Billy Wilder Quotes

I don't spend a lot of my time in the locker room. That's my least favourite place in the world.

Fear is a far more dominant force in human behaviour than euphoria - I would never have expected that or given it a moment's thought before, but it shows up in the data in so many ways.

Nothing helps a bad mood like spreading it around.

Actions can have unintended adverse consequences.

I try to avoid bad experiences.

A wise man thinks it more advantageous not to join the battle than to win.

It's great to play games which are fun and make you enjoy, but the moment it puts you or anybody around you at risk, just know it's not the right thing.

People motivated by fear do not act well.

We tend to dismiss things we don't particularly like, or that we find disturbing, as aberrations.

Be safe and be realistic. They're both equally important.

Fear is good and useful when it's deployed on the side of common sense.

You've got to avoid situations that make you uncomfortable.

If you see crazy coming, cross the street!

We often quarrel with the unfortunate to get rid of pitying them.

For unknown foods, the nose acts always as a sentinal and cries. 'Who goes there?'

Why would I go looking for someone I know wants to kill me?

And I urge upon you this - which I think is wisdom - if you find you can't make seventy by any but an uncomfortable road, don't you go.

Am I walking toward something I should be running away from?

If there is any person to whom you feel a dislike, that is the person of whom you ought never to speak.

It's a wise man who profits by his own experience, but it's a good deal wiser one who lets the rattlesnake bite the other fellow.

Regard the society of women as a necessary unpleasantness of social life, and avoid it as much as possible.

Be very careful of what you allow to infiltrate your consciousness and subconsciousness. When you watch too much television, you'll start to feel inferior from all the commercials hard selling the idea that you're not complete unless you buy their product. The ad agencies appeal to your fear of not being wanted or loved. It's the same with the local news. They get you to stay tuned with a constant stream of fear tactics. It's as if our culture is addicted to fear and the flat screen is our drug dealer. Don't allow that crap into your head!

As a teenager in Brooklyn Quentin had often imagined himself engaged in martial heroics, but after this he knew, as a cold immutable fact, that he would do anything necessary, sacrificing whatever or whomever he had to, to avoid risking exposure to physical violence. Shame never came into it. He embraced his new identity as a coward. He would run in the other direction. He would lie down and cry and put his arms over his head or play dead. It didn't matter what he had to do, he would do it and be glad.

Guard yourself and your conscience no one else will and know that a bad decision at the right time can destroy you far more surely than any bullet!

When you're rotten about yourself, you become rotten to everyone else, even those you love.