William Shatner quotes: nuggets from Captain Kirk.
“You have to create your life. You have to carve it, like a sculpture.”
“Success should always be just beyond your grasp.”
“Success is different for everyone; everybody defines it in their own way, and that’s part of what we do… finding what it was each person wanted to achieve and what their willingness to sacrifice for that was.”
“You might as well aim high. Why shoot yourself in the foot when you can shoot yourself in the head?”
“What is down will go up. At the same time, you have to be prepared for what is up to go down.”
“Why say ‘yes?’ ‘Yes’ means opportunity. ‘Yes’ makes the dots in your life appear. And if you’re willing and open, you can connect these dots. You don’t know where these dots are going to lead, and if you don’t invest yourself fully, the dots won’t connect. The lives you make with those dots always lead to interesting places. ‘No’ closes doors. ‘Yes’ kicks them wide open. As long as you’re able to say ‘yes,’ the opportunities keep coming, and with them, the adventures. Say ‘no’ to fear and complacency. Keep saying ‘yes’ and the journey will continue.”
“I believe that when things happen, they happen with a purpose.”
“Fate gives you the finger and you accept.”
“Regret is the worst human emotion. If you took another road, you might have fallen off a cliff. I’m content.”
“You have to continuously fail. You fail at something, then you get over it, then you fail some more. And after you fail, there’s always something new there. And that something new can be really interesting.”
“Memories were the markers of the journey through life. It was necessary to know where you had come from. Only then could you know where you were going.”
“Energy is the key to creativity. Energy is the key to life.”
“Youth is the ultimate limited resource.”
“I’m always open to the possibility that somebody’s got a better idea than I have. It happens with some frequency.”
“If you are minimal, then even a small gesture becomes a big deal.”
“Why does the lizard stick his tongue out? The lizard sticks its tongue out because that’s the way it’s listening and looking and tasting its environment. It’s its means of appreciating what’s in front of it.”
“A tree you pass by every day is just a tree. If you are to closely examine what a tree has and the life a tree has, even the smallest thing can withstand a curiosity, and you can examine whole worlds.”
“We’re all embers from the same fire. Our ember winks out, we’re ashes, we go back to the fire.”
“Pain and guilt can’t be taken away with the wave of a magic wand. They’re the things we carry with us, the things that make us who we are. If we lose them, we lose ourselves. I don’t want my pain taken away! I need my pain!”
“Name the different types of laughter that are available to us and that’s what life is all about.”
“Acting is easier – writing is more creative. The lazy man vies with the industrious.”
“Writing is truly a creative art – putting word to a blank piece of paper and ending up with a full-fledged story rife with character and plot.”
“Given the freedom to create, everybody is creative. All of us have an innate, instinctive desire to change our environment, to put our original stamp on this world, to tell a story never told before. But most people are too busy working on survival to find the opportunity to create. Fortunately, I’ve been freed by reputation, by the economics of success, and by emotional contentment to turn my ideas into reality. I’ve discovered that the more freedom I have to be creative, the more creative I become.”
“Most people, including myself, keep repeating the same mistakes.”
“Don’t be afraid of making an ass of yourself. I do it all the time and look what I got.”
“If you make a fool of yourself, you can do it with dignity, without taking your pants down. And if you do take your pants down, you can still do it with dignity.”
“I’m surfing the giant life wave.”
“If I’m given an opportunity to do something, I do it. Or else I fool around with it.”
“If saving money is wrong, I don’t want to be right!”
“With three kids, it was always very, very tight, and it was always a scramble for what was my next job. So I learned never to go into debt because I don’t want those monthly payments to preoccupy my thoughts.”
“Conquest is easy. Control is not.”
“Mysteries simply are a feast for an active mind. And while in my lifetime I’ve seen science make extraordinary inroads into solving the most complex questions of life, after all this time I admit that I am thrilled that there are some things that forever will remain a mystery.”
“The pictures remind you of something that can never be recaptured, the time is gone, the only thing you know is the present. That’s all that’s knowable and even the present isn’t knowable. The present becomes the past… so you really don’t know anything.”
“I am curious about many things, and find the world around me, and the people and objects and things in it, equally fascinating. There is a great deal of that awe and wonder in me.”
“What part of me was born with the courage to stand in front of strangers and risk rejection?”
“Don’t waste your time trying to get into my head. There’s nothing there. I don’t want people to know me. I want them to believe my version.”
“I’m a performer, comedian, entertainer, writer and director.”
“Being an icon is overrated. Remember, an icon can be moved by a mouse.”
“The idea of being a professional actor never occurred to anybody, including myself, for a long time.”
“I don’t know how I got to this point but it must be as a result of everything that has come before so if I were to change something, I might not be at this point now.”
“I think of doing a series as very hard work. But then I’ve talked to coal miners, and that’s really hard work.”
“Any success I have had began by my showing up on time, being prepared, and doing the best possible job. There is a lot to be said for that. That isn’t wisdom; that’s common sense.”
“And I enjoyed the celebrity and the creativity that was involved in Star Trek. Captain Kirk has been a source of pleasure and income for a long time.”
“One of the advantages of being a captain is being able to ask for advice without necessarily having to take it.”
“We were basically one and the same, although Jim Kirk was just about perfect, and, of course, I am perfect.”
“The good life is one that’s artistically made.”
“I love the concept of togetherness and the entwinement of marriage.”
“What has happened to us is a miracle, and the miracle is our inventiveness. The tragedy of our lives is also our inventiveness.”
“My name is William Shatner, and I am Canadian!”
“What have I done? I’ve blundered my way through life. So I have my picture on the wall. The minute I die, that picture will start to yellow and fade and eventually be gone. Blown in the wind and become part of the molecular structure of something else. These things we see as ‘success,’ they’re non-accomplishments.”
“My life is my statement and I try to be true to myself and thusly to other people. Whatever my failings are, they are human and I try to perfect it each day.”
“No, I don’t regret anything at this point. That may change on the next phone call, but at the moment I don’t regret anything.”
“All I know is that I am constantly intrigued by something I’m doing.”
“Life is hard; get as much free cake as you possibly can.”
“I was built for the long run, not for the short dash, I guess.”
“I don’t understand the concept of retirement. It’s not a bad thing to savor your memories, it can be wonderful and warming, but not at the cost of losing your excitement about the future.”
“There are many lives in a lifetime. We are born into mystery and we leave life in mystery.”
“The journey must be taken in individual moments. Enjoy the ride for the ride.”
“Oh, for God’s sake… get a life, will you?”
“It’s joy. And you should work on filling all your years with as much joy as possible.”
Related: Sandra Bullock quotes.
