Martin sheen quotes

I think I'm known as a liberal democrat and Hispanic and a practicing Catholic, but I never really went out of my way specifically to play a president or any kind of leader.

People, although having their own cross to carry, can minister to others through their own pain.

I personally am opposed to abortion, but I will not judge anybody else's right in that regard because I am not a woman and I could never face the actual reality of it.

Once you follow a path of nonviolence and social justice, it won't take you long before you come into conflict with the culture, with the society. You can't know what is at stake or how much it is going to cost you until you get in the game. That's the only way, and the level of cost is equal to the level of involvement.

It doesn't really matter how much of the rules or the dogma we accepted and lived by if we're not really living by the fundamental creed of the Catholic Church, which is service to others and finding God in ourselves and then seeing God in everyone - including our enemies.

I don't have any conscious memory of wanting to be an actor, but early on, there was something in my makeup that I felt comfortable with. Then when I was around five or six, I started going to the movies and gradually it dawned on me that I was like one of those people on the screen. And that was it. There was never any question or doubt about what I was going to do for a living.

I think service to others is the real key to winning our own personal freedom and the road to our own happiness, our own personal contentment and fulfillment.

We think of violence as being conflict and fighting and wars and so forth, but the most ongoing horrific measure of violence is in the horrible poverty of the Third World... and the poverty in the United States as well. We have our own Third World here. And we have to first become aware of that and how to help and solve that.

We never get over our fathers, and we’re not required to. (Irish Proverb)

Anybody who plays golf will tell you that you play against yourself.

I think most actors rarely get the opportunity to play something really close to you and speaks to something you deeply believe.

I love my country enough to suffer its wrath.

I'm one of those cliff-hanging Catholics. I don't believe in God, but I do believe that Mary was his mother.

The most satisfying thing in my life and my career is to work with my children.

The first world is going to have to account for this sort of horrible poverty in our midst. We have to, first of all, become aware of it. We have to take responsibility for it. And then we have to do something about it for our own freedom, for our own salvation, for our own humanity.

Oh you only fight the fights you can win? You fight the fights that need fighting!

Find something in your life worth fighting for

Nothing ever gets done unless it's done by a fanatic.

I was a celebrity. This is not what I do for a living - politics. I play politicians, as well as working class or clergy or whatever, and you mustn't be confused by what you're seeing on television because that's not who I am. So I always ended it.

Well, I think that Catholicism's basic foundation of faith is personal conscience. I think it's between you and God, not you and the Church.

The key word about The West Wing is show. It is not a reality show. It has nothing to do with reality.

I love The West Wing for many reasons. The show has been a fantasy. But we have offered a parallel universe to reality.

I was the last one to join the cast of the west Wing and when I started it was just a peripheral character - the focus was to be on the staff, not the First Family. When I did the pilot, my contract was for just three years and it was confined to maybe three or four episodes every season. The only restraint I had was that I could not play another President while the show was on the air. So, I kind of backed into one of the great events of my life and certainly my career.

Future generations are not going to ask us what political party were you in. They are going to ask what did you do about it, when you knew the glaciers were melting.

You are equally responsible for your place in the culture, and you must make a contribution, and you must accept responsibility for what goes down on your watch. You have no excuse if you are a conservative not to be concerned about the environment. You are equally responsible.

There is no greater virtue than honesty.

Those years on the golf course as a caddie, boy, those people were something. They were vulgar, some were alcoholics, racist, they were very difficult people to deal with. A lot of them didn't have a sense of humor.

My first civil disobedience arrest for social justice was in 1986 for protesting the SDI.

One of my favorite episodes in West Wing was the homeless man that died and they found, in the overcoat he was wearing, a card of the speechwriter, Toby. He had given that coat to the Goodwill and this guy had ended up wearing it, died in it and Toby went to his funeral. He turned out to be a Korean war veteran. It was our first Christmas episode and that was a true story - a member of the staff had done exactly that. So many of these stories were far better than any fiction.

I sincerely believe that everything - everything - is grace, and you have to stick around long enough to see it through. I'm a very optimistic person.

No father could ever be prouder of his son. I hold Charlie's accomplishments dearer than my own. He has been through so much and overcome so much more. Even if he weren't my son he'd still be my best friend.

No matter what is going on, everything is grace.

Jim Dean and Elvis were the spokesmen for an entire generation. When I was in acting school in New York, years ago, there was a saying that if Marlon Brando changed the way people acted, then James Dean changed the way people lived. He was the greatest actor who ever lived. He was simply a genius.

I act because I can't seem to live with myself if I do not. I don't know any other way to be. It isn't something you can explain; it is just something that you do; it is something that you are.

This supposed idyllic society we have is the most confused, warped, addicted society in the history of the world. We are addicted to power, we're addicted to our own image of ourselves, to violence, divorce, abortion, and sex.

Stop going for the easy buck and start producing something with your life. Create, instead of living off the buying and selling of others.

I am not the president; instead, I hold an even higher office, that of citizen of the United States.

Aaron Sorkin very sticky about using precise language. It's in his contract: you have to use what he writes!

We have to fight for something. It has to cost us. Our lives, our faith, have to cost us something; otherwise we're left to question its value.

The Irish tell the story of a man who arrives at the gates of heaven and asks to be let in St. Peter says, “Of course, just show us your scars.” The man says, “I have no scars”. St. Peter says, “What a pity was there nothing worth fighting for”?

I am a very conscientious golfer. I count every stroke. I learned to play that way. That is the only way I can play. It taught me to be honest. There is no greater virtue than honesty.

We are the generation that brought the bomb in. We have got to be the generation that should take it out.

I just think that the only way we come to ourselves is through each other.

I think [Bush] would like to hand his father Saddam Hussein's head and win his approval for what happened after the Gulf War.

On the show, we are not trying to get people to eat their vegetables; we are not trying to get people to become Democrats. We are basically trying to encourage people to get involved with public life so that politics isn't left to the wealthy and privileged.

George W Bush is like a bad comic working the crowd, a moron, if youll pardon the expression.

I am not a politician or a public servant. I am still a journeyman actor and a peace and justice activist. I'm a pilgrim trying to win my freedom and serve as best I can in the time I have, with this gift I've been given.

I think he [President Clinton] was probably the brightest President of the 20th century.

Theres no way that I could be the president. You cant have a pacifist in the White House... Im an actor. This is what I do for a living.

I have been accused of being a traitor, and I have been accused of not supporting the military. Nothing could be further from the truth. The leaders are the ones who make the decisions. The soldiers do not have the choice. I support the soldiers as human beings.

If all of the issues that I have worked on were depending on some measure of success, it would be a total failure. I don't anticipate success. We're not asked to be successful, we are only asked to be faithful. I couldn't even tell you what success is.

And there are so many people in the third world suffering so horribly right now, and we are so focused on ourselves and our culture that a lot of things are showing up in our culture that are making it impossible for us to focus on others. We're so self-focused.

Golf is fundamentally about being honest. I see people hit eight shots and tell me they shot five. I never say a word. It is a reminder to me of what is at stake.

I honestly do not know if civil disobedience has any effect on the government. I can promise you it has a great effect on the person who chooses to do it.

I don't like scary films. I watched Psycho for the first time recently, alone in the house at night. That was a mistake. I had to call my friend to come over.

My recovery is the single greatest accomplishment of my life. Without that, the rest of my life would have fallen apart.

I never lost my faith...But like all modern Catholics, I felt for a time that I had outgrown the church. Now it is a bone of contention in my soul that I did not share my faith with my kids, as my parents did with me. It was a source of grace when I needed it. I have been greatly nurtured and inspired by my faith.

This Administration has led us into an area without vision. Bush has no clear understanding of what is being asked of the citizens, and the military is under his direction.

I don't think abortion is a good idea. I personally am opposed to abortion, but I will not judge anybody else's right in that regard because I am not a woman and I could never face the actual reality of it.

I have been accused of being a traitor, and I have been accused of not supporting the military. Nothing could be further from the truth.

While acting is what I do for a living, activism is what I do to stay alive.

I am still a journeyman actor and a peace and justice activist. I'm a pilgrim trying to win my freedom and serve as best I can in the time I have, with this gift I've been given.

I think the Church is a conduit to God. The Church is not God. And I think that from the very beginning Jesus taught us that.

Money's only something you need in case you don't die tomorrow.

I don't think that people in America are really given enough information about the Third World.

If you are on an honest journey to find yourself, you'll find God.

We are not asked to do great things. We are asked to do all things with great care.

I still believe in the nonviolent Jesus and the basic human goodness present in all of us.

Childhood hunger in America is as much a paradox as it is a tragedy. Why, in the wealthiest country in the world, should hunger darken the lives and dreams of 12 million children and their families? I believe that, when Americans learn the facts and understand how their involvement can make a difference, banishing childhood hunger will be a national, local and personal priority.

Once you experience Third World poverty, you're really changed forever, if you're at all open to it, because we're all united in our common humanity. And we are so made as to feel something for people who are in pain. It's not possible to be human and to be unaffected by what you see in the third world.