The term 'serious actor' is kind of an oxymoron, isn't it? [Like] 'Republican party' [or] 'airplane food'.

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.... You must do the thing you think you cannot do.

There is little success where there is little laughter.

I've always thought anyone can make money. Making a life worth living, that's the real test.

You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great

You never achieve success unless you like what you are doing.

Nothing will work unless you do.

Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, 'Certainly I can!' Then get busy and find out how to do it.

Every action has its pleasures and its price.

I readily absorb ideas from every source, frequently starting where the last person left off

Change yourself and your work will seem different.

Percentages are why I am rich.

Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason so few engage in it.

With any part you play, there is a certain amount of yourself in it. There has to be, otherwise it's just not acting. It's lying.

I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who had practiced one kick 10,000 times.

Well done is better than well said.

When asked, 'How do you write?' I invariably answer, 'one word at a time.'

Apply yourself both now and in the next life. Without effort, you cannot be prosperous. Though the land be good, You cannot have an abundant crop without cultivation.

A good idea is never lost. Even though its originator or possessor may die without publicizing it, it will someday be reborn in the mind of another....

There is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, that to institute a new order of things

It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.