Joe R. Lansdale Quotes

I was an arrogant man. I not only thought I could manage my life without help, I wanted it that way. I had best-selling books and a TV show and movie contracts; I felt invincible, secure in the thought that everything was my doing. And then, like all arrogant men, I came to stumble.

When as smart as you think you are is as wrong as you turn out to be, your life can fall out from under you.

Conceit may puff a man up, but never prop him up.

Men trip not on mountains they trip on molehills.

Just when you are most desirous of being deemed great, innumerable little things are sure to happen which not only reduce you to your true dimensions but bring you below them

The true way to be deceived is to think oneself more knowing than others.

Honestly, I was a little bit arrogant because I came in and thought it was going to be easy and that I'd be on television in a year, no problem. Then you realize how many different things it takes to become a successful superstar, and it really is a rude awakening.

There are a lot of people very sure of themselves that need to be brought back down to Earth. As good as they think they are, they're really not.

As you get older, you're humbled by the fact that you're a moron.

If you start to believe the hype about yourself, then you start to lose the bigger picture, and your focus is in the wrong place.

When you are too confident, that's when you hurt yourself.

I have a very small sample size: 2-0 to start my NFL career. Talking a lot of smack. And then I walk into Kansas City and put up the worst football game of my existence. And I've always been this brash, arrogant kind of guy.

I think once you start to think that you're the man, and you know it all, and your style is unbeatable and stuff like that, that's when you get caught and clipped and get humbled really fast.

There was one who thought himself above me, and he was above me until he had that thought.

Three years ago, the white hope of the theatre. Today, a mug. That's New York for you. Puts you on a Christmas tree, and then - the alley.

When you think you know something: that is a most perfect barrier against learning.

Learning To believe you are magnificent. And gradually to discover that you are not magnificent. Enough labor for one human life.

Rome took all the vanity out of me; for after seeing the wonders there, I felt too insignificant to live, and gave up all my foolish hopes in despair.

Pride is less ashamed of being ignorant, than of being instructed, and she looks too high to find that, which very often lies beneath her.

Some would be sages if they did not believe they were so already.

Many would be wise if they did not think themselves wise.

The wisest man is he who does not fancy that he is so at all.

As to the human race. There are many pretty and winning things about the human race. It is perhaps the poorest of all the inventions of all the gods but it has never suspected it once. There is nothing prettier than its naive and complacent appreciation of itself. It comes out frankly and proclaims without bashfulness or any sign of a blush that it is the noblest work of God. It has had a billion opportunities to know better, but all signs fail with this ass. I could say harsh things about it but I cannot bring myself to do it-it is like hitting a child.

I hate New Year's Eve. One more chance to remember that you haven't yet done what you wanted. And to pretend it doesn't matter.