“Prudence is not only the first in rank of the virtues political and moral, but she is the director and regulator, the standard of them all.”

What ever disunites man from God, also disunites man from man.

All men have equal rights, but not to equal things.

Mere parsimony is not economy. Expense, and great expense, may be an essential part in true economy.

Among a people generally corrupt liberty cannot long exist.

Evil prevails when good men fail to act.

Toleration is good for all, or it is good for none.

Applause is the spur of noble minds, the end and aim of weak ones.

Nothing in progression can rest on its original plan. We may as well think of rocking a grown man in the cradle of an infant.

A State without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.

To speak of atrocious crime in mild language is treason to virtue.

It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do; but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I ought to do.

The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.

The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.

Men love to hear of their power, but have an extreme disrelish to be told their duty.

Applaud us when we run, Console us when we fall, Cheer us when we recover.

Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society; and any eminent departure from it, under any circumstances, lies under the suspicion of being no policy at all.

I have only one rule in acting – trust the director and give him heart and soul.

Oh, what the hell did I know? I went to the set the first day in full makeup and the director told me to take it off. So I did the film without makeup. I had nothing to do with anything I did. I never understood why I was so famous.

It’s scary being in a room with producers and saying, ‘Here’s my idea,’ when I’m scared to get shot down.

The director is the only person who knows what the film is about.

Most of the top actors and actresses may be working in ten or twelve films at the same time, so they will give one director two hours and maybe shoot in Bombay in the morning and Madras in the evening. It happens.

Sometimes a director is making three films. Perhaps he is shooting a film in Madras and a film in Bombay and he can’t leave Madras as some shooting has to be done, so he directs by telephone. The shooting takes place. On schedule.

My kind of director is an actor-director who writes.

A director is someone who presides over a series of accidents.