Martin Sheen Quotes

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

There is no greater virtue than honesty.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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”?

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Find something in your life worth fighting for

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

No matter what is going on, everything is grace.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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 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.

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.

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

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.