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Unfortunately, or perhaps it is fortunate that I have always been forced to stand on my acting ability. I haven't a personality such as Jack Gilbert's, for instance, that attracts women and makes them like me for myself. When I am on the screen I must make them forget me entirely and think only of my acting.

William Powell

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William Powell
Age: 91 †
Born: 1892
Born: July 29
Died: 1984
Died: January 1
Actor
Film Actor
Stage Actor
Television Actor
Pittsburg
Pennsylvania
William Horatio Powell
Like
Forget
Instance
Attracts
Makes
Havens
Jack
Women
Haven
Unfortunately
Must
Personality
Screen
Make
Perhaps
Screens
Always
Stand
Forced
Think
Acting
Entirely
Thinking
Ability
Fortunate
Gilbert

More quotes by William Powell

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A revolution was never fought, throughout history, for ideals. Revolutions were fought for much more concrete things: food, clothes, housing, and to relieve intolerable oppression. … I know of no one, outside of Patrick Henry, willing to die for an abstraction.
William Powell
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Have you noticed that the people who actually make the laws, the people in power, never make laws for themselves?
William Powell
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I do not hold that because the author did a bad job of writing the player need trump it with the same kind of acting. When I go into a picture I have only one character to look after. If the author didn't do him justice, I try to add whatever the creator of the part overlooked.
William Powell
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Treat any and all drugs with respect, for most of the time they are stronger than you are.
William Powell
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Unity is the only way in which the people of this country can overthrow the fascists, communists, capitalists, and all the other assholes who claim running a representative government is so difficult. The emphasis has been taken from the Bill of Rights and placed on the type of interpretation of the Constitution that best suits the people in power.
William Powell
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Every person, whether in wartime or not, should keep a pistol and rifle in his house at all times. If a person is not going to protect himself, and wishes the government to do it for him, how can he complain when the government decides to protect itself against him, and executes him?
William Powell
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Cultivate solitude and quiet and a few sincere friends, rather than mob merriment, noise and thousands of nodding acquaintances.
William Powell
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It has got to the point in this country where men believe they are men, just because that is their birthright. If that is true, then, by the same logic, an animal held captive in a zoo is still a free wild beast.
William Powell
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The only laws a man can truly respect are the ones he makes for himself.
William Powell
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Never before have self-suffiency and education been so important, and they are virtually inseparable from survival.
William Powell
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I detest symbolic protest, as it is an outcry of weak, middle-of-the-road, liberal eunuchs. If an individual feels strongly enough about something to do something about it, then he shouldn't prostitute himself by doing something symbolic. He should get out and do something real.
William Powell
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My friends have stood by me marvelously in the ups and downs of my career. I don't believe there is anything more worthwhile in life than friendship. Friendship is a far better thing than love, as it is commonly accepted.
William Powell
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There is only one purpose in hand-to-hand combat, and that is to kill. Never face an enemy with the idea of knocking him out. The chances are extremely good that he will kill you.
William Powell
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I highly recommend worrying. It is much more effective than dieting.
William Powell
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A word of advice: If you get the choice between the upper and lower bunks in a cell, choose the lower. Prisons do not turn off their lights at night, and I spent a sleepless night, without a mattress, with a five-hundred-watt bulb shining directly into my eyes.
William Powell
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Since shotguns are not military weapons, your local sporting goods dealer will have good information about them, as long as you aren't black, Spanish, or a white freak.
William Powell
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It seems acceptable today to scream for revolution, without any concept of what will follow it. This is just what the forces at large want, for who will follow a man who doesn't know where he's going?
William Powell
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One of the greatest myths of all time is that so-called civilized man is no longer an animal, and for that reason can strive to disarm himself and grow fat with false concepts.
William Powell
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A government creates its own revolution. There can be no revolt without it.
William Powell
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Believe it or not, bananas do contain a small quantity of Musa Sapientum bananadine, which is a mild, short-lasting psychedelic.
William Powell