Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, race car driver, and entrepreneur. He was the recipient of numerous awards, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, three Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. These Paul Newman quotes will motivate you in life.
Best Paul Newman Quotes
- “The best gift you can give yourself is the gift of possibility.” ~ Paul Newman
- “If you have no enemies, you have no character. Taking a stand always creates opposition.” ~ Paul Newman
- “A man can only be judged by his actions, and not by his good intentions or his beliefs.” ~ Paul Newman
- “Dreams without movement are delusions, escapes, kid’s play. You have to put your feet into your dreams if they’re ever going to be reality. The dreamers we know and love today are the ones who worked the hardest” ~ Paul Newman
- “The embarrassing thing is that my salad dressing is out-grossing my films.” ~ Paul Newman
-
“When you see the right thing to do, you’d better do it.” ~ Paul Newman
- “The best thing you can give yourselves…is the gift of possibility. And the best thing you can give each other is the pledge to go on protecting that gift in each other as long as you live.” ~ Paul Newman
- “We are such spendthrifts with our lives, the trick of living is to slip on and off the planet with the least fuss you can muster. I’m not running for sainthood. I just happen to think that in life we need to be a little like the farmer, who puts back into the soil what he takes out.” ~ Paul Newman
- “What could be better than to hold your hand out to people less fortunate than you are?” ~ Paul Newman
- “The problem with getting older is you still remember how things used to be.” ~ Paul Newman
-
“People stay married because they want to, not because the doors are locked.” ~ Paul Newman
- “I’m a supporter of gay rights. And not a closet supporter either. From the time I was a kid, I have never been able to understand attacks upon the gay community. There are so many qualities that make up a human being… by the time I get through with all the things that I really admire about people, what they do with their private parts is probably so low on the list that it is irrelevant.” ~ Paul Newman
- “The need is great and so are the opportunities to make a difference.” ~ Paul Newman
- “You only grow when you are alone.” ~ Paul Newman , Paul Newman quotes on being alone
- “I think it’s very desirable to be an individual and a free thinker.” ~ Paul Newman
- “There really is no such thing as a sick child; there are children who happen to be sick. Think about it, and you will understand the magic of the Camps” ~ Paul Newman
- “A lot of people have dreams and never do anything about them. When you have ideas and dreams, you do something about it.” ~ Paul Newman
-
“For some players, luck itself is an art” ~ Paul Newman
- “The Alexander Technique helped a long-standing back problem and to get a good night’s sleep after many years of tossing and turning.” ~ Paul Newman
- “Being on President Nixon’s enemies list was the highest single honor I’ve ever received. Who knows who’s listening to me now and what government list I’m on?” ~ Paul Newman
- “I don’t like to discuss my marriage, but I will tell you something which may sound corny but which happens to be true. I have steak at home. Why should I go out for hamburger?” ~ Paul Newman
- “Sometimes nothin’ can be a real cool hand.” ~ Paul Newman
- “Choose between yesterday and tomorrow.” ~ Paul Newman
- “I check my pulse and if I can find it, I know I’ve got a chance” ~ Paul Newman
-
“Winning isn’t everything…. it’s just all there is.” ~ Paul Newman
- “I wanted, I think, to acknowledge Luck: the chance of it, the benevolence of it in my life, and the brutality of it in the lives of others; made especially savage for children because they may not be allowed the good fortune of a lifetime to correct it.” ~ Paul Newman
- “There are two Newman’s laws. The first one is “It is useless to put on your brakes when you’re upside down.” The second is “Just when things look darkest, they go black.” ~ Paul Newman
- “Make sure you live life, which means don’t do things where you court celebrity and give something positive back to our society.” ~ Paul Newman
- “A man with no enemies is a man with no character.” ~ Paul Newman
-
“What we got here is a failure to communicate.” ~ Paul Newman
- “At the beginning of your career, it’s ‘Who is Paul Newman?’ and then it’s ‘Get me Paul Newman.’ Then it’s ‘Get me a young Paul Newman.’ Then it’s ‘Who is Paul Newman?'” ~ Paul Newman
- “I’m like a good cheese. I’m just getting moldy enough to be interesting.” ~ Paul Newman
- “I never ask my wife about my flaws. Instead, I try to get her to ignore them and concentrate on my sense of humor. You don’t want any woman to look under the carpet because there’s lots of flaws underneath. Joanne believes my character in a film we did together, “Mr. and Mrs. Bridge” comes closest to who I really am. I personally don’t think there’s one character who comes close… but I learned a long time ago not to disagree on things that I don’t have a solid opinion about.” ~ Paul Newman
- “Husbands and wives should have separate interests, cultivate different sets of friends and not impose on the other… You can’t spend a lifetime breathing down each other’s necks… We are very, very different people and yet somehow we fed off those varied differences and instead of separating us, it has made the whole bond a lot stronger.” ~ Paul Newman
-
“I changed my life today. What did you do?” ~ Paul Newman
- “You say somebody’s guilty, everybody believes you. You say they’re innocent, nobody cares.” ~ Paul Newman
- “On adultery: “Why fool around with hamburger when you have steak at home?” ~ Paul Newman
- “Building weapons that we don’t need, don’t work, and aren’t necessary, and have no mission that’s not bad politics, that’s robbery.” ~ Paul Newman
- “The big difference between people is not between the rich and the poor, the good and the evil. The biggest of all differences between people is between those who have had pleasure in love and those who haven’t.” ~ Paul Newman , Paul Newman quotes on rich
- “I respect generosity in people, and I respect it in companies too, I don’t look at it as philanthropy; I see it as an investment in the community.” ~ Paul Newman
- “Twenty-five years ago I couldn`t walk down the street without being recognized. Now I can put a cap on, walk anywhere and no one pays me any attention. They don`t ask me about my movies and they don`t ask me about my salad dressing because they don`t know who I am. Am I happy about this? You bet.” ~ Paul Newman
- “I want to acknowledge luck, the benevolence of it in my life, and the brutality of it in the lives of others.” ~ Paul Newman
-
“Fill the moment and find variety.” ~ Paul Newman
- “Men experience many passions in a lifetime. One passion drives away the one before it.” ~ Paul Newman
- “I just hope when my body goes, or when my mind does, I have the guts to end it the way Hemingway did. I don’t want anybody wiping drool off my chin.” ~ Paul Newman
- “Watching something is nothing like doing it.” ~ Paul Newman
- “If I ever feel like I’m doing something I’ve done before, I scrap it and start over again.” ~ Paul Newman
- “I would like it if people would think that beyond Newman, there’s a spirit that takes action, a heart, and a talent that doesn’t come from my blue eyes.” ~ Paul Newman
- “It’s really important to be attentive to the people who have less – who are less fortunate than you are.” ~ Paul Newman
- “The concept that a person who has a lot holds his hand out to someone who has less, or someone who isn’t hurting holds his hand out to someone who is, is simply a human trait that has nothing to do with celebrity. I am confounded at the stinginess of some institutions and some people. I’m bewildered by it. You can only put away so much stuff in your closet.” ~ Paul Newman
-
“It’s been a privilege to be here.” ~ Paul Newman
- “People like to do what they used to do after they’ve stopped being able to do it.” ~ Paul Newman
- “I don’t think there’s anything exceptional or noble in being philanthropic. It’s the other attitude that confuses me.” ~ Paul Newman
- “The spaghetti sauce is a good thing to think about. Morning, noon, and night, think about the spaghetti sauce. Think about hustling other people to buy the spaghetti sauce.” ~ Paul Newman
- “A man without enemies is a man without character.” ~ Paul Newman , Paul Newman quotes on enemies
- “There are three rules for running a business; fortunately, we don’t know any of them.” ~ Paul Newman
- “I wish I could recall with clarity the impulse that compelled me to help bring this camp into being. I’d be pleased if I could announce a motive of lofty purpose. I’ve been accused of compassion, of altruism, of devotion to Christian, Hebrew, and Muslim ethic, but however desperate I am to claim ownership of a high ideal, I cannot. I wanted, I think, to acknowledge Luck; the chance of it, the benevolence of it in my life, and the brutality of it in the lives of others made especially savage for children because they may not be allowed the good fortune of a lifetime to correct it.” ~ Paul Newman
- “From the very beginning, we bucked tradition. When the experts said that something was “always done” in a certain way, we’d do it our way, which was sometimes the very opposite.” ~ Paul Newman
-
“Where the hell are the singing cats?” ~ Paul Newman
- “I have taken roads that I wished I had not traveled on. And I’m traveling on some pretty exciting ones, too.” ~ Paul Newman
- “When the idea came up, (Newman’s Own) I said, “Are you crazy? Stick my face on the label of salad dressing?” And then, of course, we got the whole idea of exploitation and how circular it is. Why not, really, go to the fullest length, and the silliest length, in exploiting yourself and turn the proceeds back to the community?” ~ Paul Newman
- “I never ask my wife about my flaws. Instead, I try to get her to ignore them and concentrate on my sense of humor.” ~ Paul Newman
- “The first time I remember women reacting to me was when we were filming Hud in Texas. Women were literally trying to climb through the transoms at the motel where I stayed. At first, it’s flattering to the ego. At first. Then you realize that they’re mixing me up with the roles I play – characters created by writers who have nothing to do with who I am.” ~ Paul Newman
- “I wasn’t running toward the theater but running away from the sporting goods store. Of course, now that I’m selling spaghetti sauce (with Newman’s Own), I begin to understand the romance of business.. the allure of being the biggest fish in the pond and the juice you get from beating out your competitors.” ~ Paul Newman
- “For those of you who like to scarf your popcorn in the sack, the good news is that Newman’s Own contains an aphrodisiac.” ~ Paul Newman
