“I definitely feel that we cannot do the fantastic things based on the real, unless we first know the real.”

“I always like to look on the optimistic side of life, but I am realistic enough to know that life is a complex matter. With the laugh comes the tears and in developing motion pictures or television shows, you must combine all the facts of life - drama, pathos and humor.”

“The ideal set-up would be the story man, the director, and the layout man, as well as musician, operating as a sort of story unit. They all should be keenly interested in the picture. No one in person should donate to an extent where he would keep the others from entering into the production and freely expressing themselves.”

“The insignia meant a lot to the men who were fighting ... I had to do it ... I owed it to them.”

“It's because I like you, I don't want to be with you. It's a complicated emotion.”

“To fear the worst oft cures the worst.”

“The need for a rational consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds.”

“Frame your mind to mirth and merriment which bars a thousand harms and lengthens life.”

“Be great in act, as you have been in thought.”

“My free drift Halts not particularly, but moves itself In a wide sea of wax; no levelled malice Infects one comma in the course I hold, But flies an eagle flight, bold and forth on, Leaving no tract behind.”

“Talking isn't doing. It is a kind of good deed to say well; and yet words are not deeds.”

“Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, you cannot play upon me.”

“Give me that man that is not passion's slave, and I will wear him in my heart's core, in my heart of heart, as I do thee.”

“An two men ride of a horse, one must ride behind.”

“No villainous bounty yet hath passed my heart;Unwisely, not ignobly, have I given.”

“A good intention but fixed and resolute - bent on high and holy ends, we shall find means to them on every side and at every moment; and even obstacles and opposition will but make us "like the fabled specter-ships," which sail the fastest in the very teeth of the wind.”

“Nature forever puts a premium on reality. What is done for effect is seen to be done for effect; what is done for love is felt to be done for love. A man inspires affection and honor because he was not lying in wait for these.”

“When we mean to build, We first survey the plot, then draw the model; And when we see the figure of the house, Then must we rate the cost of the erection.”

“Determine on some course more than a wild exposure to each chance.”

“We say the cows laid out Boston. Well, there are worse surveyors.”

“Be great in act, as you have been in thought.”

“He thinks too much. Such men are dangerous.”

“Faster than spring-time showers comes thought on thought.”