Too many people think that economics is this subject that should wait until the university level. But it can't wait that long.

I'm better than Olivier.

Although it wasn't that easy to do, it was wonderful working with John Wayne.

Around my own friends, I like to mess around.

God does guide the lives of individuals and does fill them with the Holy Ghost.

Hollywood is still the mecca for good or bad, but it isn't the beginning or end for filmmaking.

I always thought of myself as a later bloomer, so I like some of my work more later than earlier.

I don't have many people showing up at my door. Very few people come out. When they do, I get a little suspicious. I live way up on a hill, way, way back in the country.

I like to do things that I develop from the ground up.

I wouldn't mind starting to ride some more if I had a really good horse to just work a little bit with every day.

It's a cyclical thing. When they make one, everyone loves them. Different genres come around in succession. People always welcome the western. It's America's genre.

My father's people... are from Fairfax in northern Virginia, just across the Mason-Dixon line. So it was an honour to play Lee, he was a great general.

My uncle always said that I could have been a rancher.

Spending two years on my uncle's ranch in Montana as a young man gave me the wisdom and the thrust to do westerns.

The cultural contrast I saw between religions... Catholics have a lot of mediators, going through saints and Mary or whatever. Protestants in general say things to God directly.

Today, everything has to be made by committee, and has to have special effects, but there's always room for good films.

Very often some of the religious miracle plays you see on television can be very corny, I find. And so simplistic.

We all have a cradle-to-the-grave journey to make and, in between, what do you do? There's got to be something hereafter.

You get below the Mason-Dixon line and you have some of the best music, culture, the two races, the literature, and it's so rich.

You just can't take a crash course to be a tango dancer in a movie.

Hollywood's a mecca, but it's not the final answer. You pick up a camera anyplace in the world, you can make a movie.

Art is competitive.

If you don't have heroes in the beginning, you don't grow.

I am getting some good offers still. Some nice things are coming my way just as they always have, so unless I lose my inspiration or there is too much drool to wipe, I will keep going.

I love working in Texas anywhere.

The most solitary I ever felt was when I was living in New York. I used to live in Enrico Caruso's old apartment, and I had a special staircase that took me up to the roof. There was nobody up there.

I can always grow a little bit, and try to do something different. So I'm always looking for what's out there - the potential.

What drives me is I love my profession. I love to do it.

I've always liked country music. It's a certain aspect of America that goes back to the British Isles and the influence is very native to America.

When I knew nothing, I thought I could do anything.

I wanted to show that crime doesn't pay. If you are saved and accept the Lord, you cannot use that as an excuse to avoid punishment.

I'll keep on acting 'til they wipe the drool. I like the business. I like to do different parts and diverse characters. I haven't lost my enthusiasm yet!

The greatest king of Israel, King David, the author of the Psalms, sent a man out to die in battle so that he could sleep with his wife.

There was nothing wrong with shouting at God.

You really have to soak up the culture of the people to get it right. If you're making a fiction film, it's entertainment, but you want it to be as real as possible.

Never do a wrong thing to make a friend--or to keep one.

I cannot trust a man to control others who cannot control himself.

It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it.

What a cruel thing war is... to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors.

In this enlightened age, there are few I believe, but what will acknowledge, that slavery as an institution is a moral & political evil in any country. It is useless to expatiate on its disadvantages.

While we see the course of the final abolition of human slavery is onward, & we give it the aid of our prayers & all justifiable means in our power, we must leave the progress as well as the result in his hands who sees the end; who chooses to work by slow influences; & with whom two thousand years are but as a single day.

I have fought against the people of the North because I believed they were seeking to wrest from the South its dearest rights. But I have never cherished toward them bitter or vindictive feelings, and I have never seen the day when I did not pray for them.

The war... was an unnecessary condition of affairs, and might have been avoided if forebearance and wisdom had been practiced on both sides.

The trite saying that honesty is the best policy has met with the just criticism that honesty is not policy. The real honest man is honest from conviction of what is right, not from policy.

We should live, act, and say nothing to the injury of anyone. It is not only best as a matter of principle, but it is the path to peace and honor.

A Union that can only be maintained by swords and bayonets has no charm for me. If the Union is dissolved and government disrupted, I shall return to my native state and share the miseries of my people, and save in defense will draw my sword on none.

You must study to be frank with the world: Frankness is the child of honesty and courage.

I tremble for my country when I hear of confidence expressed in me. I know too well my weakness, that our only hope is in God.

We must expect reverses, even defeats. They are sent to teach us wisdom and prudence, to call forth greater energies, and to prevent our falling into greater disasters.

Do your duty in all things, like the old Puritan. You cannot do more; you should never wish to do less.