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The main evolutionary significance of humor is that it gets us from the closed mode to the open mode quicker than anything else.

John Cleese

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John Cleese
Age: 85
Born: 1939
Born: October 27
Actor
Autobiographer
Comedian
Film Actor
Film Director
Film Producer
Screenwriter
Stage Actor
Television Actor
Voice Actor
Writer
Weston-super-Mare
Somerset
John Marwood Cleese
Anything
Mode
Closed
Significance
Main
Gets
Humor
Open
Quicker
Else
Evolutionary

More quotes by John Cleese

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There are 3 basic differences between we British and you Americans. One, we speak English, and you don't. Two, when we have a World Championship, we invite teams from other nations. Three, when you meet the British head of State, you only have to get down on one knee.
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Your Mother was A Hamster and you Father Smelled of elder berries.
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When we hold a World Championship for a particular sport, we invite teams from other countries to play as well.
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I think that the real religion is about the understanding that if we can only still our egos for a few seconds, we might have a chance of experiencing something that is divine in nature.
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I get bored easily. I've been bored most of my life.
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Telling people how to be creative is easy - being creative is difficult.
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I think that money spoils most things, once it becomes the primary motivating force.
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I'm always meeting new people, and my list of friends seems to change quite a bit.
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We need to be in the open mode when we are pondering a problem, but, once we come up with a solution, we must then switch to the closed mode to implement it.
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years ago we would have been burned for this. Now what I am suggesting is that we've advanced.
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I think we're all born with a sense of humor. Creativity is another thing though.
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I was always a sports nut but I've lost interest now in whether one bunch of mercenaries in north London is going to beat another bunch of mercenaries from west London.
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What is absurd is not the teachings of the founders of religion, it's what followers subsequently make of it.
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The Americans are so much more positive. They are much more in love with success. In Britain, they're a fairly envious bunch, and they love it if you fail.
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There's something about watching an animal that puts you in contact with where we came from and what we're still a part of.
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No hope for planet at all. But I will be gone before the planet is gone, so it's your problem.
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My mum died about three years ago at the age of 101, and just towards the end, as she began to run out of energy, she did actually stop trying to tell me what to do most of the time.
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I would like to do my own eulogy, and then shoot myself and then get in the coffin.
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Comedy always works best when it is mean-spirited.
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When people quote sketches to me, half the time I don't know what they're talking about so I have to sort of go, aha, yes, oh yep, I remember that and lie my way out of it.
John Cleese