Ben Stein Quotes

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Ben Stein

Profession : Actor

Birth : November 25, 1944

Screaming at children over their grades, especially to the point of the child's tears, is child abuse, pure and simple. It's not funny and it's not good parenting. It is a crushing, scarring, disastrous experience for the child. It isn't the least bit funny.

Ben Stein

Faith is not believing that God can. It is knowing that God will.

Ben Stein

Personal relationships are the fertile soil from which all advancement, all success, all achievement in real life grows.

Ben Stein

When I seemed to be irritable or sad, my father would quote the learned Dr. Knight, and then say, 'Just go to sleep.' Like all smart aleck kids, I thought the advice was silly. But as I've grown older, I've realized just how smart Knight was.

Ben Stein

The sad fact is that spending rises every year, no matter what people want or say they want.

Ben Stein

I was a trial lawyer. At the same time, I was a teacher. I taught about the political and social content of film for American University. Then I left and became a teacher at the University of California at Santa Cruz. I taught about the political and social content of film, but I also taught a course in law for undergraduates.

Ben Stein

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against.

Ben Stein

Jump into the middle of things, get your hands dirty, fall flat on your face, and then reach for the stars.

Ben Stein

It is inevitable that some defeat will enter even the most victorious life. The human spirit is never finished when it is defeated... it is finished when it surrenders.

Ben Stein

The first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: Decide what you want.

Ben Stein

Every soul deserves a shot at a Cadillac, but not everyone should be guaranteed a Cadillac.

Ben Stein

I love sleeping in a moving car more than sleeping in bed.

Ben Stein

It's amazing what ordinary people can do if they set out without preconceived notions.

Ben Stein

The human spirit needs to accomplish, to achieve, to triumph to be happy.

Ben Stein

Nothing happens by itself... it all will come your way, once you understand that you have to make it come your way, by your own exertions.

Ben Stein

You must take the first step. The first steps will take some effort, maybe pain. But after that, everything that has to be done is real-life movement.

Ben Stein

It means zero to be against greed.

Ben Stein

Sleep makes people calmer, more alert, less fearful - just plain happier, or so I see around me and in me. I am sure that if this great nation were to concentrate on getting more sleep, we would be a happier, more confident people, and that by itself would be a major achievement.

Ben Stein

If you want to fight the evil you see in finance and industry, get to work reading the corporate filings, see if there has been fraud, and where you find it, report it to the SEC or write about it or blog about it.

Ben Stein

I think Darwinism as a theory explaining evolution within species is incredibly brilliant - just unbelievably, incredibly brilliant.

Ben Stein