Ted Turner Quotes

Ted Turner mixes bold, provocative ideas about population and personal triumph that will grab your attention.

30 quotes

1. A total world population of 250-300 million people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be ideal.

2. Nuclear war would really set back cable.

3. Early to bed, early to rise, work like heck and advertise.

4. I just love it when people say I can't do it, there's nothing that makes me feel better [than proving them wrong] because all my life, people have said that I wasn't going to make it.

5. If I only had a little humility, I'd be perfect.

6. Shortly before 9:00 last night, I had the honor and privilege of signing a piece of paper that irrevocably cast a vote taken, a vote of my 100 million shares, for this [AOL Time Warner] merger. I did it with as much or more excitement and enthusiasm as I did on that night when I first made love some 42 years ago.

7. Life is a game. Money is how we keep score.

8. She became a born-again Christian instead of born-again hot [on his divorce with Jane Fonda]

9. Lead, follow, or get out of the way.

10. You can never quit. Winners never quit, and quitters never win.

11. If you treat people with dignity, respect and friendliness, you can turn enemies into friends. An enemy is nothing but a friend in disguise.

12. I've always tried to do the smartest and best thing.

13. My son is now an 'entrepreneur.' That's what you're called when you don't have a job.

14. I don't watch entertainment. I haven't watched in years. I want to see serious news.

15. The next most dangerous thing [after nuclear proliferation] is probably... global warming, and then, right behind that are overpopulation -- we need to get serious about family planning-and trying to alleviate poverty, to get clean, renewable energy, probably with solar panels to the billion and a half people in the world who don't have access to electricity.

16. At Time Warner, I had ten percent of the stock after the merger. But when we merged with AOL, I was diluted down to three percent.

17. I was cable when cable wasn't cool.

18. I'd like to say that right now, in the last few years, the Democrats have been closer - have been more pro-environment. The coal industry is pretty well entrenched in the Republican Party and that's one of the things that we need to phase out.

19. When I got my statement in January, I was worth $2.2 billion. Then I got another statement in August that said I was worth $3.2 billion. So I figure it's only nine months' earnings, who cares?

20. Even if we didn't have greenhouse gases, were going to have to move away from fossil fuels, as we're going to run out. They're finite, whereas solar and wind are infinite.

21. Most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals.

22. Once you decide to do something, and you're pretty sure you're right, then you gotta go ahead and do it. Because if you piddle around, somebody else will beat you to it.

23. I'm 68 and a half years old; I grew up with newspapers; I love newspapers; I love the news business. I started CNN; I'm a journalist and proud of it.

24. To succeed you have to be innovative.

25. The world and life have been mighty good to me. And I want to put something back.

26. The worst sin, the ultimate sin for me, in anything, is to be bored.

27. I was pretty young when I figured out that tying shoes could waste up three years of my life, so I dont wear shoes that have laces. You have to study things carefully and be efficient.

28. I've got a virtually limitless supply of bullshit.

29. Struggling hard to achieve something is the most fun I get.

30. Basically we are chimpanzees with about two percent more intelligence and a little less hair.