People see me on the street, and they point to me, and they’re like, ‚Hey! All right, all right, all right!‘

Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.

Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.

Who sows virtue reaps honor.

I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.

To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting.

You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad.

Lots of people who complained about us receiving the MBE received theirs for heroism in the war – for killing people. We received ours for entertaining other people. I’d say we deserve ours more.

Let us not listen to those who think we ought to be angry with our enemies, and who believe this to be great and manly. Nothing is so praiseworthy, nothing so clearly shows a great and noble soul, as clemency and readiness to forgive.

I go down the street, people see me: ‚Hey, I pity-‚ right on, man, that’s a compliment to me.

It’s a very strange thing being recognized or looked upon as someone special.

A word is dead when it is said, some say. I say it just begins to live that day.

When someone bestows something on you, no matter how true it is, when someone says, ‚Sexiest Man Alive,‘ I’m honestly going, ‚Thank you. Right on.‘ For me, it’s never canceled out anything, it’s never made me go, ‚Does this make me less talented of an actor?‘

Martyrdom is the only way a man can become famous without ability.

Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.

Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace.

There’s a lot of great movies that have won the Academy Award, and a lot of great movies that haven’t. You just do the best you can.

Littera scripta manet – ‚The written word will remain‘. That’s true, but it won’t be that much comfort to me.

My books are like water; those of the great geniuses are wine. (Fortunately) everybody drinks water.

If one way be better than another, that you may be sure is nature’s way.

People until I was 60 would always say they thought I looked younger, which I think, without flattering myself, I did, but I think I certainly have, as George Orwell says people do after a certain age, the face they deserve.

I can resist everything except temptation.

Life’s like a play: it’s not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters.

Martyrdom: The only way a man can become famous without ability.

We will never have true civilization until we have learned to recognize the rights of others.

Man can hardly even recognize the devils of his own creation.

A room without books is like a body without a soul.

There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.

It is another’s fault if he be ungrateful, but it is mine if I do not give. To find one thankful man, I will oblige a great many that are not so.

A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.

Sometimes I’m fascinated with how famous my work could be while I’m not so famous.

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.

It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them.

He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.

Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.

How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.

If it’s a penny for your thoughts and you put in your two cents worth, then someone, somewhere is making a penny.

I’m sure everyone knows now that only a few have performed in Madison Square Garden. That list is so small. Now I’m on that list. I’m a part of a very small group, which is unbelievable. You relish in that moment for a second.

It’s cool to be recognised by your peers.

Getting recognized is insane. It just blows my mind. Like, someone who you don’t know at all can just be like, ‚Oh my God – are you Billie?‘

A lot was accomplished in my mixtape career. But I still needed a few things: I needed to be recognized. I need to have radio. I need to have a real retail machine that can get us where we need to get that.

There is nothing so absurd that some philosopher has not already said it.

Americans are far more remarkable than we give ourselves credit for. We’ve been so busy damning ourselves for years. We’ve done it all, and yet we don’t take credit for it.

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.

My mother used to tell me man gives the award, God gives the reward. I don’t need another plaque.

I’m glad a genre writer has got a knighthood, but stunned that it was me.

The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.

Nature is not human hearted.

All generalizations are false, including this one.

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.

I believe time wounds all heels.

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

He who has health, has hope; and he who has hope, has everything.

We learn from experience that men never learn anything from experience.

Sometimes I wish my first word was ‚quote,‘ so that on my death bed, my last words could be ‚end quote.‘

I hate the giving of the hand unless the whole man accompanies it.

The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I’m just not close enough to get the job done.

A home without books is a body without soul.

I was walking down the street wearing glasses when the prescription ran out.

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.