Charlie Brown Quote From 60 Years Ago Carried Over Into Peanuts Movie

Many of the best Peanuts quotes come from a character saying something accidentally brilliant. Creator Charles Schulz may have written the line to be insightful. But once the words reach his characters’ mouths, they usually say something profound without meaning to, or even noticing. Take the best line about heartbreak in the strip: “Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter like unrequited love!” It captures the physical sting of romantic rejection. Charlie Brown, though, is just reacting to the feeling with no deeper intention.

Lucy’s “Happiness is a warm puppy” is another great one. It touches on life’s simple joys at a deep level. But I didn’t want accidental brilliance when I went looking for the best quote ever spoken by Charlie Brown. I wanted a line he understands as well as the reader does. I wanted him to tell us who he is with complete self-awareness, and to state his philosophy on life. To me, that’s the difference between a brilliant Charlie Brown quote and a brilliant Charles Schulz quote.

Who is Charlie Brown?

The search starts with a simple question about the character. Charlie Brown may not have many friends, but he’s loyal to the ones he has. He’s a great owner to Snoopy and generally kind to the people around him.

Beyond that, he’s kind of a loser. That may sound harsh, but it’s basically his whole deal. He’s unlucky at love and a mediocre student, and he hardly ever wins at anything. That’s what makes him so relatable, because many people feel they aren’t really winning at life. He’s perpetually the kid who has the football yanked away just as he’s about to kick it.

He’s also persistent. He falls for the football gag again and again because he thinks, “This time I’ll get it.” There’s hope in the character, even when it’s unwarranted and goes unrewarded. That optimism is why we root for him. He’s a sad sack, sure, but an endearingly persistent one.

Charlie Brown’s philosophy on life

The best Charlie Brown quote should show his bleak outlook and his persistence. It should also state his philosophy on life, with no accidental brilliance cluttering it up.

One quote from 1973 comes close. Charlie Brown leans on a brick wall with his pal Linus and says, “I used to try to take each day as it came… You know, live one day at a time… My philosophy has changed. I’m down to half-a-day at a time!” It’s a good line. But I think it could be misread as an optimistic “live life to the fullest” message, especially without the misery on Charlie Brown’s face.

So I turn to an earlier, similar exchange from 1966. Linus and Charlie Brown are chatting by the same brick wall again. Linus opens the strip by saying, “Life is difficult, isn’t it, Charlie Brown?” “Yes, it is,” Charlie Brown replies. Then he delivers his best line in the comic’s 50 years of publication:

“But I’ve developed a new philosophy… I only dread one day at a time.”

The words speak directly to Charlie Brown’s miserable outlook, and they carry a tinge of his persistence too. In life, just as with the football, he expects the worst, and that’s usually what he gets. But he doesn’t give up. He takes it one day at a time.

The quote is so good that it made it into the 1969 special A Boy Named Charlie Brown. There, Linus and Charlie Brown have the exact same conversation by the same brick wall. Schulz himself wrote the special, which came out three years after the comic strip. The line clearly stuck in his head long after he published it, just as it will likely stick with those of us who share Charlie Brown’s bleak outlook on life.

Source: Polygon