You know what’s funny to me? Attitude.
Pick the day. Enjoy it – to the hilt. The day as it comes. People as they come… The past, I think, has helped me appreciate the present – and I don’t want to spoil any of it by fretting about the future.
Not one person can make or break what I’m doing, except me or God.
Whatever I will become will be what God has chosen for me.
Ten men waiting for me at the door? Send one of them home, I’m tired.
People just see the shine. They don’t see the grind, the bags under my eyes. It was a lot of grinding, setbacks… I ain’t finna let nothing stop me. Wherever I stop at, I already know who I am.
For me context is the key – from that comes the understanding of everything.
So, Blair keep your England, and let me keep my Zimbabwe.
When I was a boy, the priest, my uncle, carefully inculcated upon me this proverb, which I then learned and have ever since kept in my mind: ‘Dico tibi verum, Libertas optima rerum; Nunquam servili, sub nexu vivito, fili.’ ‘I tell you a truth: Liberty is the best of things, my son; never live under any slavish bond.’
For me, the cinema is not a slice of life, but a piece of cake.
Two things awe me most, the starry sky above me and the moral law within me.
Sobriety was the greatest gift I ever gave myself. I don’t put it on a platform. I don’t campaign about it. It’s just something that works for me. It enabled me to really connect with another human being – my wife, Sheryl – which I was never able to do before.
One of the more difficult tasks for me as president was to decide on the issue of confirming capital punishment awarded by courts… to my surprise… almost all cases which were pending had a social and economic bias.
I am not going to Heaven because I have preached to great crowds or read the Bible many times. I’m going to Heaven just like the thief on the cross who said in that last moment: ‘Lord, remember me.’
I am a kind of paranoid in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.
I’ve looked on many women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times. God knows I will do this and forgives me.
I used to read five psalms every day – that teaches me how to get along with God. Then I read a chapter of Proverbs every day and that teaches me how to get along with my fellow man.
I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage. But when you start playing around with constitutions, just to prohibit somebody who cares about another person, it just seems to me that’s not what America’s about. Usually, our constitutions expand liberties, they don’t contract them.
I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will.
Leadership to me means duty, honor, country. It means character, and it means listening from time to time.
I’ll never tell a lie. I’ll never make a misleading statement. I’ll never betray the confidence that any of you had in me. And I’ll never avoid a controversial issue.
Show me your hands. Do they have scars from giving? Show me your feet. Are they wounded in service? Show me your heart. Have you left a place for divine love?
I don’t have a girlfriend. But I do know a woman who’d be mad at me for saying that.
When I went out on tour as Bing Hitler I would hook up with Lenny and we’d get drunk together. He was always very supportive. He was a big star and a lot of what he said to me had power and impact. Apart from that, I just like him.
You can knock me down, but I get up twice as strong.
I just want people to know me and to love me, because I have no love.
To be yourself is truly a revolutionary act, and I think more and more people should try it, because it’s gotten me a pretty cool life.
I hope that posterity will judge me kindly, not only as to the things which I have explained, but also to those which I have intentionally omitted so as to leave to others the pleasure of discovery.
I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.
People were saying that David Geffen and I had gotten married and it just blew me away. Not that they thought I was gay, but that they thought I could land a guy that hot.
Give me love and work – these two only.
Vanity of science. Knowledge of physical science will not console me for ignorance of morality in time of affliction, but knowledge of morality will always console me for ignorance of physical science.
Show me a hero and I’ll write you a tragedy.
I never dared to be radical when young for fear it would make me conservative when old.
To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.
And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.
What has happened has happened. What is done cannot be undone. There is no point in looking back and ruminating over the past. I am a forward-looking man. I want to look ahead; I want to put my past behind me. I want to make my country proud.
Quote me as saying I was mis-quoted.
The sky is an infinite movie to me. I never get tired of looking at what’s happening up there.
My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me.
Dad taught me everything I know. Unfortunately, he didn’t teach me everything he knows.
The football field was a place where I could express myself and just be me. Play the game as well as you can and that’s what you’re judged on. Not the colour of your skin, or your beliefs, or the conversation you have around racism.
What I needed most was to love and to be loved, eager to be caught. Happily I wrapped those painful bonds around me; and sure enough, I would be lashed with the red-hot pokers or jealousy, by suspicions and fear, by burst of anger and quarrels.
How can I be useful, of what service can I be? There is something inside me, what can it be?
There’s a drive in me that won’t allow me to do certain things that are easy.
The hardships that I encountered in the past will help me succeed in the future.
All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me… You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.
I have Chinese blood in me… I am not ashamed to admit that perhaps the great leaders of our country all have Chinese blood.
I am an undisputed gangster. To me, that means playing by my own rules.
You better take care of me Lord, if you don’t you’re gonna have me on your hands.
Swimming is normal for me. I’m relaxed. I’m comfortable, and I know my surroundings. It’s my home.
I try to tell all the – not even the kids, even people older than me – to just be themselves. Don’t wear what I wear ’cause I wear it; wear what you like.
A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.
Summer afternoon, summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.
If not me, who? And if not now, when?
The important thing is to learn a lesson every time you lose. Life is a learning process and you have to try to learn what’s best for you. Let me tell you, life is not fun when you’re banging your head against a brick wall all the time.
The risk for me would be in not taking one – that’s the only thing that’s really risky for me.
I’m very proud of my gold pocket watch. My grandfather, on his deathbed, sold me this watch.
I want a world without war, a world without insanity. I want to see people do well. I don’t even think it’s as much as what I want for myself. It’s more what I want for the people around me. That’s what I want.
I make sure I always surround myself with good, down to earth, fun, real people, who always keep me grounded.
That’s another fine mess you’ve gotten me into.
Every man I knew went to bed with Gilda… and woke up with me.
Moon! Moon! I am prone before you. Pity me, and drench me in loneliness.
I’m selfish, impatient, and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I’m out of control, and at times hard to handle. But if you can’t handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don’t deserve me at my best.
I’m a private person. People just see me as the bad boy, and if that’s how they want to perceive me, then so be it – but they don’t know who I am.
Eating words has never given me indigestion.
I have two hands: one for me, one for other people.
Please don’t call me arrogant, but I’m European champion and I think I’m a special one.
I offer neither pay, nor quarters, nor food; I offer only hunger, thirst, forced marches, battles and death. Let him who loves his country with his heart, and not merely with his lips, follow me.
