Ed Lee Quotes

See if you can approach your own practice with a healthy combination of mindfulness, playfulness, precision, and curiosity

We must expect reverses, even defeats. They are sent to teach us wisdom and prudence, to call forth greater energies, and to prevent our falling into greater disasters.

If military movies were automatically successful we'd make nothing but military movies. But seriously, patriotism is one thing that all Americans have in common.

You rarely win, but sometimes you do.

Now...in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones, ipods and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books.

Faith is taking a step in the same direction that the evidence is pointing.

As a general principle you should not force young men to do their duty, but let them do it voluntarily and thereby develop their characters.

Say what you mean to do...and take it for granted you mean to do right. Never do a wrong thing to make a friend or keep one...you will wrong him and wrong yourself by equivocation of any kind.

People were very affected by the war. But it didn't mean you stopped painting unless you were called into the Army; then you just couldn't paint. But otherwise one continued.

If I get married one day, or meet the girl I like, I’ll prepare 100m to 150m of candles, or maybe red carpet

I still sing because I love the sound of applause, because it's who I am, and because I still can.

... photographs are so loaded with information. They're remarkable. As I said, you get both the tree and the forest.

The camera is not merely a reflecting pool and the photographs are not exactly the mirror, mirror on the wall that speaks with a twisted tongue.

You know what the most destructive force in the universe is? Regret.

I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand.

It's a good thing god doesn't let you look a year or two into the future, or you might be sorely tempted to shoot yourself.

I think grieving is the same for everybody that lost someone you love deeply. It's the same. You know, you're really no different than anybody else who's lost somebody they adored.

Most people are looking for security, a nice, safe, prosperous future. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's called the American Dream.

I think of myself as a human being.

You must believe you have limitless potential in order to manifest your genius fully. Tell yourself every day, "I am a genius," and believe it.

I submitted manuscripts to publishers. This was not so much a feeling that I should be published as a wish to escape the feared and hated drudgery of normal work.

The only people who put iced tea in Jack Daniel's bottles is the Clash baby!

A fear of the unknown keeps a lot of people from leaving bad situations.

It might not look it but rocking in a corset is harder than you think

You should aspire to a level of personal excellence - to be the best you can be. You should aspire to have the richest life you can get in terms of fulfillment, happiness and peace.

Stimulate don't Annihilate.

The task of the leaders must be to provide or create for them a strong framework within which they can learn, work hard, be productive and be rewarded accordingly. And this is not easy to achieve.

When you're talking about fighting, as it is, with no rules, well then, baby you'd better train every part of your body!

We've never been a religious band, but the media wants us to be.

The future looks extremely bright indeed, with lots of possibilities ahead -- big possibilities. Like the song says, We've just begun.

When there is a strong woman character in a story - that always grabs me

Like now what Urban Outfitters has become is very much how I always dressed in high school by going to garage sales and getting stuff for 50 cents. Cost a little more now, to look like crap.

I think great romance needs great obstacles and textures.

Using no way as a way, having no limitation as limitation.

In an imperfect world perfection is not instantly available. Railroad safety, for instance, cannot be secured by mechanical devices alone. It is primarily a resultant of care and discipline.

I can teach you to jump up in five seconds-it takes years to learn how to land properly.

I wouldn't write anything autobiographical. If you've lived a life like Laurence of Arabia, it might be a consideration, but otherwise it's a little bit vain, it seems to me.

When exercising, be sure to focus your attention on what you are doing.

Music journalists love Elvis Costello and hate me because they look like Elvis Costello

Shocking is easy. Shockingly brilliant, a bit more challenging.

Fear is something you have to throw into a corner. Constantly. Because it never goes away.

Listen real hard to the smartest guy in the room before you go trying to prove how smart you are.

There are many vampires in the world today - you only have to think of the film business.

I am moved more by melodies, song structure, and evocative textures.

I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free.

There's a world of difference between a strong ego, which is essential, and a large ego-which can be destructive.

When I am fascinated by something, I like to play with it.

There is nothing as unreal as life.

Arnie has more people watching him park the car than we do out on the course.

I always go back to Harry Truman: Should we drop an atomic bomb to save 100,000 lives? That's a hell of a decision to make. Did he make that decision by himself? No, he had advisers.