When Albert Einstein met Charlie Chaplin in 1931, Einstein said, “What I admire most about your art is its universality. You do not say a word, and yet the world understands you." “It's true.” Replied Chaplin, "But your fame is even greater. The world admires you, when no one understands you."

szyalk on December 7th, 2018 at 23:54 UTC »

Everyone always says r/thathappened for this, but it’s probably true or close to it. It was at the premiere of City Lights on 2/2/31. It was not when they first met — they were already friends and vocally admiring of each other. Einstein was there as Chaplin’s guest. They had some bantering in front of a crowd at the premiere. It wasn’t recorded so any quotes are probably paraphrasings and thus probably refined a bit. Some reports just have it as a Chaplin quip — Einstein said “look everyone loves you!” And Chaplin said, “they love me because I don’t talk and they understand me. But they love you because you talk and they don’t understand you!”

But OP’s variation is included in the memoir of Janus Plesch, a doctor and close friend of Einstein’s.

And yes, I’m sure that after whatever was said was said, people actually clapped.

edwardteo on December 8th, 2018 at 00:23 UTC »

Einstein = Meets Chaplin²

evel333 on December 8th, 2018 at 00:31 UTC »

Now that I think about it, I have never seen a photo of Charlie Chaplin without his iconic mustache.