169 Public Quotes

From the moment I leave my house or my hotel room, the public owns me. The public made Alice Cooper and I can't imagine ever turning my back on my fans.

Six imams removed from a US Airways flight from Minneapolis to Phoenix are calling on Muslims to boycott the airline. If only we could get Muslims to boycott all airlines, we could dispense with airport security altogether.

I think with anybody who's doing well in the public eye or whatever, there's always gonna be a shift because people don't wanna see somebody happy all the time. And they're gonna try to take shots at people.

At no time did I intend to, or do I believe that I did put forward false information to the American people.

I think Superman should go on the Larry King show and announce that he would come back to life if people in all 50 states wanted him to.

Failure in the management of practical affairs seems to be a qualification for success in the management of public affairs.

The terrible state of public education has paid huge dividends in ignorance. Huge. We now have a country that can be told blatant lies - easily checkable, blatant lies - and I'm not talking about the covert workings of the CIA. When we have a terrorist attack, on September 11, 2001 with 19 men - 15 of them are Saudis - and five minutes later the whole country thinks they're from Iraq - how can you have faith in the public? This is an easily checkable fact. The whole country is like the O.J. Simpson jurors.

The most foreign fighters in Iraq are wearing British and American uniforms. The level of self-delusion is bordering frankly on the racist. The vast majority of the people of Iraq are against the occupation of Iraq by the American and British forces.

The news of the discovery spread fast all over the country, and inquisitive enquiries mingled with congratulations from this moment became the daily programme.

Writers are idolized not because they love their fellow men, which is never a recommendation and in extreme instances leads to crucifixion, but because their self-love is in tune with current fears and desires, and in giving it expression they are speaking for an inarticulate multitude.

Writing in English is the most ingenious torture ever devised for sins committed in previous lives. The English reading public explains the reason why.

When I passed the Chancellor he arose, waved his hand at me, and I waved back at him. I think the writers showed bad taste in criticizing the man of the hour in Germany.

Whether you agree with me, disagree with me, like me or loathe me, don't bind my hands when I am negotiating on behalf of the British people.

I and my public understand each other very well: it does not hear what I say, and I don't say what it wants to hear.

I do think I go out of my way to be a very normal person and I just find it frustrating that people think that I'm some kind of weirdo reclusive that never comes out into the world. Y'know, I'm a very strong person and I think that's why actually I find it really infuriating when I read, 'She had a nervous breakdown' or 'She's not very mentally stable, just a weak, frail little creature'.

My great comfort is, that the temporary celebrity I have wrung from the world has been in the very teeth of all opinions and prejudices. I have flattered no ruling powers; I have never concealed a single thought that tempted me.

Only the public can make a star. It's the studios who try to make a system out of it.

I don't intend for this to take on a political tone. I'm just here for the drugs.

I don't talk about political matters. That's not my department.

The most effective way to restrict democracy is to transfer decision-making from the public arena to unaccountable institutions: kings and princes, priestly castes, military juntas, party dictatorships, or modern corporations.

I'm always amazed at anyone's interest in what I have to say.

There was a power outage at a department store yesterday. Twenty people were trapped on the escalators.

The grand tune is the only thing in music that the great public really understands.

The media. It sounds like a convention of spiritualists.

We like to have a point of view in our stories, not an obvious moral, but a worthwhile theme. ... All we are trying to do is give the public good entertainment. That is all they want.

A princely marriage is the brilliant edition of a universal fact, and, as such, it rivets mankind.

The public must and will be served.

You must build your House of Parliament on the river: so... that the populace cannot exact their demands by sitting down round you.

'I think celebrities have an obligation to the public to not just sing or act.'

'Well, I try not to think about the general public since I have no idea what the general public is and I don't think anybody does.'

The Internet:has become the voice of the people in the first genuine experiment in democracy yet conducted in America. It stands ready to serve every facet, every faction.

Government is a trust, and the officers of the government are trustees; and both the trust and the trustees are created for the benefit of the people.

Airports scrupulously apply the same laughably ineffective airport harassment to Suzy Chapstick as to Muslim hijackers. It is preposterous to assume every passenger is a potential crazed homicidal maniac. We know who the homicidal maniacs are. They are the ones cheering and dancing right now.

These persons would shout as much if you and I were going to be hanged.

We're not trying to entertain the critics ... I'll take my chances with the public.

It always did bother me that the American public were more interested in me than in my work. And after all there is no sense in it because if it were not for my work they would not be interested in me so why should they not be more interested in my work than in me. That is one of the things one has to worry about in America. ~ Ch. 2

One day I was driving home and saw a guy jogging naked. I asked why, he said, ''Cause you came home early!'

The nauseous sham goodfellowship our democratic public men get up for shop use.

I hear there's rumors on the internets [pause] that we're going to have a draft. We're not going to have a draft, period.

Lead out the pageant: sad and slow, As fits an universal woe, Let the long, long procession go, And let the sorrowing crowd about it grow, And let the mournful martial music blow; The last great Englishman is low.

Rich in saving common-sense, And, as the greatest only are, In his simplicity sublime. O good gray head which all men knew, O voice from which their omens all men drew, O iron nerve to true occasion true, O fallen at length that tower of strength Which stood four-square to all the winds that blew!

I used to be such a sweet, sweet thing 'Til they got a hold of me. I opened doors for little old ladies, I helped the blind to see. I got no friends 'cause they read the papers. They can't be seen with me and I'm gettin' real shot down And I'm feeling mean. No more Mister Nice Guy, No more Mister Clean, No more Mister Nice Guy, They say he's sick, he's obscene.

I'm ready to take the blame for all the problems of English football if that is what he wants.

There's been so many lovely things said about me, and I'm glad that I've had the opportunity to thank everybody. Thank you.

Let me tell you something-wait a minute. You know one thing that's wrong with this country? Everybody gets a chance to have their fair say-my budget did more to fight AIDS than any in history, and we're having to put up with this. Tell them to let me talk. If you want to give a speech-go out there and raise your own crowd. We'll be glad to listen to you. So there were those-I'll make you a deal. I'll ignore them if you will.

No one wants to get this matter behind us more than I do-except maybe all the rest of the American people.

If you are a religious apologist invited to debate Christopher Hitchens, decline.

Christopher Reeve turned his focus away from his paralysis and began figuring out how he could live afresh. Reeve decided that a lot of people might like to hear his story. Instead of limiting the communication of his story to letters, books and videos subject to edit, Reeve chose the lecture circuit. That meant showing up in public, allowing the public to gawk at his incapacity, talking about his condition and sharing lessons learned. Thus, Christopher Reeve has become Superman for real.

The engines that have driven poetry's institutional success - the explosion of academic writing programs, the proliferation of subsidized magazines and presses, the emergence of a creative-writing career track, and the migration of American literary culture to the university - have unwittingly contributed to its disappearance from public view.

On the way to the movies someone called me Mr. Murder before flashing a camera in my face. It made me wanna go on a killing spree a little bit.

I'm aware it's now a hostile city [New York City]. I feel I'm in school, actually. There are signs everywhere you don't get in any other city. When you see all the smokers outside a building in New York, I just think the building is full of bad-mannered people who haven't thought, 'We'll give them a little room to smoke in.' That's what a reasonable person, a person with good manners, would do.

Letterman: 'Oh, stop it! Will you stop? Ladies and gentlemen, turn down your volume. Turn down the volume immediately! She can't be stopped! There's something wrong with her!'

'Beethoven was a revolutionary. If you read his letters, you will realize how much he wished to arouse the public by his new musical ideas.'

Look at you just looking at the Rock, gawking at the Rock; you ought to be ashamed of yourself, a woman your age looking at the Rock like this!'

'As athletes, we understand the importance of being a positive role model.'

I have talked to you in the past but we have always exchanged pleasantries. And it has always been assumed that I am Kaltenbrunner, the big bad man next to Himmler and the successor of Himmler. But I think you can see by this time, after having treated my brain hemorrhages, both in the hospital and here in my cell, that I am not the disagreeable, uncouth fellow the public probably thinks because of all the atrocities committed under Himmler's rule, and of which I am totally innocent.

There is only one thing to do - take it to the country!

The last thing they need is for you to stop and get out of your car and go over to the fire, because by now it is a fire, and start bothering them with a lot of stupid questions. 'Are you hurt?' Of course they're hurt; look at all the blood! You just ran over them with a ton and a half of steel!

Why don't you go and take some more drugs, you druggie?

Never grow weary of protesting. In this sensitive business of dealing with the public which depends on faith and good will, protest is a most effective weapon. Therefore protest.

Again, he violated the one-question rule right off the bat. Obviously, you didn't listen to the will of the people.

America has spoken, and I'm humbled by the trust and the confidence of my fellow citizens.

May it please Heaven that his example shall continue to serve as a beacon to our Republics in their darkest moments of doubt and adversity.

If the nation only knew their hands dripped with innocent blood, it would have met them not with applause but with stones.

I overheard backstage . . . Did someone just auction off Emilio and me? That was scary!

When she comes on television, I involuntarily cross my legs.

Yet it is incumbent on those in high places to make wise decisions and it is reasonable and important that the public be correctly informed. It is consequently incumbent on all of us to state the facts as forthrightly as possible.

As a guide to engineering ethics, I should like to commend to you a liberal adaptation of the injunction contained in the oath of Hippocrates that the professional man do nothing that will harm his client. Since engineering is a profession which affects the material basis of everyone's life, there is almost always an unconsulted third party involved in any contact between the engineer and those who employ him - and that is the country, the people as a whole. These, too, are the engineer's clients, albeit involuntarily. Engineering ethics ought therefore to safeguard their interests most carefully. Knowing more about the public effects his work will have, the engineer ought to consider himself an 'officer of the court' and keep the general interest always in mind.

I've given you more than I've given anyone else which I probably shouldn't probably say on - on screen, or they'll kidnap and torture him, and we need him.

I've had death threats... well a petition.

I do not think it altogether inappropriate to introduce myself to this audience. I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris, and I have enjoyed it.

Gentlemen of the Convention, your present temper may not mark the healthful pulse of our people. When your enthusiasm has passed, when the emotions of this hour have subsided, we shall find below the storm and passion that calm level of public opinion from which the thoughts of a mighty people are to be measured, and by which final action will be determined.

He has shown himself able to meet with calmness the great emergencies of the government. For twenty-five years he has trodden the perilous heights of public duty, and against all the shafts of malice has borne his breast unharmed. He has stood in the blaze of 'that fierce light that beats against the throne'; but its fiercest ray has found no flaw in his armor, no stain upon his shield. I do not present him as a better Republican or a better man than thousands of others that we honor; but I present him for your deliberate and favorable consideration. I nominate John Sherman, of Ohio.

Not too many people work in a job where, waiting out there are three or four hundred people who are paid to tear apart what you've done. And often they are brighter than you are, or they know more about the subject than you do, or they wish they had written a book themselves, or done a lot better. Or they just don't like it! And you have to live with it. I have been very well treated by the critics in the long haul.

Uh, we are 30 Seconds To Mars and it is our...ungodly pleasure, and privilege - we're grateful beyond believe - to be the 'Artists of the Day.' Thank you so much. (Tomo, Shannon, Matt -'Thank you')

I think I was just fed up with the image that had been created around me, which I sometimes consciously, most of the time unconsciously cooperated with. It just got too much for me to really stomach and so I put an end to it one glorious evening.

People like Mike Read and DLT would often complain that they couldn't go anywhere without being recognized, but of course would go everywhere in a tartan suit carrying a guitar, so they would have attracted attention in a lunatic asylum. In the streets of London, people would go, 'Who the fuck is that? Isn't that that Mike Read bloke?'

The President must be greater than anyone else, but not better than anyone else. We subject him and his family to close and constant scrutiny and denounce them for things that we ourselves do every day. A Presidential slip of the tongue, a slight error in judgment - social, political, or ethical - can raise a storm of protest. We give the President more work than a man can do, more responsibility than a man should take, more pressure than a man can bear. We abuse him often and rarely praise him. We wear him out, use him up, eat him up. And with all this, Americans have a love for the President that goes beyond loyalty or party nationality; he is ours, and we exercise the right to destroy him.

'It's not ideal for me that they come out all one after the other in four or five months. I did them all because I found them very different different kinds of films, different kinds of parts. And I hope people recognize the variety rather than the onslaught'. - on Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, I Heart Huckabees, Alfie, Closer and The Aviator - within 6 months of each other. He actually did them in the last two years.

You say that the magistrate's decision is unsatisfactory because it would enable a person, however unclean, to travel by a tram, and that even the Kaffirs would be able to do so. But the magistrate's decision is quite different. The Court declared that the Kaffirs have no legal right to travel by tram. And according to tram regulations, those in an unclean dress or in a drunken state are prohibited from boarding a tram. Thanks to the Court's decision, only clean Indians or coloured people other than Kaffirs, can now travel in the trams.

The period leaves no one indifferent. And that was our goal. We present the facts. It's up to the public to decide.

[Noam Chomsky is] so far out on the lunatic fringe that even the sensible things he has to say are lost. --David Rieff, August 4, 1991 [212]

I doubt whether the public has fully grasped the change which has come over the nature of modern wealth. If the nature of that change were grasped by our publics, we should be much nearer to accepting the international organizations necessary for the defense of welfare and of civilization than we are. As it is, we are in danger of being diverted to the discussion of schemes for a vast rearrangement of frontiers in defiance of national feeling - for the boundaries of the national and the economic unit do not conveniently coincide - before which the difficulties of a Disarmament Conference would pale into insignificance.

[just cheated on HOOK UP MY SPACE! and camera just zoomed in on Raven] Hey, America, How yall doin'.

Next morning I was up betimes -- I sent the Crier round, All with his bell and gold-laced hat to say I'd give a pound To find that little vulgar Boy, who'd gone and used me so; But when the Crier cried, 'O Yes!' the people cried, 'O No!'

Sometimes I hear stuff like 'Hey man, wheres your skateboard, dude?' from people who think I'm Christian Slater.

Ah! let not Censure term our fate our choice, The stage but echoes back the public's voice; The drama's laws the drama's patrons give, For we that live to please must please to live.

'I'm the luckiest man in the world and I don't want to hide from the faces I'm acting for. So I don't surround myself with guards, I've never given an interview in which I've said I feel bad that I can't go shopping or I can't go to Chowpatty and eat bhelpuri without being mobbed. I'm not the kind of guy who goes out wearing dark glasses (I don't think I'm a big enough star to hide behind them, honest). I go to see movies in the cinema theatres, I go to restaurants with my family and friends even though I know people are going to disturb me there.'

'I'm no megalomaniac. Even I found it boring to have an entire website devoted to trivia about me. No one's interested in a one man show, unless you happen to be an Amitabh Bachchan. I'm no megalomaniac. Even I found it boring to have an entire website devoted to trivia about me. No one's interested in a one man show, unless you happen to be an Amitabh Bachchan.'

The Public is an old woman. Let her maunder and mumble.

I care not a straw for the opinions of the world.

I think it's great that it's caused a reaction. But at the same time I think the people who are criticising us haven't really watched the show. We are not claiming to be marriage guidance people, or anything.