Quotes on Ifs

Yes, would to God that I could persuade the rich and the mighty that they would permit the whole Bible to be painted on houses, on the inside and the outside, so that all can see it. That would be a Christian work... If it is not a sin but good to have the image of Christ in my heart, why should it be a sin to have it in my eyes? This is especially true since the heart is more important than the eyes, and should be less stained by sin because it is the true abode and dwelling place of God.

If the results don't scream: "Do this again!" Try something new.

Do something. Get results. Decide if it's worth repeating.

If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too.

If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.

If I held you any closer I would be on the other side of you.

The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made.

I knew I could only play Cyrano if he were Americanized. I had no intention of writing the script myself. I was afraid of it. You're playing with fire when you tamper with a classic. So I went looking for a writer. But it was such a personal idea, and anyone I would give it to would make it his own. It's hard to ask Neil Simon to write your idea.

Start with short stories. After all, if you were taking up rock climbing, you wouldn't start with Mount Everest. So if you're starting fantasy, don't start with a nine-book series.

A band's only unique thing is its chemistry, especially if none of you are prodigious players or particularly handsome. The one thing you have is your uniqueness, so we hold on to that.

I can't expect loyalty from the army if I do not give it.

The history of jazz lets us know that this period in our history is not the only period we've come through together. If we truly understood the history of our national arts, we'd know that we have mutual aspirations, a shared history, in good times and bad.

Crime is contagious....if the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for the law.

I would not believe in the Gospel, if the authority of the Catholic Church did not bid me to do so.

I think the real test of psychedelics is what you do with them when you're not on them, what kind of culture you build, what kind of art, what kind of technologies... What's lacking in the Western mind is the sense of connectivity and relatedness to the rest of life, the atmosphere, the ecosystem, the past, our children's future. If we were feeling those things we would not be practicing culture as we are.

Fight to escape from your own cleverness. If you do, then you will find salvation and uprightness through Jesus Christ our Lord.

My first-grade teacher told me I was the dumbest student she ever had. She did me a favor. If she told me I was very smart, I wouldn't have tried to improve.

If the whole world followed you, would you be pleased with where you took it?

Don't start a company unless it's an obsession and something you love. If you have an exit strategy, it's not an obsession.

You have to know yourself and know what you can carry. If you're not comfortable, no matter how well dressed you are, you're not going to look right. I'd rather be happy and feel comfy.

In many shamanic societies, if you came to a medicine person complaining of being disheartened, dispirited, or depressed, they would ask one of four questions: 'When did you stop dancing? When did you stop singing? When did you stop being enchanted by stories? When did you stop being comforted by the sweet territory of silence?'