“I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph.”
Quoted in The New Penguin Dictionary of Modern Quotations by Robert Andrews
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Shirley Temple 2
American actress and diplomat 1928–2014Related quotes
"What We Owe Our Parasites", speech (June 1968); Free Speech magazine (October and November 1995)
1990s
“Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies!”
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus (1897)
Context: Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah,, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
Source: You Are Worthless: Depressing Nuggets of Wisdom Sure to Ruin Your Day
“If I'm president, you're going to see 'Merry Christmas' in department stores, believe me.”
2010s, 2016, January, Speech at (18 January 2016)
"Fear and Loathing in Elko" Rolling Stone (23 January 1992)
1990s
Context: It is all well and good for children and acid freaks to still believe in Santa Claus — but it is still a profoundly morbid day for us working professionals. It is unsettling to know that one out of every twenty people you meet on Xmas will be dead this time next year... Some people can accept this, and some can't. That is why God made whiskey, and also why Wild Turkey comes in $300 shaped canisters during most of the Christmas season.
“Santa Claus has the right idea: visit people once a year”
The Yellow Book, 1974
Context: Q: Did you start life like us with lots of demands, and what spurred you to give it up? A: When I was six or seven, I would feel I was inside a box of earth and sky, and I would weep. Once I asked my mother: "Take me out of this box of earth and sky." She said, "I can't." Then I said, "I'm going." (p.33)