Thornton Quotes & Sayings

The new puritans have been highly successful. All of the preconditions for new prohibitions on alcohol and tobacco are in place ... Indeed, the future agenda of the federal government has already been established to outlaw alcohol and tobacco in the near future ... If current trends persist, America will be moving toward stricter prohibitions, greater restrictions, and more centralized control over consumption. This represents an erosion of liberty at its most fundamental level. — Mark Thornton

I don't have a fear of flying; I have a fear of crashing. — Billy Bob Thornton

A convention is an agreed-upon falsehood, a permitted lie. — Thornton Wilder

He wore his hair in a way that suggested he'd just rolled out of bed after thrashing all night. In an earlier decade, your friends would have told you,"Man, your hair's a mess. Go fix it."
Now they say,"Whoa, dude, cool do. — Marshall Thornton

Unlike those in other professions, artists cut the branch they are sitting on. — Sarah Thornton

If you're 25 years old dressed up like Superman at a comic book convention, that's great. If you're 78 and you're doing it, something's wrong. — Billy Bob Thornton

I can't look at everything hard enough! — Thornton Wilder

We are not a victim of our emotions or thoughts. We can understand our triggers and use them as tools to help us respond more objectively. — Elizabeth Thornton

These days Martin came across an increasing number of guys he wouldn't kick out of bed. As the years passed, out of necessity, his standards gradually lowered. — Marshall Thornton

I'm too old to be ignorant as I am."
--Twelve-year-old Gabriella to the general, who does not want her to know about Emmett Till and the world's brutality. — Elle Thornton

As a film was little more than a ninety-six minute search for a condom, I had to wonder why anyone thought it wise to spend almost eighty million dollars producing it. — Marshall Thornton

Life is given for wisdom, and yet we are not wise; for goodness, and we are not good; for overcoming evil, and evil remains; for patience and sympathy and love, and yet we are fretful and hard and weak and selfish. We are keyed not to attainment, but to the struggle toward it. — Thornton T. Munger

Where now was her proud motto, 'Fais ce que dois, advienne que pourra'? If she had but dared to bravely tell the truth as regarded herself, defying them to find out what she refused to tell concerning another, how light of heart she would now have felt! Not humbled before God, as having failed in trust towards Him; not degraded and abased in Mr. Thornton's sight. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Several Southeastern tribes have long said that their ancestors received immigrants from Mesoamerica and that these immigrants introduced many cultural changes. Far too few anthropologists were listening. — Richard Thornton

Knowledge and personality make doubt possible, but knowledge is also the cure of doubt; and when we get a full and adequate sense of personality we are lifted into a region where doubt is almost impossible, for no man can know himself as he is, and all fullness of his nature, without also knowing God. — Thornton T. Munger

I crossed my fingers. On both hands. Then my toes. I may have even crossed my eyes. — Marshall Thornton

What's in a name? Sometimes a lot of real work. — Thornton W. Burgess

My disappointment was comfortable, like a blanket. — Marshall Thornton

What is essential does not die but clarifies. — Thornton Wilder

There is one regard in which bullies show real perception when compared with their victims; it is their silent good-natured pleasure of the moment. — Thornton Wilder

Does anybody realize what life is
while they're living it- every, every minute? — Thornton Wilder

Well, if we're done insulting each other I guess we can leave. — Marshall Thornton

Clio may be the most austere and chaste of the Muses, but she has been known to come down informally from Mount Helicon in a mood so raffish that there are those who claim to have seen her with her slip showing. — Thornton Willis

Sometimes our childhood experiences are emotionally intense, which can create strong mental models. These experiences and our assumptions about them are then reinforced in our memory and can continue to drive our behavior as adults. — Elizabeth Thornton

My process started when I was born. The process is life experience. I believe that what makes you an artist, or at least an artist who can communicate the ideas that they want to get across, are people that have life experience. — Billy Bob Thornton

They are so good they can get serial killers before they even get started. — Marshall Thornton

We do not choose the day of our birth nor may we choose the day of our death, yet choice is the sovereign faculty of the mind. — Thornton Wilder

Having sex with friends seems like a very good idea until suddenly it doesn't. — Marshall Thornton

Now he discovered that secret from which one never quite recovers, that even in the most perfect love one person loves less profoundly than the other. There may be two equally good, equally gifted, equally beautiful, but there may never be two that love one another equally well. — Thornton Wilder

I'm gay."
"Oh. Of course." Immediately, Martin regretted saying "of course". He should have acted surprised. People are flattered if you act surprised when they come out, something Martin thought was stupid and vaguely homophobic but... — Marshall Thornton

Hanson looked at me like I'd just claimed I could make a nuclear bomb out of laundry detergent, string, and a can of baked beans. — Marshall Thornton

On TV you can, you know you can cram, you know, 30 people into a closet and have an orgy, and then they can all shoot up, and everybody has cigarettes in their nostrils and their ears. They don't care. So yeah, television is amazing right now. — Billy Bob Thornton

Seek the lofty by reading, hearing and seeing great work at some moment every day. — Thornton Wilder

We all have mental models: the lens through which we see the world that drive our responses to everything we experience. Being aware of your mental models is key to being objective. — Elizabeth Thornton

A living is made, Mr Kemper, by selling something that everybody needs at least once a year.Yes, sir! And a million ismade by producing something that everybody needs every day.You artists produce something that nobody needs at any time. — Thornton Wilder

Marketing is the devil. — Billy Bob Thornton

What an inspiring book. Thank heaven Lee Thornton decided to share her remarkable life story with us. Lee's book is a blessing as well as a terrific read. — Caroline Myss

I think I fully commit myself to any role to the extent to which I can. In other words there's some roles that maybe it's just not there, in other words on the page. You know, I mean your job is you need to play the governor and that's what you do. I mean I'm not going to stay up all night if I'm playing a functional role. And I've played a couple of functional roles. And so I'm not going to do anything other, look he's a functional guy. He says hey mister, you forgot your hat. — Billy Bob Thornton

I have been fortunate to get some really good scripts over the years and I haven't turned down anything that I regretted so far. And my manager who I've been with for over 25 years is very good at knowing what I should and shouldn't do a lot of times. — Billy Bob Thornton

The future is the most expensive luxury in the world. — Thornton Wilder

God help me, what I wanted to do was to sweep her into my arms and clasp her to my manly bosom and pour words of soft comfort and consolation into her shell-like ear, as any red-blooded male would do. — Rosy Thornton

I said, you're really old."
"I'm old? Are you trying to be rude?"
Martin wasn't sure because it sounded as though there was a touch of pride in his nephew's voice.
"No, it's just...don't most of gay men die before they're forty?"
"Who told you that?" Martin gulped down the rest of his wine. He should have brought the bottle. — Marshall Thornton

When you think you're alone, when you think there's no one in this world who'll stand up for you, look around and make sure you're right. Friends can appear in the most unlikely people, and are often right in front of you. — Richard Thornton

We all have time to expend on what is essential to our nature. — Thornton Wilder

Suddenly, they saw its back end drop down, as into a rut, and the gee-pole, with Hal clinging to it, jerk into the air. Mercedes's scream came to their ears. They saw Charles turn and make one step to run back, and then a whole section of ice give way and dogs and humans disappear. A yawning hole was all that was to be seen. The bottom had dropped out of the trail. John Thornton and Buck looked at each other. "You poor devil," said John Thornton, and Buck licked his hand. — Jack London

I have long noticed that people who talk to those closest to them only about what they eat, what they wear, the money they make, the trip they will or will not take next week - such people are of two sorts. They either have no inner life, or their inner life is painful to them, is beset with regret or fear. — Thornton Wilder

Now, in Mr. Thornton's face the straight brows fell over the clear deep-set earnest eyes, which, without being unpleasantly sharp, seemed intent enough to penetrate into the very heart and core of what he was looking at. The lines in the face were few but firm, as if they were carved in marble, and lay principally about the lips, which were slightly compressed over a set of teeth so faultless and beautiful as to give the effect of sudden sunlight when the rare bright smile, coming in an instant and shining out of the eyes, changed the whole look from the severe and resolved expression of a man ready to do and dare everything, to the keen honest enjoyment of the moment, which is seldom shown so fearlessly and instantaneously except by children — Elizabeth Gaskell

Nature reserves the right to inflict upon her children the most terrifying jests. — Thornton Wilder

New Year's Resolutions come and go. Some we keep, some we don't. In order to make lasting changes in our lives, we must first change our minds. We sometimes forget, and we often feel stuck, but we all have the power to do so. — Elizabeth Thornton

Life is magical and I guess my thing is I wish that people wanted that magic. — Billy Bob Thornton

Many who have dedicated their life to love, can tell us less about this subject than a child who lost his dog yesterday. — Thornton Wilder

Mrs. Thornton; the only mother he has, I believe, — Elizabeth Gaskell

The comic spirit is given to us in order that we may analyze, weigh, and clarify things in us which nettle us, or which we are outgrowing, or trying to reshape — Thornton Wilder

Man is not an end but a beginning. We are at the beginning of the second week. We are children of the eighth day. — Thornton Wilder

Reality shows are usually created by people doing and saying stupid things. — Billy Bob Thornton

When I was growing up, when I was 11 years old I was listening to The Mothers of Invention. You know, I mean I was a Frank Zappa fan in Arkansas. — Billy Bob Thornton

Eating be eating, b'ain't it, Birdie?'
'Nay, Uncle Bear: In Caermelor, at the Royal Court, they be so-oh, so much more advanced than anywhere else. 'Tis not done to wipe your fingers on your hair or the tablecloth, or belch, or speak with your mouth full of food, or scratch, or pick your teeth at table. Ye have to use little forks to pick up the food. Ye not allowed to pour wine for your betters or for yourself, but to wait for them to deign to pour it for ye, if they be feeling generous. And the carving of the meats must be done a certain way, and as for the toasts-it would take ye a whole day just to learn the complications.
'Takes the fun out of eating,' observed Sianadh. — Cecilia Dart-Thornton

Dinosaur/Mammoth: "It's cold. — Thornton Wilder

She grasped the crook and flail with cool hands and sank gracefully to her knees. The High Priest of Amun placed a piece of flatbread imprinted with an ankh, the symbol of everlasting life, upon her tongue. It was gritty, the dough having been sprinkled with sand blessed by all the High Priests before it was baked that morning. — Stephanie Thornton

Martin would be fifty in four hundred and thirty-seven days, and that reality was beginning to wear on him, like Chinese water torture of coastal erosion. — Marshall Thornton

Pray don't go into similes, Margaret; you have led us off once already,' said her father, smiling, yet uneasy at the thought that they were detaining Mr. Thornton against his will, which was a mistake; for he rather liked it, as long as Margaret would talk, although what she said only irritated him. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Enjoy what you have this moment. Don't wait around for something that might not happen. — Xena Thornton

She did not suspect that the Abbess was even there hovering about the house, herself estimating the stresses and watching for the moment when a burden harms and not strengthens. — Thornton Wilder

It is better being the victim then the victimizer. — Marlene Thornton

Throughout the hours of the night, though there had been few to hear it, the whole sky had been loud with the singing of these constellations. — Thornton Wilder

I've lived in California for half of my life. It's weird, everyone thinks of me as this guy who's from the South ... I'm really a Californian. — Billy Bob Thornton

I'm not sure I should tell you. Not while you're alive, at least. Some things are better left for after death." (Mac) — Marshall Thornton

We must ask ourselves, Is our thinking on autopilot? Is that autopilot programmed to make ethical decisions? — Linda Fisher Thornton

Oh yes!' and suddenly the wintry frost-bound look of care had left Mr. Thornton's face, as if some soft summer gale had blown all anxiety away from his mind; and, though his mouth was as much compressed as before, his eyes smiled out benignly on his questioner. — Elizabeth Gaskell

I'm not much of a drinker, so I'm going to eat seven pounds of pork. — Billy Bob Thornton

Once in a thousand times, it's interesting. — Thornton Wilder

I once worked with the nicest young hairdresser and one afternoon when we had nothing to do he explained how to give a blowjob from a man's perspective, and I tell you it changed everything. After that, every man I went with called me 'a goddess', 'a revelation sent from God' and 'an oral-copulating genius'". — Marshall Thornton

Love as education is one of the great powers of the world, but it hangs in a delicate suspension; it achieves its harmony as seldom as does love by the senses. Frustrated, it creates even greater havoc, for like all love it is a madness. — Thornton Wilder

I am not interested in the ephemeral - such subjects as the adulteries of dentists. I am interested in those things that repeat and repeat and repeat in the lives of the millions. — Thornton Wilder

Always enter a room with your head up. Right away that tells people you're your own person. If your head is down, that lets people feel they can do anything they want with you. When you talk to somebody, white or colored, always look him straight in the eye. First of all, it's honesty. Second, he knows he can beat up on you if you don't make eye contact. — Yvonne S. Thornton

So - people a thousand years from now ... This is the way we were: in our growing up and in our marrying and in our living and in our dying. — Thornton Wilder

I was the fattest baby in Clark County, Arkansas. They put me in the newspaper. It was like a prize turnip. — Billy Bob Thornton

Am I sure that there is no mind behind our existence and no mystery anywhere in the universe? I think I am. What joy, what relief there would be, if we could declare so with complete conviction. If that were so I could wish to live for ever. How terrifying and glorious the role of man if, indeed, without guidance and without consolation he must create from his own rituals the meaning for his existence and write the rules whereby he lives. — Thornton Wilder

Why did people fall in love?he wondered as he watched Rock and Doris pretend to do just that. Obviously, it made people ridiculous and not just in movies from the sixties. There had to be some basis in real life or no one would ever have made a silly comedy about love. Yeah, there were also movies about love that weren't comedies, but in those movies people acted ridiculous for a while and then someone announced the were going to die, or they had to go off to war, or oops I forgot to mention my wife. People stopped acting ridiculous and starting acting really serious and sad, sad because the ridiculous part was over. How could people want this foolishness in their lives? — Marshall Thornton

He's in the mafia, you know."

Jan frowned. "Not everyone who's Italian is in the mafia."

"That may be true in Italy-but here there are hardly enough Italians to run a mafia. They have to belong. — Marshall Thornton

I always wished there was somebody like the Coen Brothers and they appeared. And so yeah, my favorite role that I've ever done was in The Man Who Wasn't There. That's my very favorite character I've ever played. — Billy Bob Thornton

There is no check-box for ethical leadership.
It is an ongoing individual and organizational journey.
We will never know everything that there is to know. — Linda Fisher Thornton

Nay, it ain't got fleas, and 'tis a girl. — Cecilia Dart-Thornton

..and whatever you do stay away from cults. There are all sorts of nutty cults out in Lala Land. Crazy people believing in aliens and spaceships."
"Mama, you believe in aliens and spaceships."
"Yes, but I believe in Jesus, too. That makes it different. — Marshall Thornton

It's depressing to be so depressed. — Marshall Thornton

Didn't having AIDS mean everyone had to always be nice to you? Except someone like Pastor Randy who actually seemed to hate people with AIDS even more than he hated regular gay people. — Marshall Thornton

The Fed's low-interest policy not only encourages spending and borrowing, it discourages the one thing that best helps people raise themselves into higher economic classes - saving. — Mark Thornton

I'll always consider myself a Southerner. A lot of people put California down, but my dreams were realized there. — Billy Bob Thornton

When you weigh 135 pounds and you're telling people who are 6'4 and 250 pounds to get out of your way, how do you do that? Well, a lot of that is in the eyes. — Billy Bob Thornton

Two rows of five showers faced each other, so you could get a good look at as many as three different guys. For instance, today he saw three different guys all diligently scrubbing their penises into various states of erection. The one in the middle wore a thick metal cock ring, which shocked Martin. He did think you should at least pretend you came to the gym to workout. — Marshall Thornton

We perceive through our senses a person, a situation or an event, and in an instant, we project our mental models - our fears, background and experiences - onto that perception. This often results in cognitive errors, which means we judge and respond incorrectly. — Elizabeth Thornton

Spiders draw just enough silk out of their bowels to catch those half-dozen flies they need to feed themselves and their loved ones; but the rich make silk and silk and silk. Nothing can stop them. Their houses are stuffed with it. Their banks are stuffed with it, and it's not out of their bowels they make it, but out of the bowels and lungs and eyeballs of others. — Thornton Wilder

My dad didn't hug me every day and say he loved me and anything like that. — Billy Bob Thornton

There is light in a world of darkness because there is hope in a world of hatred. — Xena Thornton

In one of my plays, honestly I forget with one, I wrote that relationships only end in one of two ways: They end in divorce or they end in death. Ironically, death is the happier ending. (Mac) — Marshall Thornton

You know in most fantasy books the main meat is venison? Ever wonder how it tastes? I can tell you from first hand experience that venison tastes delicious. So does roasted duck, lamb and mutton. — Katie Thornton-K.

One of the most powerful transformational catalysts is knowledge, new information, or logic that defies old mental models and ways of thinking. — Elizabeth Thornton

You want to fuck me?" he asked.

"The thought crossed my mind," I replied honestly. — Marshall Thornton

I attribute all my success to ignorance. If you don't ever think about not getting where you want to be, I think it helps you out. — Billy Bob Thornton

Riding upon the back of a waterhorse - what mortal had ever stayed in such a seat for so long? On a horse made of cold currents and liquid convergences, jests and trickery - pressed against a hide like the burnished sea of midnight, thing look different to the rider. — Cecilia Dart-Thornton