Eli Whitney Quotes

'Star Trek' scared me a lot more than 'White Jazz.' It terrified me, really. Because of the scale, the responsibility, the fact that it was this iconic character. It was the bigger challenge, so I had to take it.

The thought of having the expectations of the whole country on my shoulders worried and unnerved me.

You have to make your choice and live with your choice.

I don't have any feeling of accomplishment about anything unless there's a lot of risk to it.

The more I do, the more frightened I get. But that is essential. Otherwise why would I go on doing it?

Leadership has a price.

With everything I do, there always seems to be a massive risk involved.

There comes a time in everybody's life when it's no longer enough to point and say he or she should do it, but you have to answer yourself... That's why I put myself at the party's service.

The worst days of leadership beat the best days of being an onlooker.

But to procrastinate and prevaricate simply because you're afraid of erring, when others - I mean our brethren in Germany - must make infinitely more difficult decisions every day, seems to me almost to run counter to love. To delay or fail to make decisions may be more sinful than to make wrong decisions out of faith and love.

When somebody promises to do something, you have to think about whether that's something that you would be willing to see happen because the powers are simply too vast.

If you've loved something and then in some ways you become a part of it, you just don't want to be the one that screws it up!

We came out here to find the American Dream, and now that we're right in the vortex you want to quit ... You must realize that we've found the main nerve." I know," he said. "That's what gives me the Fear.

I never wanted to be feared. If I regret one thing, it is the fear I have caused. Fear is the tool of tyrants. Unfortunately, when the fate of the world is in question, you use whatever tools are available.

That cowardice is incorrigible which the love of power cannot overcome.

Within the first few months I discovered that being president is like riding a tiger. A man has to keep riding or be swallowed. The fantastically crowded nine months of 1945 taught me that a President either is constantly on top of events or, if he hesitates, events will soon be on top of him. I never felt I could let up for a single moment.

It is one thing to say that something should be done, but quite a different matter to do it.

The man who is afraid to risk failure seldom has to face success.

I am afraid of getting older … I am afraid of getting married. Spare me from cooking three meals a day—spare me from the relentless cage of routine and rote. I want to be free…. I want, I want to think, to be omniscient…. I think I would like to call myself ‘The girl who wanted to be God.

Though I was standing in front of a mirror, I wasn't really seeing my reflection. I was seeing, very clearly, that—at the moment—I was all in the world that Eric could think of as his own. I had better not fail him.

I have just taken on a great responsibility. I will do my utmost to meet it.

If you're spending your entire early 20s chasing the next party, what are you running away from?

Whenever an angel says "Be not afraid!" you'd better start worrying. A big assignment is on the way.

The fact that you can only do a little is no excuse for doing nothing.