Holbrook Quotes & Sayings

I got a feeling about political correctness. I hate it. It causes us to lie silently instead of saying what we think. — Hal Holbrook

Man looks in the abyss, there's nothing staring back at him. At that moment, man finds his character. And that is what keeps him out of the abyss. — Hal Holbrook

The time to read is any time: no apparatus, no appointment of time and place, is necessary. It is the only art which can be practiced at any hour of the day or night, whenever the time and inclination comes, that is your time for reading; in joy or sorrow, health or illness. — Holbrook Jackson

Why did Nature create man? Was it to show that she is big enough to make mistakes, or was it pure ignorance? — Holbrook Jackson

We don't have truth delivered to us very often, especially in this very commercialized world. — Hal Holbrook

Pedantry is the dotage of knowledge. — Holbrook Jackson

I'm not necessarily a happy person. I don't think that happiness is always the right response to a situation. I think we've come to a point in time where people are saying, "Oh, you know, loss and change, that's just normal." — Melissa Holbrook Pierson

If you are allowing something to upset or anger you, try this: Before giving in to those negative emotions, try and think of one positive thing, one learning that you will gain, a single glimpse of something that you can use to build a positive future. Here's a nudge to push you along: You own your mind. You choose to be either a victim or to take control. — Michael Holbrook

What time do you need to be at work tomorrow, Hon?' Lexi asks.
Well, Ruby's back, so nine o'clock.'
What does Ruby being back have to do with anything?'
She's the human stopwatch, remember? Marriage doesn't change everything. — Erynn Mangum

Never put off till tomorrow the book you can read today. — Holbrook Jackson

Death ends a life. But it doesn't end a relationship. — Hal Holbrook

The Internet has spawned an abusive malevolent platform that cyber stalkers and trolls can use to harm people in the real world and ruin their victims lives forever with their permanent posts. Cyberspace can also be used to hunt those that prey on innocent people, so that those who live by the malicious words may also feel the repugnant feeling of being stalked and hunted even in their own false sense of anonymity. — Don A. Holbrook

To communicate with each other, we got to get mad at each other sometimes. — Hal Holbrook

Sean Penn, for his acting as well as his writing and directing. There are so many actors I respect, but his reach is so wide. — Boyd Holbrook

Your readiest desire is your path to joy ... even if it destroys you. — Holbrook Jackson

Cyberspace or the Abyss of social media has no hiding place that technology cannot find anyone who seeks to hide their identity... so be careful what you say it may hunt and haunt you forever in the real world. — Don A. Holbrook

You can go into Mark Twain's material and prove anything you want. He was against war. He was for war. He was against rich people and he was for them. He was a kaleidoscope. — Hal Holbrook

The great revolution of the future will be Nature's revolt against man. — Holbrook Jackson

I've had a very full career in the theater, on stage, in films and on television. — Hal Holbrook

I tended to lean toward character work. I love to disguise myself. — Hal Holbrook

Be careful because cyberspace is a two way street those that hunt and stalk and troll can also become the hunted by those that they harass and attack. Cyberspace has a definite dark side. — Don A. Holbrook

But postal inspectors also solved crimes. James Holbook's Ten Years Among the Mail Bags; or, Notes from the Diary of a Special Agent of the Post-Office Department, published in 1855, became a best seller and is thought to have helped inspire the modern detective novel, with its tales of mail robbers and malefactors who tried to use the public mails for nefarious purposes. "A mail bag is an epitome of human life,"' Holbrook wrote in the opening section of his book. "All the elements which go to form the happiness or misery of individuals--the raw material so to speak, of human hopes and fears--here exist in a chaotic state." Someone had to protect it. — Devin Leonard

People who want to be amused have lost the art of living. — Holbrook Jackson

I developed a resistance to authority. Not to discipline - I learned that. But to authority. I like to think for myself. And I like to cause trouble. — Hal Holbrook

In times of conflict, we're all peers. — Michael Holbrook

We are leashed by societal norms, defined by our willingness to conform, but limited only by our imagination. — Michael Holbrook

I unloaded planes for UPS in Louisville, Kentucky. It only was bad because it was called 'Earn to Learn,' where you pay for your tuition for college, but you have to work graveyard shift - midnight to eight A.M. - and then go to school at nine or 10 A.M. I was a zombie after two semesters. — Boyd Holbrook

I wrote a lot. I was in programs for drawing when I was a kid. — Boyd Holbrook

I wanted to be an architect. I used to draw houses and buildings and construct buildings on my own. — Boyd Holbrook

Success is no longer content. It's how it sells. — Hal Holbrook

I don't play golf. Mark Twain is golf to me. — Hal Holbrook

We live in a democracy. We have this extraordinary opportunity to use our mind and say what we think, speak as we think. Sometimes what we say is objectionable to other people. But that is part of a free society. — Hal Holbrook

When in doubt, risk it — Holbrook Jackson

Why do I keep performing at my age? What else am I going to do? Play golf? I tried that years ago and all I did was cuss. I can do that without the walk, cuss at Congress and let [Mark]Twain do it. "Imagine that you were an idiot. And then imagine that you were a member of Congress. Wait - I've repeated myself." — Hal Holbrook

Those who seek happiness miss it, and those who discuss it, lack it. — Holbrook Jackson

Happiness is a form of courage. — Holbrook Jackson

If we didn't love things, then we couldn't feel their loss. The flip side of loving is losing. I mean, you can't experience one without the other. — Melissa Holbrook Pierson

Why is nostalgia such a bad thing? Nostalgia is a longing to return. If you really loved where you came from, if, in essence, you really loved yourself, how can you not want that to exist? It's like wanting your parents keep living. — Melissa Holbrook Pierson

Lobbyists in Washington are making six figure salaries selling our government out to the corporate interests and we just sit and smile as if nothing is happening while the poor folks are getting poorer and their pharmaceutical bills rise. — Hal Holbrook

Books worth reading are worth re-reading. — Holbrook Jackson

Books are never out of humour; never envious or jealous, they answer all questions with readiness; ... they teach us how to live and how to die; they dispel melancholy by their mirth, and amuse by their wit; they prepare the soul to suffer everything and desire nothing; they introduce us to ourselves. — Holbrook Jackson

As soon as an idea is accepted it is time to reject it. — Holbrook Jackson

When the audience begins to see the sunrise on that it's hard for them to turn away from it because they're listening to a man talking to them from over a century ago. And nothing has changed. So what are you going to do about that? — Hal Holbrook

[Mark] Twain is pointing at you. You, the reader of the book one hundred and thirty years ago and today. That is what has made it a great American novel and the most widely read book in American Literature around the world today. — Hal Holbrook

The interesting scope of Mark Twain's development as a human being is that he grew. He saw, he travelled, he studied this country and later the world with the eye of a man educating himself. This is a central fact in the Mark Twain legacy. He became an American spokesman for the ideals of racial equality and dignity for the working man because he was willing to look the world in its face and see, really see what was happening to the people in it. — Hal Holbrook

I feel like human beings can't help but destroy, but if our numbers are small we don't destroy as much as we do when our numbers are this huge and out of control. I wonder, what's the carrying capacity for human beings? When do we get to the point when we can't take it anymore, when it becomes too unpleasant to us just to be here because there's too many of us and there's no solitude anymore. — Melissa Holbrook Pierson

There's no good guys and bad guys. — Hal Holbrook

Mark Twain cannot be defined. — Hal Holbrook

The possession of a great many things, even the best of things, tends to blind one to the real value of anything. — Holbrook Jackson

I was working in Lexington when I recognized this actor, Michael Shannon, and I was like, 'What do you do?' He told me to get into a theater company, so I got into a theater company near my hometown. I was a carpenter there. And then I slowly got some work. — Boyd Holbrook

I never, ever update Mark Twain. I don't modernize it. I let the audience update the material. When I go out on stage, I'm trying to make the audience believe they're looking at this guy who died 104 years ago and listening to him and saying to themselves, "Jesus, he could be talking about today." And that's the point. — Hal Holbrook

Just as like finds like, love finds love. Embrace it. Be open and giving. Accept love with kindness, grace, and spirit. — Michael Holbrook

Live life as an observer but not a spectator. Learn the rules, get in the game, break some rules. Live. Experience. There is no exhilaration to be achieved sitting on the bench. — Michael Holbrook

[Mark] Twain called Congress "the only distinctly native criminal class in America. We've lately sent a United States Senator to the penitentiary." That was a fact. — Hal Holbrook

Be contented, when you have got all you want. — Holbrook Jackson

There has never been a book like this. At once a poetics of place, a work of deep history, a bildungsroman, and an acute inquiry into the big subjects: love, family, other animals, the nature of creativity. It is sublime. It's also very funny. Haunting and haunted, Hold Still is the memoir of an artist that is art itself. — Melissa Holbrook Pierson

One of the problems with putting Huck Finn into a movie or on the stage is, you always make the white people stupid and racist. The point is, they don't know they're racist. — Hal Holbrook

Forgive everybody but yourself. — Holbrook Jackson

Hal Holbrook was in one of my first television movies when I was about 18 or 19. He'd made such a strong impression on me and a lasting one in terms of what being an actor was. — Sean Penn

Originality is only variation. — Holbrook Jackson

No man is ever old enough to know better. — Holbrook Jackson

If you can't find the spirit of the holidays in your heart, you'll never find it under a tree. — Michael Holbrook

Mark Twain married the daughter of one of New York State's leading Abolitionists, Jervis Langdon, who helped Frederick Douglass who became the great Negro leader to escape from slavery. — Hal Holbrook

This is a deep and personal topic in our society today. Read the papers. America is hurting because of it. For God's sake, speak up. Don't we need to learn respect for people's feelings? What is going to school for? To learn how to add? — Hal Holbrook

As a kid, snow served the useful purpose of closing schools. As an adult - it shuts down any activity a decent, suntanned person over the age of thirty-five enjoys. I don't do snow forts, snowballs, snow angels, snowmen, snowmobiles, or snowshoes. I don't like to walk in it, drive in it, ski on it, or sled on it. Other than that, snow is just ducky. — Michael Holbrook

The Black Book of Economic Development - The Clandestine Art and Practical Science of Building Local Economies" is a must-read for everyone in the industry who is seeking to make a positive impact on both his or her communities and the profession. — Don A. Holbrook

History proves there is no better advertisement for a book than to condemn it for obscenity. — Holbrook Jackson

Genius is intuition on fire. — Holbrook Jackson

Genius is initiative on fire. — Holbrook Jackson

If we want to understand the actions of a man in the early 1860's, put yourself back there in his shoes. As a young man he began piloting steamboats on the Mississippi, a job he loved and wanted to do the rest of his life, he said. The Civil War ended traffic on the River and his job. He wrote about it in A History of A Campaign That Failed. He said: "I joined the Confederacy, served for two weeks, deserted, and the Confederacy fell." His attachment to the Southern ideal of slavery does not appear very sturdy. — Hal Holbrook

Intuition is reason in a hurry. — Holbrook Jackson

Beware of your habits. The better they are the more surely they will be your undoing. — Holbrook Jackson

A large, still book is a piece of quietness, succulent and nourishing in a noisy world, which I approach and imbibe with "a sort of greedy enjoyment," as Marcel Proust said of those rooms of his old home whose air was "saturated with the bouquet of silence." — Holbrook Jackson

Well, it was interesting because when I was going to do it the first time in my head was Leonardo DiCaprio [for Chris] and Marlon Brando was going to play the character that Hal Holbrook eventually played. But then when it wasn't to be and there was no promise that it ever would be I think some part of me didn't want to attach specifics to it anymore - actors or anything else - because I wanted to see it made that much more badly. — Sean Penn

A good book is always on tap; it may be decanted and drunk a hundred times, and it is still there for further imbibement. — Holbrook Jackson

World class communities come in all shapes and sizes, they are not determined by geography, and/or natural resources so much as by the mindset of their local leadership. — Don A. Holbrook

We are more inclined to regret our virtues than our vices; but only the very honest will admit this. — Holbrook Jackson

So I was hugely thrilled that my first scene ever on camera was with Hal Holbrook. — Anthony Edwards

What are we going to do about the injuries to our country still going on right in front of our eyes? It gets me out of bed in the morning. It makes me mad enough to get my blood up and want to get out there with [Mark] Twain and get it said and that is why I still hit the road and go out on the stage and keep working at staying alive. — Hal Holbrook

Love is the most subtle form of self-interest. — Holbrook Jackson

Change is inevitable but progress is truly optional. — Don A. Holbrook

Sacrifice is a form of bargaining. — Holbrook Jackson

Only one-fourth of the sorrow in each man's life is caused by outside uncontrollable elements, the rest is self-imposed by failing to analyze and act with calmness. — Holbrook Jackson

Man is a dog's idea of what God should be. — Holbrook Jackson

There was no theater in my high school. I think even our art program was cut - it was so bad. I didn't even know that was a possibility in college or in high school; I hadn't even thought of it. It was pretty negligent. My father has run a bulldozer all of his life, and my mom is in real estate. — Boyd Holbrook

Book-love, I say again, lasts throughout life, it never flags or fails, but, like Beauty itself, is a joy forever. — Holbrook Jackson

I like to be who I am. — Hal Holbrook

My cell rings. I answer it without looking at the caller ID.
"Hannah, I'm sorry." My voice is a moan.
"It's Ryan, actually.'
"Oh. Hey, Ryan." I grin.
"What'd you do to Hannah?"
I try to be evasive. "What are you talking about?"
"Uh-huh. Good try. What did you do?"
"She'll thank me for it one day."
"Oh man! It was that bad?"
"Will you relax? It is not bad."
"Is? Present tense? It's still going on?"
"Calm down, Ryan!"
"I have known you too long, Laurie Holbrook, to relax. — Erynn Mangum

We're physical objects, we think of ourselves as these kind of free-floating brains, but the brain is such a little part. It's way smaller than we like to think. We think we're these important human beings. We're not animals or anything. But what did we come out of? What are we made out of? We're made of the same stuff as out there. — Melissa Holbrook Pierson

Suffer fools gladly; they may be right. — Holbrook Jackson

There was so much to learn and it was all fun. But the best part was getting a laugh from an audience. That was like drowning in candy. — Hal Holbrook

I have a suicide impulse. — Hal Holbrook

Director Tom Stone is currently a potato farmer in Holbrook and could not be reached for comment. RECORDING — Adam Rex

Most difficult is the labeling by other people that models are empty-headed bodies. I think if you look for negativity, you can find it anywhere. — Boyd Holbrook

I don't think of myself as fitting into a category. But I had to be careful in all of my books not to repeat things, because I have these ideas, and though the subjects were disparate, the same idea would come up through different portals. — Melissa Holbrook Pierson

Education begins by teaching children to read and ends by making most of them hate reading. — Holbrook Jackson

Fear of corrupting the mind of the younger generation is the loftiest form of cowardice. — Holbrook Jackson

Tomorrow's outcome for our nation is dependent upon how we act today to create the outcomes we desire for our country. Individual accountability is each of our responsibilities if we want to rebuild, renew and restore the great values that made America a global super power and light of hope to the rest of the world. Each of us is either part of the problem or the solution. — Don A. Holbrook

Politics has become incendiary. People don't find it so funny now so I have to be careful, but I have to wake them up with some truths and the truths I aim at them are over 100 years old. Facts that no one can dispute. — Hal Holbrook

The poor are the only consistent altruists; they sell all they have and give it to the rich. — Holbrook Jackson