“You can get the monkey off your back, but the circus never leaves town”
Source: Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith
“You can get the monkey off your back, but the circus never leaves town”
Source: Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith
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.”
1940s–present, A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)
Source: A Mencken Chrestomathy
“It doesn't take much to make us flip back into monkeys again.”
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.
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?”
LoserPalooza
Bucky Katt
"Straighten Up And Fly Right" (1937) written with Irving Mills.