Fred Thompson: Quotes about time

“I looked down on a quilt of clouds, bordered on the horizon by the blood-orange streaks of the setting sun. As the steady hum of the engine drowned out the chatter around me, I realized that I would probably be thinking about the implications of Watergate for the rest of my life. For the country, and for me it had been a significant point in time.”

Fred Thompson

page 263
At That Point in Time, Impact of Watergate

Life , Thinking , Time , Sun

“I'm not above acting like a seal every once in a while and waiting for the next fish, I just don't want to do it all the time.”

Fred Thompson

(full quote in context) Asked why he had not done more debates, Thompson replied "Standing up here 10 in a row, you know, like a bunch of seals waiting for somebody to throw you the next fish, is not necessarily the best way to impart your information to the American people. I'm not above acting like a seal every once in a while and waiting for the next fish, I just don't want to do it all the time."
[Ryan Sager, The New York Sun, http://www.nysun.com/article/62678?page_no=3, Mr. Sunshine State, September 14, 2007, 2007-09-21]

Fish , Time , Waiting

“My daddy always said that a man who walks around with a smile on his face all the time can't possibly know what's going on.”

Fred Thompson

Teaching the Pig to Dance

Smile , Time

“In hindsight, I have come to believe the discovery of the tapes may prove to be an historic event in more than one way. At a time when the United States government acknowledges that 2 million conversations were overheard by authorized eavesdroppers in a twelve month period, and at least an equal number were being recorded by private dectecies, suspicious spouses, corporate spies, special agents, and blackmailers; at a time when people like me conduct their lives under the assumption that their telephone lines are tapped; and at a time when devices such as the bug-in-the-martini-olive are proliferating, the disastrous consequences that flowed from Nixon’s fateful decision to record White House conversations may serve to awaken the nation to the threat posed to the little privacy that remains to us.”

Fred Thompson

page 92
At That Point in Time, Tapes and the threat of wiretapping

Fate , People , Way , Decision

“Teaching Latin to someone like me in high school was somewhat like trying to teach a pig to dance. It's a waste of the teacher's time and it irritates the pig.”

Fred Thompson

Teaching the Pig to Dance