Paul Newman Quotes

To honor Paul Newman's memory, I thought I would share some of my favorite quotes (that happen to be from him).

"I don't think there's anything exceptional or noble in being philanthropic. It's the other attitude that confuses me."

"The concept that a person who has a lot holds his hand out to someone who has less, or someone who isn't hurting holds his hand out to someone who is, is simply a human trait that has nothing to do with celebrity. I am confounded at the stinginess of some institutions and some people. I'm bewildered by it."

"I respect generosity in people, and I respect it in companies too. I don't look at it as philanthropy; I see it as an investment in the community."

"I had such a string of good fortune in my life, but these kids have been brutalized by luck and most won't get the chance to turn it around. Those who are most lucky should hold their hands out to those who aren't."

"Make sure you live life, which means don’t do things where you court celebrity, and give something positive back to our society."

"I had no natural gift to be anything — not an athlete, not an actor, not a writer, not a director, a painter of garden porches — not anything. So I've worked really hard, because nothing ever came easily to me."

"From the beginning, our management philosophy was, 'If we ever have a plan, we're through.' "

"There are three rules for running a business; fortunately, we don't know any of them."

“If you don't have enemies, you don't have character.”

“People stay married because they want to, not because the doors are locked.”

"I've repeatedly said that for people as little in common as Joanne and myself, we have an uncommonly good marriage. We are actors, we make pictures — and that's about all we have in common. Maybe that's enough. Wives shouldn't feel obligated to accompany their husbands to a ball game, husbands do look a bit silly attending morning coffee breaks with the neighbourhood wives when most men are out at work. Husbands and wives should have separate interests, cultivate different sets of friends — and not impose one upon the other."

"I'd like to be remembered as a guy who tried — tried to be part of his times, tried to help people communicate with one another, tried to find some decency in his own life, tried to extend himself as a human being. Someone who isn't complacent, who doesn't cop out."