Hugh Downs Quotations

A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes.

I've always thought that the stereotype of the dirty old man is really the creation of a dirty young man who wants the field to himself.

I have no ego investment in being on the air. I don't knock others for whom that kind of attention is like oxygen, but I don't miss anything about it.

To have a facility like this really adds a world-class potential (to the area). I'm sure I'll be out here to see some shows.

Something about an old-fashioned Christmas is hard to forget.

How many times has the end of the world been predicted? The same number of times the prediction has proved false.

If hemp could supply the energy needs of the United States, its value would be inestimable. Now that the drug czar is in final retreat, America has an opportunity to, once and for all, say farewell to the Exxon Valdez, Saddam Hussein and a prohibitively expensive brinkmanship in the desert sands of Saudi Arabia.

As the first human to land on any world outside the Earth, and probably the first living creature of any sort to come from the Earth and reach the Moon, his legacy will be safe as long as intelligent life survives in this corner of the cosmos.

Television is the medium of the 20th century.

We are a one party country. Half of them call themselves Democrats and the other half call themselves Republicans. All the good ideas come from the Libertarians.

The most mature human insight comes from one's introspection rather than from exterior research.

There are more stars known to exist right now than the total number of all the grains of sand on every beach in the entire world. With those kinds of odds, it would seem downright naive for someone to go to a beach in, say, some out-of-the-way inlet in Baffin Bay, stoop to pick up only one tiny grain of sand, and declare that that grain alone was the only place where life could exist.

The price of freedom is responsibility, but it's a bargain, because freedom is priceless.

Hatred is never anything but fear - if you feared no one, you would hate no one.

Life begins when you do.

To say, my fate is not tied to your fate, is like saying your end of the boat is sinking.

This country is a one-party country. Half of it is called Republican and half is called Democrat. It doesn't make any difference. All the really good ideas belong to the Libertarians.

I sympathize with people who want to ban guns, but I can't agree with them. We have to be careful in our zeal to abolish guns that we don't wind up with counter-productive legislation that will leave armed only the people most likely to do harm with them.