Kirk Douglas Quotes

In order to achieve anything you must be brave enough to fail.

You haven't learned how to live until you've learned how to give.

My mother and my father were illiterate immigrants from Russia. When I was a child they were constantly amazed that I could go to a building and take a book on any subject. They couldn't believe this access to knowledge we have here in America. They couldn't believe that it was free.

Obey the voice within - it commands us to give of ourselves and help others. As long as we have the capacity to give, we are alive

My kids never had the advantages I had. I was born poor.

The learning process continues until the day you die.

The biggest lie is the lie we tell ourselves in the distorted visions we have of ourselves, blocking out some sections, enhancing others. What remains are not the cold facts of life, but how we perceive them. That's really who we are.

Unfortunately, once I did learn to smoke, I couldn't stop. I escalated to two packs a day very quickly, and stayed that way for about ten years. When I decided to stop, I adopted the method that my father had used when he quit. He would carry a cigarette in his shirt pocket, and every time he felt like smoking, he would pull out the cigarette and confront it: "Who stronger? You? Me?" Always the answer was the same: "I stronger." Back the cigarette would go, until the next craving. It worked for him, and it worked for me.

The first thing I look for in a woman is warmth-femininity. It's got nothing to do with a pretty face.

Sometimes, the thing that ties you down sets you free.

If I thought a man had never committed a sin in his life, I don't think I'd want to talk with him. A man with flaws is more interesting.

No matter how bad things are, they can always be worse. So what if my stroke left me with a speech impediment? Moses had one, and he did all right.

Life is like a B-picture script! It is that corny. If I had my life story offered to me to film, I'd turn it down.

All children are natural actors, and I'm still a kid. If you grow up completely, you can never be an actor.

My mother, we were a very poor family. When I was a kid, we would be in our little room, and there would be a knock on the door almost every night with a hobo begging for food. Even though we didn't even have enough to eat, my mother always found something to give them.

The only advantage I have found in being Jewish is that I can be openly anti-Semitic.

Life is like a B-picture script.

Virtue is not photogenic.

A stroke is a very difficult thing. You get depressed. . . . What I found was this: the cure for depression is to think of others, to do for others. You can always find something to be grateful for.

You know, you have to have some inner philosophy to deal with adversity.

I'm a loner clear down deep to my guts.

What would my parents think about America if they arrived here today? Would they even want to come? I wonder.

When you become a star, you don't change - everyone else does.

Maybe there is no peace in this world. I don't know ... But I know as long as we live we must stay true to ourselves.

Know what a loner is? He's a born cripple. He's a cripple because the only person he can live with is himself. It's his life, the way he wants to live. It's all for him.