WIST Quotations https://wist.info Wish I'd Said That! Fri, 17 Apr 2026 21:38:43 +0000 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://wist.info/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/little-w-little-box-60x60.jpg Alda, Alan – WIST Quotations https://wist.info 32 32 43606282 Alda, Alan -- (Attributed) https://wist.info/alda-alan/1414/ https://wist.info/alda-alan/1414/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=1414 It isn’t necessary to be rich and famous to be happy. It’s only necessary to be rich.


Alan Alda (b. 1936) American actor [b. Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo]
(Attributed) ]]> https://wist.info/alda-alan/1414/feed/ 0 1414 Alda, Alan -- Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself, ch. 2 “Lingering at the Door” (2007) https://wist.info/alda-alan/19834/ https://wist.info/alda-alan/19834/#respond Thu, 13 Dec 2012 16:59:05 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=19834 Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in. If you challenge your own, you won’t be so quick to accept the unchallenged assumptions of others. You’ll be a lot less likely to be caught up in bias or prejudice or be influenced by people who ask you to hand over your brains, your soul, or your money because they have everything all figured out for you.


Alan Alda (b. 1936) American actor [b. Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo]
Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself, ch. 2 “Lingering at the Door” (2007)
    (Source)

Originally given at the commencement speech at Connecticut College in May, 1980, where his daughter Eve was graduating. ]]> https://wist.info/alda-alan/19834/feed/ 0 19834 Alda, Alan -- Commencement Speech, Connecticut College (1980) https://wist.info/alda-alan/1415/ https://wist.info/alda-alan/1415/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=1415 Here’s my Golden Rule for a tarnished age: be fair with others, but then keep after them until they’re fair with you.


Alan Alda (b. 1936) American actor [b. Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo]
Commencement Speech, Connecticut College (1980)

Full text. ]]> https://wist.info/alda-alan/1415/feed/ 0 1415 Alda, Alan -- Commencement Speech, Connecticut College (1980) https://wist.info/alda-alan/6203/ https://wist.info/alda-alan/6203/#respond Mon, 18 Aug 2008 10:26:26 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=6203 I used to be afraid that writing and acting in comedies might be a frivolous occupation, but when I think about all the good that laughing does for people, I get the feeling that making people laugh can be noble work.


Alan Alda (b. 1936) American actor [b. Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo]
Commencement Speech, Connecticut College (1980)

Full text.

 ]]> https://wist.info/alda-alan/6203/feed/ 0 6203 Alda, Alan -- Commencement Speech, Connecticut College (1980) https://wist.info/alda-alan/6505/ https://wist.info/alda-alan/6505/#respond Fri, 14 Nov 2008 10:16:55 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=6505 A peach is not its fuzz, a toad is not its warts, a person is not his or her crankiness. If we can make distinctions, we can be tolerant, and we can get to the heart of our problems instead of wrestling endlessly with their gross exteriors.


Alan Alda (b. 1936) American actor [b. Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo]
Commencement Speech, Connecticut College (1980)

Full text.

 ]]> https://wist.info/alda-alan/6505/feed/ 0 6505 Alda, Alan -- Commencement Speech, Connecticut College (1980) https://wist.info/alda-alan/6573/ https://wist.info/alda-alan/6573/#respond Mon, 08 Dec 2008 10:29:09 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=6573 Don’t ever aim your doubt at yourself. Laugh at yourself, but don’t doubt yourself.


Alan Alda (b. 1936) American actor [b. Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo]
Commencement Speech, Connecticut College (1980)

Full text.

 ]]> https://wist.info/alda-alan/6573/feed/ 0 6573 Alda, Alan -- Commencement Speech, Connecticut College (1980) https://wist.info/alda-alan/6599/ https://wist.info/alda-alan/6599/#respond Mon, 15 Dec 2008 10:47:49 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=6599 Love your work. If you always put your heart into everything you do, you really can’t lose. If your heart is in it, you’ll probably succeed, and if it isn’t in it, you probably won’t succeed. But the reason you can’t lose is that whether you wind up making a lot of money or not, you will have had a wonderful time, and no one will ever be able to take that away from you.


Alan Alda (b. 1936) American actor [b. Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo]
Commencement Speech, Connecticut College (1980)

Full text.

 ]]> https://wist.info/alda-alan/6599/feed/ 0 6599 Alda, Alan -- Commencement Speech, Connecticut College (1980) https://wist.info/alda-alan/6624/ https://wist.info/alda-alan/6624/#respond Mon, 22 Dec 2008 13:32:22 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=6624

 I want you to know that it’s okay to be uncertain. I’m uncertain, too. In a world like this, it’s appropriate to be uncertain.

 


Alan Alda (b. 1936) American actor [b. Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo]
Commencement Speech, Connecticut College (1980)

Full text.

 ]]> https://wist.info/alda-alan/6624/feed/ 0 6624 Alda, Alan -- Commencement Speech, Connecticut College (1980) https://wist.info/alda-alan/6634/ https://wist.info/alda-alan/6634/#respond Mon, 29 Dec 2008 14:53:13 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=6634 Maybe it was my natural optimism at work, but what I saw and warmed to in the existentialist writings was that life is meaningless unless you bring meaning to it; that it is up to us to create our own existence. Unless you do something, unless you make something it’s as though you aren’t there.


Alan Alda (b. 1936) American actor [b. Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo]
Commencement Speech, Connecticut College (1980)

Full text.

 ]]> https://wist.info/alda-alan/6634/feed/ 0 6634