Alan Alda

“For humans, flying isn't magic, it's physics.”

“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in.”

“Be brave enough to live life creatively. The creative place where no one else has ever been.”

“War is war and Hell is hell, and if you ask me, War is a lot worse.”

“You can't get there by bus, only by hard work, risking, and by not quite knowing what you're doing. What you'll discover will be wonderful: Yourself!”

“Laugh at yourself, but don't ever aim your doubt at yourself. Be bold. When you embark for strange places, don't leave any of yourself safely on shore. Have the nerve to go into unexplored territory.”

“It isn't necessary to be rich and famous to be happy. It's only necessary to be rich.”

“Be as smart as you can, but remember that it is always better to be wise than to be smart.”

“Klečel jsem před oltařem a otvíral ústa, aby mi kněz mohl na jazyk položit tu velkou kulatou oplatku. Od včerejší večeře to bylo první jídlo. v žaludku mi kručelo, přesto mě chuť toho tenkého kolečka z mouky a vody zvlaště děsila. Koneckonců, tohle nebyl chleba, to byl Ježíš. Ne symbol Ježíše, ale Ježíš sám. Zavřel jsem oči a domlouval sám sobě. Nekousej. Vůbec se toho nedotýkej zuby. A hlavně si to nepřilep na patro. Ach, bože, už se stalo. Dovolil jsi to. Bůh se ti přiepil na patro. Jak ho teď chceš dostat dolů? Musíš to dostat dolů a polknout. Co když to ztvrdne a zůstane tam? Nemůžeš až do večera chodit s bohem v puse. Ach, bože! Tak se rozpusť, rozpuštěj se.”

“Loneliness is everything it's cracked up to be.”

“I'll carry on, carry over, carry forward, Cary Grant, cash and carry, carry me back to Old Virginia, I'll even 'hari-kari' if you show me how, but I will not carry a gun!”

“It's too bad I'm not as wonderful a person as people say I am, because the world could use a few people like that.”

“If you know what you're looking for, that's all you'll get - what's previously known. But when you're open to what's possible, you get something new - that's creativity.”

“You have to leave the city of your comfort ano into the wilderness of your intuition. what you'll discover will be woderful. what you'll discover will be yourself.”

“During the first day, curious at having outsiders among them, a long stream of inmates came over and talked with me. Remarkably, according to what they told me, nearly every inmate in the prison didn't do it. Several thousand people had been locked up unjustly and, by an incredible coincidence, all in the same prison.On the other hand, they knew an awful lot about how to knife somebody.”

“So that's it. I've told you everything I know. Think clearly and think for yourself. Learn to use language to express those thoughts. Love somebody with all your heart. And with everyone, whether you love them or not, find out if you can be helpful. But really, it's even simpler than that. After all this time, and all these talks in public and in private, I think I get it now. If I were taking my friend Arnold's suggestion and spoke from my deathbed, I think I know what I'd say. I see now that I had my meaning all along, I just had to notice it. The meaning of life... is life. Not noticing life is what's meaningless, even down to the last second.”

“When people are laughing, they're generally not killing one another. ”

“The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover will be yourself.”

“The difference between listening and pretending to listen, I discovered, is enormous. One is fluid, the other is rigid. One is alive, the other is stuffed. Eventually, I found a radical way of thinking about listening. Real listening is a willingness to let the other person change you. When I’m willing to let them change me, something happens between us that’s more interesting than a pair of dueling monologues.”

“Here's my Golden Rule for a tarnished age: Be fair with others, but keep after them until they're fair with you.”

“Be brave enough to live creatively. The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You cannot get there by bus, only by hard work, risking and by not quite knowing what you are doing. What you will discover will be wonderful: Yourself.”

“No man or woman of the humblest sort can really be strong, gentle and good, without the world being better for it, without somebody being helped and comforted by the very existence of that goodness.”

“[B]egin challenging your own assumptions. Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while or the light won’t come in.”

“I was what came to mind when there was blood on the floor.”

“What then are doing if not creating a better place together? I think, for me the key has to be, what do I want to create? What is it I want to leave behind?”

“At times you have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself.”