It takes a lot of energy to be negative. You have to work at it. But smiling is painless. I’d rather spend my energy smiling.
I don’t care what I look like; it’s how people think of me. And I do care how people think of me. I want people to say, ‘Oh, she’s nice,’ rather than, ‘Oh, she’s so pretty.’
I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.
In our work and in our living, we must recognize that difference is a reason for celebration and growth, rather than a reason for destruction.
I suppose I would still prefer to sit under a tree with a picnic basket rather than under a gas pump, but signs and comic strips are interesting as subject matter.
I’d rather regret the things I’ve done than regret the things I haven’t done.
People forget the punk thing was really good for women. It motivated them to pick up a guitar rather than be a chanteuse. It allowed us to be aggressive.
The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenaline but is, rather, the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity.
I don’t mind UFO’s and ghost stories, it’s just that I tend to give value to the storyteller rather than to the story itself.
There are quite a lot of YouTube clips of me that have gone viral. One that I think of is of a young woman at a lecture I was giving – she came from Liberty University, which is a ludicrous religious institution. She said, ‘What if you are wrong?’ and I answered that rather briefly, and that’s gone viral.
I see Canada as a country torn between a very northern, rather extraordinary, mystical spirit which it fears and its desire to present itself to the world as a Scotch banker.
I am a friend of the working man, and I would rather be his friend, than be one.
The secret of happiness is this: let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile.
The martyr sacrifices themselves entirely in vain. Or rather not in vain; for they make the selfish more selfish, the lazy more lazy, the narrow narrower.
The modern artist is working with space and time, and expressing his feelings rather than illustrating.
People think because I can make them laugh on the stage, I’ll be able to make them laugh in person. That isn’t the case at all. I am essentially a rather quiet, dull person who just happens to be a performer.
I’m very organized and tidy in my home life and I generally do something myself rather than farm it out to somebody else. I don’t have an assistant or anything because I think I can do it myself.
Say not, ‘I have found the truth,’ but rather, ‘I have found a truth.’
We would fight not for the political future of a distant city, rather for principles whose destruction would ruin the possibility of peace and security for the peoples of the earth.
It is rather for us here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.
What if the counterculture was only a stumbling beginning, rather than the best that could be hoped for?
I would rather be beaten, and be a man, than to be elected and be a little puppy dog.
I’d rather have friends who care than friends who agree with me.
I’m actually not a big coffee fan, so I don’t drink it that much. I’d rather have a green tea. But I do love to get a white mocha sometimes – it is just a strong order.
If you were plowing a field, which would you rather use? Two strong oxen or 1024 chickens?
I like to be loved or hated – I don’t like mediocre. So I’d rather have the entire crowd hate me than to have 90% hate me.
If I were a Roman Catholic, I should turn a heretic, in sheer desperation, because I would rather go to heaven than go to purgatory.
He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp posts – for support rather than for illumination.
To be honest, I’ve made a game out of trying to live through my James Dean, Janis Joplin, Freddie Prinze, Jim Morrison period, those demons that we all have that we’re either successful or not at making work for us rather than destroy us.
I had the privilege of practicing medicine in the early ’60s, before we had any government. It worked rather well, and there was nobody on the street suffering with no medical care.
We should never denigrate any other culture but rather help people to understand the relationship between their own culture and the dominant culture. When you understand another culture or language, it does not mean that you have to lose your own culture.
When I felt rather overcome with my father’s opposition, I said as firmly as I could, that I must have this or something else, that I could not live without some real work.
Definitely working on ‘Deal or No Deal’ was a learning experience, and it helped me to understand what I would rather be doing.
If I seem to boast more than is becoming, my excuse is that I brag for humanity rather than for myself.
The tragedy of life is often not in our failure, but rather in our complacency; not in our doing too much, but rather in our doing too little; not in our living above our ability, but rather in our living below our capacities.
Positive rights are the right to shelter, the right to education, the right to health care, the right to a living wage. These things are – these are, I would call them, more properly, political rights rather than positive rights. And they are extremely tricky, because now we are dealing with things that are zero sum.
I am primarily a lawyer. I would rather play in the game than be the umpire.
There is nothing funny about Halloween. This sarcastic festival reflects, rather, an infernal demand for revenge by children on the adult world.
Find fault with thyself rather than with others.
I change my socks often, because I had bad bouts of athlete’s foot fungus infections as a kid. I may be able to change socks less frequently and not get the fungus. But, I’d rather not run the test to determine just how infrequently I could change socks. I don’t feel superstitious about it.
Because we’re actors we can pretend and fake it, but I’d rather the intimate investment was authentic.
I cannot live on myths; somehow, science convinces me more easily. I am prone to lean towards science, ethics, and philosophy rather than myth, religion, and rituals.
The rapprochement of peoples is only possible when differences of culture and outlook are respected and appreciated rather than feared and condemned, when the common bond of human dignity is recognized as the essential bond for a peaceful world.
I’d rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck.
I would rather spend one day on Maui than 30 days in the hospital.
There’s as much crookedness as you want to find. There was something Abraham Lincoln said – he’d rather trust and be disappointed than distrust and be miserable all the time. Maybe I trusted too much.
I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing than teach 10,000 stars how not to dance.
Success in life is founded upon attention to the small things rather than to the large things; to the every day things nearest to us rather than to the things that are remote and uncommon.
We are the creative force of our life, and through our own decisions rather than our conditions, if we carefully learn to do certain things, we can accomplish those goals.
If 10 people see my movie and all ten really love it, then that means a lot to me, rather than ten million people go and see it and most of them hate it.
There is a gift of the Holy Spirit that is given to both men and women in the New Testament. This is what makes the New Testament a New Testament rather than the Old Testament, in which women did not have such privileges.
I’d rather attempt to do something great and fail than to attempt to do nothing and succeed.
The world is not uni-cultural. We must live together rather than seeking to dominate each other. The people in the world cannot accept domination anymore.
The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.
I tend to stay in character between scenes… to be rather serious on set, but here’s why, and I think people will find it surprising. I’m one of the worst ‘corpses’ on a movie set, which means you can’t keep a straight face. You start to get the giggles and you can’t stop.
I love to work. It’s the idea of having someone else tell you how to make your film or how to sell it – that’s the part I can’t really deal with. I would rather do 1,000 things that are work than deal with one thing that’s a political problem.
Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.
When I think about 2017, I feel like it was just another year. It was a whirlwind, but I wouldn’t have wanted it to play out any other way. I’m glad I was in New York. There’s nowhere else I would rather play, and there’s no other group of teammates that I would rather be around.
I would rather have peace in the world than be President.
