Quotessence
Home / Authors / Tom Lehrer
Tom Lehrer

Tom Lehrer Quotes

Singer-songwriter

Filter quotes by topic

AllIfsPeopleSongThinkingFunnyTwoWritingFactsImportantKnows

Famous Tom Lehrer Quotes

“I don’t think this kind of thing [satire] has an impact on the unconverted, frankly. It’s not even preaching to the converted; it’s titillating the converted. I think the people who say we need satire often mean, ‘We need satire of them, not of us.’ I’m fond of quoting Peter Cook, who talked about the satirical Berlin cabarets of the ’30s, which did so much to stop the rise of Hitler and prevent the Second World War.”

InfluenceSatirePolitical Satire
Author:Tom Lehrer
Create image

“If you visit American city, You will find it very pretty. Just two things of which you must beware: Don't drink the water and don't breathe the air. Pollution, pollution, They got smog and sewage and mud. Turn on your tap and get hot and cold running crud. See the halibuts and the sturgeons Being wiped out by detergents. Fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly, But they don't last long if they try. Pollution, pollution, You can use the latest toothpaste, And then rinse your mouth with industrial waste.”

IfsTryingLongTwoUseRunningLastsTurnsWaterCitiesAirColdDrinkWasteBirdMouthsHotEnvironmentalFishesBreatheTwo ThingsSwimPollutionMudTurn-onAmerican CitiesToothpasteAir PollutionSmogSewageHot And ColdHalibut
Author:Tom Lehrer
Create image

“I always like to make explicit the fact that before I went off not too long ago to fight in the trenches, I was a mathematician by profession. I don't like people to get the idea that I have to do this for a living. I mean, it isn't as though I had to do this, you know, I could be making, oh, three thousand dollars a year just teaching.”

PeopleKnowsYearsMeanLongIdeasFactsFightingThreeTeachingThousandDollarsProfessionLong AgoMathematicianExplicitTrenches
Author:Tom Lehrer
Create image