilder Lane, Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1916, Ch. I, P. 12) source
“…I dislike the word clown, for I am not a clown – may have esoteric meanings. I prefer to think of myself as a mimetic satirist, for I have aimed in all my comedies at burlesquing, satirizing the human race…” – Charlie Chaplin
(Charlie Chaplin: Interviews By Charlie Chaplin, Edited By Kevin J. Hayes, Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2005, The Hamlet-like Nature Of Charlie Chaplin: Benjamin De Casseres/1920, PP. 46-47)
(The quote is also found in: The New York Times Encyclopedia Of Film, Volume 1, Edited By Gene Brown, Times Book, 1984) source
“I always understand poor artists; rich ones always seem to me a contradiction in terms.” – Charlie Chaplin
(Charlie Chaplin: Interviews By Charlie Chaplin, Edited By Kevin J. Hayes, Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2005, The Hamlet-like Nature Of Charlie Chaplin: Benjamin De Casseres/1920, P. 49) source
“I am too tragic by nature to play Hamlet […] Only a great comedian can play Dante.” – Charlie Chaplin
(Charlie Chaplin: Interviews By Charlie Chaplin, Edited By Kevin J. Hayes, Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2005, The Hamlet-like Nature Of Charlie Chaplin: Benjamin De Casseres/1920, P. 50) source
“I’m an iconoclast. I love to tear things apart. I Don’t like them as they are.” – Charlie Chaplin
(Charlie Chaplin: Interviews By Charlie Chaplin, Edited By Kevin J. Hayes, Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2005, Charlie Chaplin, Philosopher Has Serious Side: Frank Vreeland/1921, P. 51) source
“What does it matter what comes tomorrow? So far as we’re concerned, we’re the crown of the ages. Each one can consider himself the perfect fruit toward which evolution has been working. We’re in this world to live — that’s enough.” – Charlie Chaplin
(Charlie Chaplin: Interviews By Charlie Chaplin, Edited By Kevin J. Hayes, Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2005, Charlie Chaplin, Philosopher Has Serious Side: Frank Vreeland/1921, P. 54) source
“I put off the day I start to work — and I’m going to defer it as much as possible in the future. I like to remain in a state of pleasant uncertainty until I feel in the right mood to start.” – Charlie Chaplin
(Charlie Chaplin: Interviews By Charlie Chaplin, Edited By Kevin J. Hayes, Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2005, Charlie Chaplin, Philosopher Has Serious Side: Frank Vreeland/1921, P. 55) source
(The quote is also found in: Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico, Sunday, October 2, 1921, P. 8) source
“The best ideas grow out of the situation. If you get a good comedy situation it goes on and on and has many radiations.” – Charlie Chaplin
(Chaplin: Genius Of The Cinema By Jeffrey Vance, Harry N. Abrams, 2003, Appendix: Charlie Chaplin Interviewed By Richard Meryman, 1966, P. 361) source
(The quote is also found here and here.)
“Cruelty is a basic element in comedy. What appears to be sane is really insane, and if you can make that poignant enough they love it. The audience recognizes it as a farce on life” – Charlie Chaplin
(Chaplin: Genius Of The Cinema By Jeffrey Vance, Harry N. Abrams, 2003, Appendix: Charlie Chaplin Interviewed By Richard Meryman, 1966, P. 362) source
(The quote is also found here and here.)
“Humour is a universal thing, which I think is derived from more or less pity.” – Charlie Chaplin
(Chaplin: Genius Of The Cinema By Jeffrey Vance, Harry N. Abrams, 2003, Appendix: Charlie Chaplin Interviewed By Richard Meryman, 1966, P. 367) source
(The quote is also found here and here.)
“Motion-picture audiences like cheerfulness and don’t like to see too much suffering. They really don’t want the great truths brought home to them, and strongly resent having pessimism of any sort thrust in their faces.” – Charlie Chaplin
(Charlie Chaplin: Interviews By Charlie Chaplin, Edited By Kevin J. Hayes, Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2005, Shy Charlie Chaplin Opens His Heart: Mordaunt Hall/1925, P. 77)
(The quote is also found in: Shy Charlie Chaplin Opens His Heart By Mordaunt Hall, New York Times, August 9, 1925) source
“I have yet to know a poor man who has nostalgia for poverty, or who finds freedom in it.” – Charlie Chaplin
(My Autobiography By Charlie Chaplin, New York: Simon And Schuster, 1964, Seventeen, P. 270) source
“Yes, life can be wonderful if you’re not afraid of it. All it needs is courage, imagination and a little dough.” – Charlie Chaplin
(Transcript from the movie ‘Limelight’) source
“I’m an old weed. The more I’m cut down, the more I spring up again.” – Charlie Chaplin
(Transcript from the movie ‘Limelight’) source
“Life is a beautiful, magnificent thing, even to a jellyfish. … The trouble is you won’t fight. You’ve given up. … But there’s something just as inevitable as death. And that’s life.” – Charlie Chaplin
(Transcript from the movie ‘Limelight‘) source
“What do you want a meaning for? Life is a desire, not a meaning. Desire is the theme of all life.” – Charlie Chaplin
(Transcript from the movie ‘Limelight’) source
“If you’re looking for rainbow, look up to the sky.” – Charlie Chaplin
(The song ‘Swing Little Girl’ from 1968 movie ‘The Circus’) source
“You’ll never find rainbows, if you’re looking down.” – Charlie Chaplin
(The song ‘Swing Little Girl’ from 1968 movie ‘The Circus’) source
“Time heals, and experience teaches that the secret of happiness is in service to others.” – Charlie Chaplin
(From 1923 Movie A Woman Of Paris,1:17:14) source
“How does one get ideas? By sheer perseverance to the point of madness.” – Charlie Chaplin
(My Autobiography By Charlie Chaplin, New York: Simon And Schuster, 1964, Fourteen, P. 211) source
(The quote is also found in: My Autobiography By Charlie Chaplin, London: Melville House Publishing, 2012, Fourteen, P. 208) source
“Over the years I have discovered that ideas come through an intense desire for them; continually desiring, the mind becomes a watch-tower on the look-out for incidents that may excite the imagination – music, a sunset, may give image to an idea.” – Charlie Chaplin
(My Autobiography By Charlie Chaplin, New York: Simon And Schuster, 1964, Fourteen, P. 211) source
“Because of humour we are less overwhelmed by the vicissitudes of life. It activates our sense of proportion and reveals to us that in an over-statement of seriousness lurks the absurd.” – Charlie Chaplin
(My Autobiography By Charlie Chaplin, London: Melville House Publishing, 2012, Fourteen, P. 209) source
“Simplicity of approach is always best.” – Charlie Chaplin
(My Autobiography By Charlie Chaplin, New York: Simon And Schuster, 1964, Sixteen, P. 254)
(The quote is also found in: My Autobiography By Charlie Chaplin, Melville House Publishing, 2012, Sixteen, P. 246) source
“In the creation of comedy, it is paradoxical that tragedy stimulates the spirit of ridicule; because ridicule, I suppose, is an attitude of defiance.” – Charlie Chaplin
(My Autobiography By Charlie Chaplin, New York: Simon And Schuster, 1964, Nineteen, P. 303) source
“The saddest thing I can imagine is to get used to luxury.” – Charlie Chaplin
(My Autobiography By Charlie Chaplin, New York: Simon 7 Schuster, 1964, Twenty-Two, P. 337) source
“To help a friend in need is easy, but to give him your time is not always opportune.” – Charlie Chaplin
(My Autobiography By Charlie Chaplin, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1964, Seventeen, P. 269) source
“…our existence is a half-dream and that it is difficult to know where the dream ends and reality begins.” – Charlie Chaplin
(My Autobiography By Charlie Chaplin, New York: Simon And Schuster, 1964, Twenty-Six, P. 414) source
“…Whether sage or fool, we must all struggle with life.” – Charlie Chaplin
(My Autobiography By Charlie Chaplin, New York: Simon And Schuster, 1964, Thirty-One, P. 497) source
“There is a fraternity of those who passionately want to know. […] But my motives were not so pure; I wanted to know, not for the love of knowledge but as a defence against the world’s contempt for the ignorant.” – Charlie Chaplin
(My Autobiography By Charlie Chaplin, New York: Simon And Schuster, 1964, Nine, P. 134)
“…I do not believe sex is the most important element in the complexity of behaviour. Cold, hunger and the shame of poverty are more likely to affect one’s psychology.” – Charlie Chaplin
(My Autobiography By Charlie Chaplin, New York: Simon And Schuster, 1964, Fourteen, P. 208) source
“All children in some form or another have genius; the trick is to bring it out in them.” – Charlie Chaplin
(My Autobiography By Charlie Chaplin, New York: Simon And Schuster, 1964, Sixteen, P. 234) source
“I do not believe acting can be taught. I have seen intelligent people fail at it and dullards act quite well. But acting essentially requires feeling.” – Charlie Chaplin
(My Autobiography By Charlie Chaplin, New York: Simon And Schuster, 1964, Sixteen, P. 258) source
“One cannot do humour without a great sympathy for one’s fellow man.” – Charlie Chaplin
(Ageless Master’s Anatomy Of Comedy: Chaplin, An Interview By Richard Meryman, Life Magazine, Vol. 62, March 10, 1967, P. 83) source
(The quote is also found in: Charlie Chaplin: Interviews By Charlie Chaplin, Edited By Kevin J. Hayes, Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2005, Ageless Master’s Anatomy of Comedy: Chaplin, An Interview Richard Meryman/1967, P. 131) source
“Creative people are not always languishing about in an ecstasy of creative inspiration.” – Charlie Chaplin
(Ageless Master’s Anatomy of Comedy: Chaplin, An Interview By Richard Meryman, Life Magazine, Vol. 62, March 10, 1967, P. 83) source
(The quote is also found in: Charlie Chaplin: Interviews By Charlie Chaplin, Edited By Kevin J. Hayes, Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2005, Ageless Master’s Anatomy Of Comedy: Chaplin, An Interview Richard Meryman/1967, P. 131)
“Complexity isn’t truth.” – Charlie Chaplin
(Ageless Master’s Anatomy of Comedy: Chaplin, An Interview By Richard Meryman, Life Magazine, Vol. 62, March 10, 1967, P. 86) source
(The quote is also found in: Charlie Chaplin: Interviews By Charlie Chaplin, Edited By Kevin J. Hayes, Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2005, Ageless Master’s Anatomy of Comedy: Chaplin, An Interview Richard Meryman/1967, P. 133) source
“Life without romance — well, you might as well be in a prison or a slug under the earth.” – Charlie Chaplin
(Ageless Master’s Anatomy of Comedy: Chaplin, An Interview By Richard Meryman, Life Magazine, Vol. 62, March 10, 1967, P. 82) source
(The quote is also found in: Charlie Chaplin: Interviews By Charlie Chaplin, Edited By Kevin J. Hayes, Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2005, Ageless Master’s Anatomy Of Comedy: Chaplin, An Interview Richard Meryman/1967, P. 130) source
“I’m not interested at all in reality, except to make my stories believable…” – Charlie Chaplin
(Ageless Master’s Anatomy Of Comedy: Chaplin, An Interview By Richard Meryman, Life Magazine, Vol. 62, March 10, 1967, P. 82) source
(The quote is also found in: Charlie Chaplin: Interviews By Charlie Chaplin, Edited By Kevin J. Hayes, Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2005, Ageless Master’s Anatomy Of Comedy: Chaplin, An Interview Richard Meryman/1967, P. 130) source
“…in all truth there is the seed of falsehood.” – Charlie Chaplin
(My Autobiography By Charlie Chaplin, New York: Simon And Schuster, 1964, Sixteen, P. 259) source
Free Charlie Chaplin Movies
Here is a complete list of free Charlie Chaplin movies you can watch online:
Dough And Dynamite (1914)
Making A Living (1914)
The Good For Nothing aka His New Profession (1914)
His Prehistoric Past (1914)
The Rounders (1914)
Gentlemen Of Nerve (1914)
The Property Man (1914)
Mabel’s Married Life (1914)
Mabel At The Wheel (1914)
Mabel’s Strange Predicament (1914)
Caught In The Rain (1914)
Laffing Gas (1914)
Twenty Minutes Of Love (1914)
Colored Version
A Busy Day (1914)
Between Showers (1914)
A Film Johnnie (1914)
Tango Tangles (1914)
His Favorite Pastime (1914)
Cruel, Cruel Love (1914)
Caught In A Cabaret (1914)
The Fatal Mallet (1914)
Her Friend the Bandit (1914)
The Knockout (1914)
Mabel’s Busy Day (1914)
Colored Version
The Star Boarder (1914)
The Face On The Barroom Floor (1914)
Recreation (1914)
The Masquerader (1914)
His Musical Career (1914)
His Trysting Place (1914)
Getting Acquainted (1914)
Colored Version
Those Love Pangs aka The Rival Mashers (1914)
The New Janitor (1914)
Tillie’s Punctured Romance (1914)
Kid Auto Races At Venice (1914)
A Thief Catcher (1914)
A Fair Exchange (1914)
A Woman (1915)
By The Sea (1915)
Colored Version
In The Park (1915)
Colored Version
The Tramp (1915)
The Bank (1915)
Colored Version
Burlesque On Carmen (1915)
A Jitney Elopement (1915)
Work (1915)
Colored Version
A Night Out (1915)
Shanghaied (1915)
Colored Version
The Champion (1915)
A Night In The Show (1915)
Colored Version
His New Job (1915)
Colored Version
The Pawnshop (1916)
The Count (1916)
Colored Version
The Rink (1916)
The Fireman (1916)
Colored Version
Police (1916)
Behind the Screen (1916)
Colored Version
The Vagabond (1916)
The Floorwalker (1916)
One A.M (1916)
The Adventurer (1917)
Easy Street (1917)
Colored Version
The Cure (1917)
The Immigrant (1917)
A Dog’s Life (1918)
The Bond (1918)
Shoulder Arms (1918)
Triple Trouble (1918)
Colored Version
How to Make Movies (1918)
Sunnyside (1919)
A Day’s Pleasure (1919)
The Professor (1919)
The Kid (1921)
The Idle Class (1921)
Pay Day (1922)
Nice and Friendly (1922)
A Woman of Paris (1923)
The Pilgrim (1923)
The Gold Rush (1925)
City Lights (1931)
Modern Times (1936)
The Great Dictator (1940)
Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
A King In New York (1957)
A Countess from Hong Kong (1967)
Another source here