Selected public quotes

1. Public service is my motto.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. Libraries are the one American institution you shouldn't rip off.

5. The only thing Madonna will ever do like a virgin is give birth in a stable.

6. 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.

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

8. 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.

9. The public will believe anything, so long as it is not founded on truth.

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

11. 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.

12. 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.

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

14. 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.

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

16. An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run.

17. 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.

18. For a time, at least, I was the most famous person in the entire world.

19. The public seldom forgive twice.

20. 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.

21. I am already so popular that anyone who vilifies me becomes more popular than I am.

22. 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.

23. 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'.

24. 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.

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

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

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

28. 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.

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

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

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

32. The media. It sounds like a convention of spiritualists.

33. 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.

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

35. The public must and will be served.

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

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

38. '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.'

39. 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.

40. 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.

41. From everything that man erects and builds in his urge for living nothing is in my eyes better and more valuable than bridges. They are more important than houses, more sacred than shrines. Belonging to everyone and being equal to everyone, useful, always built with a sense, on the spot where most human needs are crossing, they are more durable than other buildings and they do not serve for anything secret or bad.

42. I have no regret for any public act of my life, and history will vindicate my memory.

43. I felt eyes upon me, and they pulled me away. I looked at the gathering of eager cops; some were merely curious, while others, I knew, sought their own secret satisfaction. They all wanted to see it, my face, a defense attorney's face, here in this musty place where murder was more than a case file, where the victim was flesh and blood, the smell that of family gone to dust. I felt their eyes. I knew what they wanted, and so I turned to look again upon the almost empty clothes, the flash of bone so pale and curving. But I would give them nothing, and my body did not betray me, for which I was grateful. For what I felt was the return of a long-quiescent rage, and the certain conviction that this was the most human my father had ever appeared to me.

44. We've got a real irony here... We have politicians selling access to something we all own- our government. And then we have broadcasters selling access to something we all own- our airwaves. It's a terrible system.

45. Now art should never try to be popular. The public should try to make itself artistic.

46. Are we out of step with the administration because we do not comport completely to their political point of view?... So they criticize us for it. It goes with the territory, and if we get a groundswell we begin to look at ourselves.

47. When you publish a book, it's the world's book. The world edits it.

48. She won't go quietly, that's the problem. I'll fight to the end, because I believe that I have a role to fulfill, and I've got two children to bring up.

49. 'Hey Booker, Got Milk?' (During a fight with Booker T in a grocery store)

50. 'Pricecheck on jackass!!' (To Booker T after beating him up in a grocery store.)

51. 'I don't know about 'Humanitarian of the Year,' Vince, but if you think it should be 'Jackass of the Year,' gimme a hell yeah!'

52. The American People will take Socialism, but they won't take the label. I certainly proved it in the case of EPIC. Running on the Socialist ticket I got 60,000 votes, and running on the slogan to 'End Poverty in California' I got 879,000. I think we simply have to recognize the fact that our enemies have succeeded in spreading the Big Lie. There is no use attacking it by a front attack, it is much better to out-flank them.

53. There used to be a time when this country's president could have delivered the same New Year's Address he had given a year before, and nobody would have noticed. Fortunately, that time has passed.

54. I don't mind what Congress does, as long as they don't do it in the streets and frighten the horses.

55. The only assurance that I can now give of the future is reference to the past. The course which I have taken in the past in connection with this rebellion must be regarded as a guaranty of the future. My past public life, which has been long and laborious, has been founded, as I in good conscience believe, upon a great principle of right, which lies at the basis of all things. The best energies of my life have been spent in endeavoring to establish and perpetuate the principles of free government, and I believe that the Government in passing through its present perils will settle down upon principles consonant with popular rights more permanent and enduring than heretofore. I must be permitted to say, if I understand the feelings of my own heart, that I have long labored to ameliorate and elevate the condition of the great mass of the American people. Toil and an honest advocacy of the great principles of free government have been my lot. Duties have been mine; consequences are God's. This has been the foundation of my political creed, and I feel that in the end the Government will triumph and that these great principles will be permanently established.