Phil Donahue Quotes

Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

I have had time to analyze my feelings. I am certain that they are totally neurotic, sexist, silly, and a big waste of time.

I was proud of the waves I had made, but wondered how many boats I was supposed to rock.

Some people are uncomfortable with the idea that humans belong to the same class of animals as cats and cows and raccoons. They're like the people who become successful and then don't want to be reminded of the old neighborhood.

We [in USA] have people honestly believing that, if a president calls a war, you have to shut up and sing. That is not the nation my mother raised me to pledge my allegiance to. We should speak out. We sent thousands of Americans to foreign battlefields to protect our way of life, which includes free speech. If you're not going to use it, it's already lost. We'll find a Mussolini who will tell us what's good for us.

Miss Child is never bashful with butter.

Spanking and verbal criticism have become, to many parents, more important tools of child rearing than approval.

The establishment people tell us that if the workers wanted to share the profits, it was called communism. When management wants to share profits, it's called a bonus.

The House looks like more fun. It's like the Donahue show. The Senate is like one of those Sunday morning public service programs.

The system of volunteerism is divisive. It pits one charity against the others for the charity dollar.

I think the idea of creating a television news source that is not beholden to corporate interests is nirvana.

We should not use crippled children to sell hamburgers. Ever.

A large psychic void is left by a loss of faith. So many Catholics have tried so many things to replace it.

Women are smarter than men because they listen.

When I was a kid, people who got divorced were people who had no gumption.

Science may have come a long way, but as far as religion is concerned, we are first cousins to the !Kung tribesmen of the Kalahari Desert. Except for the garments, their deep religious trances might just as well be happening at a revival meeting or in the congregation of a fundamentalist TV preacher.... As we move further from the life of ignorance and superstition in which religion has its roots, we seem to need it more and more.... Why has religion become a force just when we'd have thought it would be losing ground to secularism?

Praising the Lord and passing the ammunition are mutually exclusive ideas.

Recognition should come to the reporter who uncovers public cheating or proves a convicted man innocent.

[Asserting] important First Amendment rights ... why should [executions] be the one area that is conducted behind closed doors?... Why shouldn't executions be public?

Presenting statues of honor to reporters for covering an earthquake is like presenting a first prize to a doctor for performing surgery.

Television is not the exclusive target of promoters. Is Superman really worthy of a Newsweek cover?

Is it any wonder that for millions of men the only intimacy is physical, silent, and predictable?

Oprah is more than an institution. Oprah is a very special star in the firmament. I can't imagine a greater success than she's enjoyed.

I have moved from certainty to doubt, from devotion to rebellion.

I realize what you can do when you scare the population and how media contributes to that.

At first, I thoroughly enjoyed being famous.

The radio of my youth ... is now a quaint memory replaced by computer hard drives.

I certainly think we have an emergency in media, and we gotta fix it.

There's a reason we seperate Church and State. The reason for the richness and the diversity of religion in this nation is because of the seperation of Church and State, and there are people out there who can't wait to make this nation a nation of one religion... THEIR religion.

December 25th has become guilt and obligation.

I have been in the witness protection program for the last three weeks. I campaigned for Ralph Nader. I'm now living as a woman in Mississippi.

I find celebrity status difficult to bear when I am in the company of my mother.

I could never understand how we could put 120,000 Japanese behind a fence in World War II. I remember being bewildered about that.

In a network situation, a vice president, while he's shaving, can decide your history.

The biggest threat to this country isn't the Russians. It's our own inability to make democracy or capitalism work.

In 1953 there were two ways for an Irish Catholic boy to impress his parents: become a priest or attend Notre Dame.

Airlines are interesting. They not only favor celebrities, they court them.

The Commission on Presidential Debates is a corrupt stranglehold on our democracy.

I believe celebrity spoils people - some worse than others.

To a journalist, good news is often not news at all.

I'm not a pacifist. I'm not that brave.

Everybody is under pressure to shut up and sing.

This is Sesame Street. A place where people, birds, monsters all live in perfect harmony.

If Stalin ever told me to urinate, I'm not sure I'd be able to.

In reality, the most important things happen when you don't look for them.

What really keeps me going is the constant belief that it could all disappear tomorrow.

There is no democracy without dissent.

Will you remember me when I'm gone?

I tip like crazy. Theyll remember me. Celebrity can be expensive.

The Tube is a vehicle for selling things, not for exploring ideas.