50 Ricky Gervais Quotes on Life and Humor

By Samantha Williams

Writer, Entrepreneur and Inspirational quote curator

Published April 9, 2023

These Ricky Gervais quotes about jokes will make you laugh until you cry.

Ricky Gervais is an English comedian, actor, writer, and producer best known for his role in creating the original British television series The Office.

This collection of Ricky Gervais’ best lines and most insightful quotes will brighten your day.

Whether you’re looking for advice or for laughs, you’ll love these quotes.

These hilarious Ricky Gervais quotes will give you a fresh perspective on politics, religion, animal rights, and the many other varied subjects that inspire him.

What are the best jokes about?

The Ricky Gervais quotes below about dogs, humanity, and the afterlife prove that you can joke about anything.

This standup comic is widely regarded as one of the funniest people in the world.

If you consider yourself to be a Ricky Gervais fan, you’ll definitely want to read this collection of his best lines and quotes.

Browse our entire collection of inspirational quotes for more motivating ideas and concepts.

Ricky Gervais quotes on life and humor

1. “Famous people are above the law.” ― Ricky Gervais

2. “Mondays are fine. It’s your life that sucks.” ― Ricky Gervais

3. “You won’t burn in hell. But be nice anyway.” ― Ricky Gervais

4. “I think everyone has the ability to be loved.” ― Ricky Gervais

5. “You do your own thing and you see if you survive.” ― Ricky Gervais

6. “You can laugh at anything. It depends on the joke.” ― Ricky Gervais

7. “Unlike religious people, I look at all religions equally.” ― Ricky Gervais

8. “Remember, if you don’t sin, then Jesus died for nothing.” ― Ricky Gervais

9. “Just because you’re offended, doesn’t mean you’re right.” ― Ricky Gervais

10. “I am not a wolf in sheep’s clothing, I’m a wolf in wolf’s clothing.” ― Ricky Gervais

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Ricky Gervais quotes to brighten your day

11. “Beliefs do not change facts. Facts, if one is rational, should change beliefs.” ― Ricky Gervais

12. “Your critics want you to be as unhappy, unfulfilled, and unimportant as they are. Let your happiness eat them up from inside.” ― Ricky Gervais

13. “It’s a strange myth that atheists have nothing to live for. It’s the opposite. We have nothing to die for. We have everything to live for.” ― Ricky Gervais

14. “Remember, when you are dead, you do not know you are dead. It is only painful for others. The same applies when you are stupid.” ― Ricky Gervais

15. “Telling someone with depression to pull themselves together is about as useful as telling someone with cancer to just stop having cancer.” ― Ricky Gervais

16. “That’s the other thing I learned that day, that the truth, however shocking or uncomfortable, in the end, leads to liberation and dignity.” ― Ricky Gervais

17. “If you can’t joke about the most horrendous things in the world, what’s the point of jokes? What’s the point in having humor? Humor is to get us over terrible things.” ― Ricky Gervais

18. “Honor is a gift a man gives himself. You can be as good as anyone that ever lived. If you can read, you can learn everything that anyone ever learned. But you’ve got to want it.” ― Ricky Gervais

19. “I think doing something creative is the most important thing to me, and I think it’s probably just good for the soul for anyone, whatever it is. You don’t have to be a film director – you can do gardening or something – but I think everyone needs to create something.” ― Ricky Gervais

20. “Everything I do is somehow rooted in humanity. It’s always about people; it’s always about ego. It’s always about desperation. It’s quite existential. You know, ‘Am I leading a good life?’ That might be because I’m an atheist, and I think this is all we’ve got, so you better be nice. And have fun.” ― Ricky Gervais

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Ricky Gervais quotes to put a smile on your face

21. “The best advice I’ve ever received is, ‘No one else knows what they’re doing either.’” ― Ricky Gervais

22. “A Christian telling an atheist they’re going to hell is as scary as a child telling an adult they’re not getting any presents from Santa.” ― Ricky Gervais

23. “With Netflix, I browse; I watch documentaries about things I’d never dream of, but I think, ’I might as well.’” ― Ricky Gervais

24. “It’s a privilege to be in such a great category of people and… I don’t believe in God, so I’d like to thank dogs. Dogs have given me everything.” ― Ricky Gervais

25. “Life is just a series of peaks and troughs. And you don’t know whether you’re in a trough until you’re climbing out, or on a peak until you’re coming down. And that’s it you know, you never know what’s round the corner. But it’s all good.” ― Ricky Gervais

26. “The existence of God is not subjective. He either exists or he doesn’t. It’s not a matter of opinion. You can have your own opinions. But you can’t have your own facts.” ― Ricky Gervais

27. “I think you can make fun of anything except things people can’t help. They can’t help their race or their sex or their age, so you ridicule their pretension or their ego instead. You can ridicule ideas – ideas don’t have feelings. You can ridicule an idea that someone holds without hurting them.” ― Ricky Gervais

28. “The world is bigger than all the parts. That’s the important thing, and one thing can throw everything off-kilter. And you must never let yourself off. You’ll let yourself off by mistake. So you shouldn’t do it consciously. You have to be above it all and just be very disciplined with it. Just be very disciplined with it.” ― Ricky Gervais

29. “Why buy a book when you can join a library?” ― Ricky Gervais

30. “I could always take a joke. I could always be the butt of the joke. I could always hand it out. That was just who I was.” ― Ricky Gervais

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Ricky Gervais quotes that will make you think

31. “There’s no difference between fame and infamy now. There’s a new school of professional famous people that don’t do anything. They don’t create anything.” ― Ricky Gervais

32. “Same-sex marriage isn’t a gay privilege, it’s equal rights. Privilege would be something like gay people not paying taxes. Like churches don’t.” ― Ricky Gervais

33. “Where there’s a will – there’s a relative!” ― Ricky Gervais

34. “Comedy and drama are different sides of the same coin. And the thing about comedy and drama is about likability. It’s about character first. It’s about the story. And for me, it’s about empathy, and I think the more real someone is, the further you can go either way with them.” – Ricky Gervais

35. “The grass isn’t always greener on the other side!” ― Ricky Gervais

36. “People have let me down in the past. I’ve loved something, and it’s become a disgrace. I’d rather start again.” ― Ricky Gervais

37. “Dear Religion, This week I safely dropped a man from space while you shot a child in the head for wanting to go to school. Yours, Science.” ― Ricky Gervais

38. “I think sometimes you get given a good pile of goodwill, and it’s whether you use it up in the first six months or spread it out over a career.” ― Ricky Gervais

39. “If there is a God, why did he make me an atheist?” ― Ricky Gervais

40. “We only do what we think is good and what we’re happy with. I’d rather have something that’s completely mine fail than something succeed that I’m not proud of.” ― Ricky Gervais

More Ricky Gervais quotes

41. “I never think of myself as a celebrity – or even an actor, actually. I think of myself as a writer-director.” ― Ricky Gervais

42. “Next time someone tells me they believe in God, I’ll say ‘Oh which one? Zeus? Hades? Jupiter? Mars? Odin? Thor? Krishna? Vishnu? Ra?…’ If they say ‘Just God. I only believe in the one God,’ I’ll point out that they are nearly as atheistic as me. I don’t believe in 2,870 gods, and they don’t believe in 2,869.” ― Ricky Gervais

43. “Stupidity without malice isn’t horrible; some people can’t help it.” ― Ricky Gervais

44. “I think it’s important to hold a mirror up to society and yourself.” ― Ricky Gervais

45. “Science is constantly proved all the time. If we take something like any fiction, any holy book, and destroyed it, in a thousand years’ time, that wouldn’t come back just as it was. Whereas if we took every science book and every fact and destroyed them all, in a thousand years they’d all be back because all the same tests would be the same result.” ― Ricky Gervais

46. “I think being nice is more important than being clever.” ― Ricky Gervais

47. “When I was about to be famous, I feared it on a few levels. I feared it because I didn’t want people to lump me in with those people who’d do anything to be famous. I didn’t like the word ‘celebrity.’ I feared intrusion, you know? Make me famous, and suddenly you can go through my trash bins.” ― Ricky Gervais

48. “That’s the buzz for me, the creative process. An idea is never as good as when it’s in your head. And then it’s just how little you ruin it.” ― Ricky Gervais

49. “People confuse the subject of the joke with the target of the joke, and they’re very rarely the same.” ― Ricky Gervais

50. “Enjoy life. Have fun. Be kind. Have worth. Have friends. Be honest. Laugh. Die with dignity. Make the most of it. It’s all we’ve got.” ― Ricky Gervais