Charlton Heston Quotes & Sayings

I always work on the theory that the audience will believe you best if you believe yourself. — Charlton Heston

The minute you feel you have given a faultless performance is the time to get out. — Charlton Heston

The physical mechanics of sex are pretty funny unless you are engaged in them. Then they are, of course, marvelous. — Charlton Heston

Well, we have certainly produced great art before we did this. In my view, there are any number of areas of government which tax money should not be spent. — Charlton Heston

Society mends its wounds. And that's invariably true in all the tragedies, in the comedies as well. And certainly in the histories. — Charlton Heston

Doing a picture with Willie Wyler is like getting the works at a Turkish bath. You damn near drown, but you come out smelling like a rose. — Charlton Heston

Political correctness is tyranny with manners. — Charlton Heston

We will preach the truth to a new generation: The doorway to all freedoms is framed with muskets. It's time the apologists step aside and let freedom's followers lead the way. — Charlton Heston

We don't think well of our presidents when they are serving. Even Kennedy, with such a short presidency, was beginning to lose his remarkable appeal to the American people when he was suddenly sainted by death. — Charlton Heston

Celebrity is a corrosive condition for the soul. — Charlton Heston

An epic is the easiest kind of picture to make badly. — Charlton Heston

As I have stood in the crosshairs of those who target Second Amendment freedoms, I've realized that firearms are not the only issue. No, it's much, much bigger than that. I've come to understand that a cultural war is raging across our land, in which, with Orwellian fervor, certain acceptable thoughts and speech are mandated. — Charlton Heston

I think there are probably more closet conservatives in Hollywood than there are closet homosexuals. — Charlton Heston

One way or another, if you're persistent, fortune always smiles on you. — Charlton Heston

The prime motivation in making almost any film is success, because film is the art form of the 20th century. — Charlton Heston

You simply disobey. Peaceably, yes. Respectfully, of course. Nonviolently, absolutely. But when told how to think or what to say or how to behave, we don't. We disobey the social protocol that stifles and stigmatizes personal freedom. — Charlton Heston

A clear enunciation of these rights needs to be enshrined in the constitution to guarantee that this basic right of law-abiding gun owners and sportsmen shall not be infringed upon by anti-gun public officials. — Charlton Heston

The trouble with movies as a business is that it's an art, and the trouble with movies as art is that it's a business. — Charlton Heston

I didn't change. The Democratic Party slid to the Left from right under me. — Charlton Heston

The big studio era is from the coming of sound until 1950, until I came in ... I came in at a crux in film, which was the end of the studio era and the rise of filmmaking. — Charlton Heston

You can spend a lifetime, and, if you're honest with yourself, never once was your work perfect. — Charlton Heston

Life is full of surprises, isn't it? — Charlton Heston

It's been quite a ride. I loved every minute of it. — Charlton Heston

I can't change yesterday, but I can sure mess up today. — Charlton Heston

I simply cannot stand by and watch a right guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States come under attack from those who either can't understand it, don't like the sound of it, or find themselves too philosophically squeamish to see why it remains the first among equals: Because it is the right we turn to when all else fails. That's why the Second Amendment is America's first freedom. — Charlton Heston

I think narcotics and alcohol, and even tobacco are enormously costly ingredients in our society. — Charlton Heston

So that this nation may long endure, I urge you to follow in the hallowed footsteps of the great disobedience of history that freed exiles, founded religions, defeated tyrants, and yes, in the hands of an aroused rabble in arms and a few great men — Charlton Heston

My dad always said he wanted to be remembered for his body of work, and he's made more than 75 pictures, some good, some bad, and they will be his legacy to the world of acting. — Charlton Heston

If you talk about race, it does not make you a racist. If you see distinctions between the genders, it does not make you a sexist. If you think critically about a denomination, it does not make you anti-religion. If you accept but don't celebrate homosexuality, it does not make you a homophobe. — Charlton Heston

I've used too many pistols in too many movies. They're kind of heavy to carry ... — Charlton Heston

Moses is the keystone to every man's ethical code. He was the first man of record in history to conceive of the law as separate from the will of a ruler, to choose whether a man should live by grace of law, or law by grace of man. In a literal sense Moses lives at every council table today. — Charlton Heston

To the world, you are America. — Charlton Heston

I intend to dedicate my remaining time as president of the NRA to ensure that the Second Amendment is safe from Al Gore and all those who threaten it. — Charlton Heston

I don't think rock music has any positive function. — Charlton Heston

Political correctness is just tyranny with manners. I wish for you the courage to be unpopular. Popularity is history's pocket change. Courage is history's true currency. — Charlton Heston

I've been a public person for most of my life. It has advantages and disadvantages. I can't take my kids to Disneyland. On the other hand, I can get a table at a restaurant or tickets to a play. — Charlton Heston

My dissatisfaction with television as a medium has nothing to do with the audience or the fact that you don't require as much time to do it as you do a movie, but with its technical limitations. — Charlton Heston

I've played three presidents, three saints and two geniuses - and that's probably enough for any man. — Charlton Heston

Skijoring is just something that people want to see, it's like Ben Hur on snow, the modern way. I love the speed, the adrenalin rush is something special. It's just unique. — Charlton Heston

It's the camel's nose in the tent. Look at Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler, Mao Zedong, Pol Pot, Idi Amin
every one of these monsters, on seizing power, their first act was to confiscate all firearms in private hands ... — Charlton Heston

You can have my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers. — Charlton Heston

I've come to feel very strongly, not as a joke, that if you appoint a committee of more than four people, their efficiency starts to deteriorate. — Charlton Heston

I am very proud of the fact that I led the arts contingent on the civil rights march in the summer of '63. In many ways, I think it was the high-water mark of the civil rights movement. — Charlton Heston

A war put off is not a war avoided. — Charlton Heston

I'm neither giving up nor giving in. — Charlton Heston

Shakespeare is the outstanding example of how that can be done. In all of Shakespeare's plays, no matter what tragic events occur, no matter what rises and falls, we return to stability in the end. — Charlton Heston

To the divisive forces that would take freedom away, I want to tell you something: You can have my gun. You can pry it from my cold dead hands! — Charlton Heston

Above all, a director has to be a good captain. — Charlton Heston

Another plague upon the land, as devastating as the locusts God loosed on the Egyptians, is 'Political Correctness.' — Charlton Heston

And their pals vote for their stuff when they're not on the panel, and it just keeps going that way. And they tend to be very fringe artists, so anything before the 20th century is not worth considering. This is out of date. — Charlton Heston

In the mainstream film market, certainly in television, sex is handled fairly discreetly. I think the abuse of extraordinarily graphic violence and language presses much closer to the tolerance of public taste. — Charlton Heston

Undeniably the American art form, too. And yet more and more, we see films made that diminish the American experience and example. And sometimes trash it completely. — Charlton Heston

In what I think is the most serious problem the world faces, which is the population explosion, we will come I think to a time when measures that are not even dreamt of now will become necessary. — Charlton Heston

It's fashionable for modern actors to talk about getting 'inside' a character. But you can't get to the inside without getting the outside right first. — Charlton Heston

I have lived my whole life on the stage and screen before you. I found purpose and meaning in your response. — Charlton Heston

I believe that we are again engaged in a great civil war, a cultural way that's about to hijack your birthright to think and say what resides in your heart. I fear you no longer trust the pulsing lifeblood of liberty inside you ... the stuff that made this country rise from wilderness into the miracle that it is. — Charlton Heston

Dirty Harry, for example. Clint Eastwood was not a rogue cop. He was a maverick cop, but he was a good guy. — Charlton Heston

There's no such thing as a good gun. There's no such thing as a bad gun. A gun in the hands of a bad man is a very dangerous thing. A gun in the hands of a good person is no danger to anyone except the bad guys. — Charlton Heston

I'm not a vegetarian but I want you to know that my four dogs are safe. — Charlton Heston

Clergymen tend to be unreliable and pompous figures. Seldom Jewish rabbis, less often Catholic priests, but Protestant ministers tend to be ... not really very admirable. Not necessarily evil, but silly. And wrong, of course. — Charlton Heston

As an artist, I understand that, and I value the creative input of the artist. — Charlton Heston

The First Amendment is crucial. Of course it is. So are all the others. And the Second Amendment is the one that guarantees that people can bear arms to protect themselves. — Charlton Heston

To me Moses is all men grown to gigantic proportions. — Charlton Heston

Maybe it's good if God gives you something to think about every so often. — Charlton Heston

[President Clinton] boasts about 186,000 people denied firearms under the Brady Law rules. The Brady Law has been in force for three years. In that time, they have prosecuted seven people and put three of them in prison. You know, the President has entertained more felons than that at fundraising coffees in the White House, for Pete's sake. — Charlton Heston

You could think of extraordinary examples to the contrary: The Grapes of Wrath ... and even into the 70s. — Charlton Heston

Lenin in 1921 observed very presciently that motion pictures were the most powerful tool ever invented to shape the way we thought. He was right. Political films can be successful. — Charlton Heston

Sometimes, to be silent is to be most eloquent. — Charlton Heston

I believe that in your heart you already know something is profoundly wrong. When bartenders are responsible for drunk drivers' acts, and gunmakers are responsible for criminals' acts, and nobody is responsible for O. J. Simpson's acts, something is wrong. — Charlton Heston

For an actor, there is no greater loss than the loss of his audience. — Charlton Heston

As is well know, I, ah..regard myself as a religious man, yet I belong to no church. I'm an able soldier yet I abhor armies. I can even add that I've been introduced to hundreds of women but never married. In other words no one's ever talked me into anything. — Charlton Heston

You have to be very careful to view yourself with a somewhat skeptical eye and to remember that you're not here taking down everything I'm saying because you think I'm such a marvelous fellow but because your editors say go get 1,200 words or whatever on Chuck Heston. — Charlton Heston

The Internet is for lonely people. People should live. — Charlton Heston

Any gun in the hands of a bad man is a bad thing. Any gun in the hands of a decent person is no threat to anybody - except bad people. — Charlton Heston

I don't seem to fit really into the 20th Century — Charlton Heston

You cut their money back, for one thing ... I go back a long way with the NEA. — Charlton Heston

I have played some of the great men in history and I believe in the great man who does heroic deeds, even in these egalitarian times. — Charlton Heston

To be an actor you need four things: energy, concentration, a lot of luck and, of course, good roles. — Charlton Heston

A policemans job is only easy in a police state. — Charlton Heston

Film is the only art form whose raw materials are so horrendously expensive that the artist cannot afford to buy them for himself. — Charlton Heston

One of the [Million Mom] marchers said 'the hands that rock the cradle rule this nation.' I thought, 'no Madame, the hands that rock the cradle rule our families and governments and corporations. The hands that wrote the Constitution rule this nation'. — Charlton Heston

As an actor, I'm thankful I have lived not one life, but many. — Charlton Heston

What you hold in your hand is proof of man's power - against which our strength means nothing. It has the force of 100 spears. I warn you, man's ingenuity goes hand-in-hand with their cruelty. No creature is as devious or violent. — Charlton Heston

In terms of pure physical effort, today was probably as hard as I've worked in any part. I spent the morning rowing, including the change of speeds Arrius [the Roman commander] test Judah with. A real bone-breaker. — Charlton Heston

I used to think if it wasn't possible to be a family man and a totally dedicated artist, I'd rather be the former. I'm an idealist and a romantic. — Charlton Heston

In recent years, anyone in the government, certainly anyone in the FBI or the CIA, or recently, in again, Clint's film, In the Line of Fire, the main bad guy is the chief advisor to the president. — Charlton Heston

Telling us what to think has evolved into telling us what to say, so telling us what to do can't be far behind. — Charlton Heston

Political Correctness, what does it mean? It means that telling us what to think has evolved into telling us what to say, so telling us what to do can't be far behind. Before you claim to be a champion of free thought, tell me: Why did political correctness originate on American campuses? And why do you continue to tolerate it? Why do you, who're supposed to debate ideas, surrender to suppression? Let's be honest. Who thinks professors can say what they really believe? It scares me to death, and should scare you too, that the superstition of political correctness rules the halls of reason. — Charlton Heston