“You can get the monkey off your back, but the circus never leaves town”
Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist
Source: Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith
“You can get the monkey off your back, but the circus never leaves town”
Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist
Source: Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith
Kris Roe (1978) American composer and singer
In Spite of the World
Song lyrics, Blue Skies, Broken Hearts...Next 12 Exits (1999)
“Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.”
H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer
1940s–present, A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)
Source: A Mencken Chrestomathy
“It doesn't take much to make us flip back into monkeys again.”
Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author
A similar remark was reportedly made by Pratchett in The Herald (4 October 2004): I'd rather be a climbing ape than a falling angel.
"I create gods all the time - now I think one might exist" (2008)
Context: Evolution was far more thrilling to me than the biblical account. Who would not rather be a rising ape than a falling angel? To my juvenile eyes Darwin was proved true every day. It doesn't take much to make us flip back into monkeys again.
Jimmy Buffett (1946) American singer–songwriter and businessman
Fins, written with Deborah McColl, Barry Chance, and Tom Corcoran
Song lyrics, Volcano (1979)
“You got anything to say to your filthy monkey gods before I food you?”
Darby Conley (1970) American cartoonist
LoserPalooza
Bucky Katt
Nat King Cole (1919–1965) American singer and jazz pianist
"Straighten Up And Fly Right" (1937) written with Irving Mills.
“Word gets around when the circus comes to town, dont it?”
Cormac McCarthy book All the Pretty Horses
All the Pretty Horses (1992)
Darby Conley (1970) American cartoonist
LoserPalooza and daily strip for July 28, 2003
Bucky Katt