Phil Ochs Quotes
Even though you can't expect to defeat the absurdity of the world, you must make the attempt. That's morality, that's religion, that's art, that's life.
Quotes to Explore
-
The death tax robs parents of the opportunity to pass something along to their children, and it is responsible for destroying a lot of family-owned businesses.
-
You can be revered for all sorts of qualities, but to be truly charismatic is rare. Elizabeth Taylor was, for me, one of those rarities.
-
I love rap because it talks about pain that comes authentically from the ghetto. It moves me.
-
Excellence is not a skill, it's an attitude.
-
A man will turn over half a library to make one book.
-
Anger is the enemy of non-violence and pride is a monster that swallows it up.
-
I don't want to build any image for myself. I don't want people to say, 'He does only a certain type of role.' I don't want only to be the hero of the story. An actor's weakness is the different roles that he can't do. But I am keen to grab only those roles as I am here to challenge myself.
-
The man who is intent on making the most of his opportunities is too busy to bother about luck.
-
I always put my fantasies in the realm of goals.
-
Near the end of my career, I saw things that didn't make too much sense to me when I was a kid.
-
I will say I am the sum of my books.
-
I originally got into this because of a five-year-old's begrudgery of his teacher. Mrs. Lawlor cast me as a tree, and I was disgusted. I was sure I had more to offer than that. It was like, 'OK, if you want me to be set dressing, fine, I'll take it on the chin but I'll show you - I'm going to be a big actor some day.'
-
Banks are an almost irresistible attraction for that element of our society which seeks unearned money.
-
Working in a bar was a horrific idea for me.
-
The truth is I had lots of rehab and now I have a clean bill of health.
-
If I go to a baseball game, I hear 'Shoeless Joe,' but otherwise, I hear 'toe pick' five times a day. No matter how many more movies I make, that'll be on my gravestone.
-
After God and my family, it's surf. I don't imagine me not surfing. Surf brings me smile every day.
-
It is impossible, in my mind, to distinguish between the refusal to receive a petition, or its summary rejection by some general order, and the denial of the right of petition.
-
After the first couple of years recording, I did a lot of praying. I said, 'Lord, please give me a hit.' I want one so bad.
-
As I was growing up, I did a lot of talent shows. I won fifteen Sunday nights straight in a series of talent shows in Macon. I showed up the sixteenth night, and they wouldn't let me go on any more. Whatever success I had was through the help of the good Lord.
-
Surely human affairs would be far happier if the power in men to be silent were the same as that to speak.
-
If I'm confused, I just spend some time looking at the sky and falling into it. It's not a meditation that anyone taught me, it's something I've done my whole life, and liked doing, and it made me feel like nothing.
-
Even though you can't expect to defeat the absurdity of the world, you must make the attempt. That's morality, that's religion, that's art, that's life.
