- Young men make wars, and the virtues of war are the virtues of young men: courage, and hope for the future. Then old men make the peace, and the vices of peace are the vices of old men: mistrust and caution.
- Failure has a thousand explanations. Success doesn’t need one.
- All creative people hate mathematics. It’s the most uncreative subject you can study.
- There seems to be no end to the senseless wickedness done on this little planet in a minor solar system, and we puny mortals appear to be decreasing in importance so far as the universe is concerned.
- I never knew how good it is to be unknown until now. The last time I was unknown I was too busy trying to become known to realize the advantages of obscurity.
- An actor is at his best a kind of unfrocked priest who, for an hour or two, can call on heaven and hell to mesmerize a group of innocents.
- A person who is keen to shake your hand usually has something up his sleeve.
- An actor is totally vulnerable. His total personality is exposed to critical judgment – his intellect, his bearing, his diction, his whole appearance. In short, his ego.
- The applause of all but very good men is no more than the precise measure of their possible hostility.
- Essentially, I’m a small-part actor who’s been lucky enough to play leading roles for most of his life.
10 inspirational alec guinness quotes on success
