“The main thing:… not to let myself be defined by history, not to take it as an excuse—despise it in those who hide their personal insignificance behind it—and yet know it, in order to understand people and above all to see through them”

“I don’t understand people who hide from their past. Everything you live through helps to make you the person you are now.”

“The sky hides the night behind it and shelters the people beneath from the horror that lies above.”

“The noblest people are those despising wealth, learning, pleasure and life; esteeming above them poverty, ignorance, hardship and death.”

“The individuals who hide behind excuses, because they don't have the courage to report what they think, they are of one embarrassing existence.”

“Phil Hartman [singing]:I hide behind these wigs and this make-up, but tonight, I'm gonna let myself shine through. They're gonna see the real Phil Hartman, TONIGHT!
Steve Martin: I wouldn't do that, Phil.
Phil Hartman: Okay.”

“I consider myself to be a true friend of the Israeli people. But I define friendship as someone who takes care of a friend, who just doesn't use or exploit a friend. And, you know, there's that old adage: 'Friends don't let friends drive drunk.”

“We don't yet know, above all, what the world might be like if children were to grow up without being subjected to humiliation, if parents would respect them and take them seriously as people.”

“The goal of the war [on terrorism] is more than just getting oil and fuel. The United States is intent on taking over the world… It's important we all understand that the main terrorist and the main enemy of the world's people is the U. S. government. Racism has been a weakness of this country from its beginning. Throughout history, all people of color, and all people who don't see eye-to-eye with the U. S. government have been subject to American terror.”

“If I let myself really understand another person, I might be changed by that understanding. And we all fear change. So as I say, it is not an easy thing to permit oneself to understand an individual”