Tom Stoppard Quotes

Act first! The ideas will follow, and if not - well, it's progress

Tom Stoppard

• Ideas
• Progress
• Firsts

• Previous
• Next

Quotes to Explore

• The quick success was a bit strange to get used to.

  

  Fiona Apple
  • Success
  • Strange
  • Quick

• Never speak to an invalid from behind, nor from the door, nor from any distance from him, nor when he is doing anything. The official politeness of servants in these things is so grateful to invalids, that many prefer, without knowing why, having none but servants about them.

  

  Florence Nightingale
  • Why
  • Door
  • Speak

• I simply adore getting dressed up for a special occasion. I feel incredible stepping out in luxurious fabrics and a bit of bling. That's also how I feel about special-occasion dining rooms. Because these aren't everyday spaces, they contain all sorts of drama for that once-in-a-while 'wow' event.

  

  Candice Olson
  • Up
  • Feel
  • Drama

• I find playwriting really painful. I love it, or I wouldn't do it, but I don't love the theater as much as I love movies.

  

  Zoe Kazan
  • Movies
  • Find
  • Theater

• There can be no literary equivalent to truth.

  

  Laura Riding
  • Truth
  • Literary
  • Equivalent

• I think it would be bizarre to pick somebody to speak at the convention based on their sexual preference, because once you go down that road, why don't you pick a transvestite?

  

  Gary Bauer
  • Why
  • Think
  • Road

• I have this theory that people in Hollywood don't read. They read 'Vanity Fair' and then consider themselves terribly well read. I think I can basically write about anybody without getting caught.

  

  Jackie Collins
  • People
  • Think
  • Vanity

• I challenged things that needed to be challenged at Purdue.

  

  Earl Butz
  • Things
  • Needed
  • Challenged

• If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.

  

  E. M. Forster
  • Country
  • Hope
  • Friend

• Life is just so much fun and so filled with humor.

  

  Foster Friess
  • Life
  • Fun
  • Humor

• I have always been a coward as a child. I am not very brave. I am very aware of the fact that I am not very gutsy.

  

  Cai Guo-Qiang
  • Child
  • Brave
  • Coward

• If we get a few solid festival shows then I will have no problem booking the lads for as many quality club shows around them to make a nice tour come together.

  

  Pat Garrett
  • Together
  • Nice
  • Quality

• Design can successfully bind the ancient nomadic cultures with today's global marketplace, ensuring the preservation of traditions and knowledge for further generations. This aspect of research is obviously rich in its business potential as well.

  

  Yelena Baturina
  • Business
  • Today
  • Knowledge

• Madonna is a creation, so perhaps we should give her and the factory that created her a little credit, but I think that she should quietly disappear now. Poor Madge seems unable to decide whether she wants to look like Marilyn Monroe or Marlene Dietrich.

  

  Barry Humphries
  • She
  • Look
  • Creation

• Celebrity life and media culture are probably the most overbearing pop-cultural conditions that we as young people have to deal with, because it forces us to judge ourselves.

  

  Lady Gaga
  • People
  • Life
  • Culture

• The dream, alone, is of interest. What is life, without a dream?

  

  Edmond Rostand
  • Life
  • Dream
  • Alone

• Public radio is alive and kicking, it always has been.

  

  Harold Brodkey
  • Always
  • Alive
  • Radio

• I think it's a common misconception in the civilian community that the military community is filled with just drills and discipline and pain. They forget that these are humans who are in an abnormal situation.

  

  Adam Driver
  • Community
  • Pain
  • Military

• It's relatively easy to set up a tech company, join an accelerator, and progress down a pathway towards success. It's more complex to do that with food.

  

  Kimbal Musk
  • Up
  • Success
  • Food

• Only an unhinged movie survives as a disconnected series of images, of peaks, of visual icebergs. It should display not one central idea but many. It should not reveal a coherent philosophy of composition. It must live on, and because of, its glorious ricketiness.

  

  Umberto Eco
  • Live
  • Movie
  • Ideas

• Happiness is the freedom of choice. The freedom to choose where to live, what to do, what to buy, what to sell, from whom, to whom, when and how.

  

  Eleni Zaude Gabre-Madhin
  • Live
  • Freedom

• If you don't stand up to your fears, have bravery, loyalty, and you don't have friends, you'll never win. You'll never feel better about yourself.

  

  Luke Benward
  • Up
  • Friends
  • Loyalty

• I'm irreverent, I'm not politically correct, and I feel that I'm protected in my private life because I live a very public private life.

  

  Andrew Breitbart
  • Life
  • Live
  • Feels

• Act first! The ideas will follow, and if not - well, it's progress

  

  Tom Stoppard
  • Ideas
  • Progress
  • Firsts