If you look at my job, my union card, it says ‚actor.‘ It don’t say nothing about celebrity, movie star, nothing like that, and that’s one thing that keeps me humble.

The life of an action star is very short. I want to be an actor like Robert De Niro, like Dustin Hoffman or Clint Eastwood who in their 70s or 80s can still act.

I wouldn’t say that I am one of the greatest dancers, but I am really quite good at what I do.

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and everyone who humbles himself will be exalted.

People always tell you, ‚Be humble. Be humble.‘ When was the last time someone told you to be amazing? Be great! Be great! Be awesome! Be awesome!

The true artist is not proud: he unfortunately sees that art has no limits; he feels darkly how far he is from the goal, and though he may be admired by others, he is sad not to have reached that point to which his better genius only appears as a distant, guiding sun.

I’ve always said the one advantage an actor has of converting to a director is that he’s been in front of the camera. He doesn’t have to get in front of the camera again, subliminally or otherwise.

Sports are such a great teacher. I think of everything they’ve taught me: camaraderie, humility, how to resolve differences.

People think I’m a celebrity. I’m not a celebrity.

Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.

What good is it being Marilyn Monroe? Why can’t I just be an ordinary woman?

A man who is eating or lying with his wife or preparing to go to sleep in humility, thankfulness and temperance, is, by Christian standards, in an infinitely higher state than one who is listening to Bach or reading Plato in a state of pride.

There is that in the glance of a flower which may at times control the greatest of creation’s braggart lords.

I don’t join the New Atheists. So, for example, I wouldn’t have the arrogance to lecture some mother who hopes to see her dying child in Heaven – that’s none of my business, ultimately. I won’t lecture her on the philosophy of science.

Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.

I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.

True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.

I am not the humblest person in the world. I admit that.

I’m not Russell Crowe. I’m not going to do a period piece.

I haven’t written my own epitaph, and I’m not sure I should. Whatever it is, I hope it will be simple, and that it will point people not to me, but to the One I served.

None are more taken in by flattery than the proud, who wish to be the first and are not.

I’m a child of God first. Before I became a celebrity, I was baptized a Christian.

A conductor can’t be too arrogant with an orchestra and try to impose himself too much.

Whatever talents I possess may suddenly diminish or suddenly increase. I can with ease become an ordinary fool. I may be one now. But it doesn’t do to upset one’s own vanity.

Ever since I started to get recognition I’ve picked out certain fans and reverse-stalked them.

Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too selfish to seek other than itself.

I’m not intelligent. I’m not arrogant. I’m just like the people who read my books. I used to have a jazz club, and I made the cocktails and I made the sandwiches. I didn’t want to become a writer – it just happened.

It’s hard to be humble, when you’re as great as I am.

I know nothing, except the fact of my ignorance.

The thing about Jiu Jitsu is it is also not for everybody. It can be very humiliating and humbling. If you have a hard time dealing with the fact that someone smaller than you may be able to tap you out, it is going to be difficult.

Power is like being a lady… if you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.

I’m not a star. I don’t feel I’m so great. So how can I make you feel great just because you’ve got my signature on a piece of paper?

The fact that you are willing to say, ‚I do not understand, and it is fine,‘ is the greatest understanding you could exhibit.

Celebrity is the chastisement of merit and the punishment of talent.

Being too good is apt to be uninteresting.

The unassuming youth seeking instruction with humility gains good fortune.

We can’t all be heroes, because somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by.

Always first draw fresh breath after outbursts of vanity and complacency.

You know, my family and friends have never been yes-men: ‚Yes, you’re doing the right thing, you’re always right.‘ No, they tell me when I’m wrong, and that’s why I’ve been able to stay who I am and stay humble.

I don’t know if I particularly want to be remembered for anything. I personally do not think I’m a great gift to the world. I’ve been very fortunate.

I don’t need to be vindicated, and I don’t want attention.

In order for me to be successful… In order to be a great artist – musician, actor, painter, whatever – you must be able to be private in public at all times. That is what we do.

If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.

Barack Obama did tell me that I was one of Michelle Obama’s favorite actors.

Lord Jesus, we come just as we are; this is how we came at first, and this is how we come still, with all our failures, with all our transgressions, with all and everything that is what it ought not to be, we come to Thee.

I believe God wants you to have money to pay your bills, send your kids to college and do charity work and build orphanages. There’s the teaching that we’re supposed to be poor to show that we’re humble. I don’t buy that. I think we’re supposed to be leaders. We’re supposed to excel.

It is the peculiar quality of a fool to perceive the faults of others and to forget his own.

I have never yet seen any plan which has not been mended by the observations of those who were much inferior in understanding to the person who took the lead in the business.

What a blast it is to be here with Michael Moore.

Stay humble and be concerned for the less fortunate.

Modesty is a learned affectation. And as soon as life slams the modest person against the wall, that modesty drops.

While we look to the dramatist to give romance to realism, we ask of the actor to give realism to romance.

I used to think as I looked out on the Hollywood night, ‚There must be thousands of girls sitting alone like me dreaming of being a movie star.‘ But I’m not going to worry about them. I’m dreaming the hardest.

I want to be the greatest actor that ever lived, frankly. I’d love that. But I don’t need to be. I just want to be here. That’s it.

To realize that you do not understand is a virtue; Not to realize that you do not understand is a defect.

I got started as an actor when I was 12.

I never knew a more presumptuous person than myself. The fact that I say that shows that what I say is true.

Morgan Freeman is so class. He’s so cool. He’s so scary.

Nothing is so discouraging to an actor than to have to work for long hours upon hours in brightly lighted interior sets.

Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.

I heard that when Christina Aguilera went back to her prom, people, like, booed her. I can’t imagine going through that. If you know that’s going to happen, why put yourself in that situation? I’d rather play for 20,000 screaming people, you know?