Donald Kagan Quotes

We, to some degree, are like what we are because we inherited certain things from the Greeks and the Romans. One of them that's so striking is the whole area of politics.

Donald Kagan

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Quotes to Explore

• I now can be sure that, once I start writing a book, I'll be able to finish it. I've also become more assured about my 'voice' as a writer and being able to keep the characters true to themselves.

  

  J. A. Jance
  • Writing
  • Book
  • True

• It is unsafe to take your reader for more of a fool than he is.

  

  W. Somerset Maugham
  • Fool
  • More
  • Take

• I've done some really off-the-wall stuff and stuff that people might not expect. That's one way to work through people's expectations of you.

  

  Haley Joel Osment
  • People
  • Work
  • Done

• When I finished the trilogy of 'Pirates of the Caribbean' movies, I had a gear shift and thought, 'I need to take a moment to smell the roses.'

  

  Orlando Bloom
  • Thought
  • Moment
  • Roses

• Compromise, contrary to popular opinion, does not mean selling out one's principles. Compromise means working out differences to forge a solution which fits the diversity of the body politic.

  

  Madeleine M. Kunin
  • Opinion
  • Popular
  • Diversity

• Hit songs are mysterious and slippery beasts; few artists have a lock on them. This means that many people, like me, have become fans of songs rather than fans of artists.

  

  Dan Hill
  • People
  • Fans
  • Songs

• Our deals and performance speak for themselves. And whoever doesn't feel comfortable investing with us will not.

  

  Dan Gertler
  • Feel
  • Speak
  • Performance

• People say I look younger than the music I'm doing just because the songs are older. Hopefully I can keep my youthful look!

  

  Natalie Cole
  • People
  • Music
  • Look

• We must confront persecution faced by many Christian communities and the intolerance that plagues us. We must overcome anti-Semitism and the prejudice that divides us. We must defeat Islamophobia and the fears that weaken us.

  

  Ban Ki-moon
  • Christian
  • Prejudice
  • Defeat

• I have never tried to compare myself to anyone else.

  

  Sachin Tendulkar
  • Myself
  • Never
  • Compare

• I was not the son of a worker or lacking in material or social resources for a relatively comfortable existence; I could say I miraculously escaped wealth.

  

  Fidel Castro
  • Son
  • Existence
  • Wealth

• My father cared about the world he lived in, and so he admitted his confusion about his place in America because he didn't want me to make the same mistake in my life.

  

  Walter Mosley
  • Life
  • World
  • America

• I play to see what I can accomplish. I don't play for fun. I play to see how good I can be.

  

  Zack Greinke
  • Good
  • Fun
  • I Can

• Shakespeare feels very natural to me.

  

  Bebe Neuwirth
  • Me
  • Feels
  • Natural

• You see and work with many of the same people over and over again; they are all specialists in what they do. I could never do their jobs, and they say they wouldn't know how to start to do a warm-up.

  

  Randy West
  • People
  • Up
  • Work

• I took physics, and lo and behold, there's a lot of physics in 'Lost.' I think for most people, liberal arts educations are more abstract, but for me, it's been a chance to apply the things I've learned more directly. I also took some Folklore and Mythology classes, and I think that a lot of that influenced me.

  

  Carlton Cuse
  • People
  • Lost
  • Chance

• Ratings have changed, viewer habits have changed and the options for the audience have grown enormously, but I don't think how you tell a story is fundamentally different.

  

  J. J. Abrams
  • Different
  • Think
  • Story

• Believe it or not, I write on stage. I can't write anywhere else; I have to be in a moment. I also have to challenge myself to make something funny out of a premise. I never have my own jokes written. I have to change things as I go along, and I have to entertain myself.

  

  J. B. Smoove
  • Believe
  • Funny
  • Change

• In playing the part of Mammy, I tried to make her a living, breathing character, the way she appeared to me in the book...

  

  Hattie McDaniel
  • Book
  • Mammy
  • Breathing character

• I wish I could compete again, but my good feeling is, these competitions are better as exhibitions.

  

  Oksana Baiul
  • Good
  • Feeling
  • Wish

• Americans, it seems to me, tend to protect their children from the harshness of life, in their interest.

  

  Chinua Achebe
  • Life
  • Children

• Romantics value intensity over stability. Realists value security over passion. But both are often disappointed, for few people can live happily at either extreme.

  

  Esther Perel
  • People
  • Passion
  • Values

• My great fear of being attacked or trivialized by my contemporaries made me concentrate on what I was trying to do as a writer. It forced me to draw some conclusions that were my own.

  

  Pat Conroy
  • Great
  • Trying
  • Fear

• We, to some degree, are like what we are because we inherited certain things from the Greeks and the Romans. One of them that's so striking is the whole area of politics.

  

  Donald Kagan