My pals, such as they are, in Hollywood, ask me why I love to travel to D.C. so much, why it's a vacation destination for me. I say, 'Because I sometimes have perfect days there.'
— Ben Stein
Running a real business is exacting, daunting, repetitive work. Even in Silicon Valley.
It isn't the rich people's fault that poor people are poor. Poor people who get an education and work hard in this country will stop being poor. That should be the goal for all poor people everywhere.
My parents, products of the Great Depression, were successful people, but lived in a state of constant fear that my sister and I, and they, would sink into the kind of economic insecurity that their generation knew so well.
I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution, and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.
I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against.
I was a trial lawyer. At the same time, I was a teacher. I taught about the political and social content of film for American University. Then I left and became a teacher at the University of California at Santa Cruz. I taught about the political and social content of film, but I also taught a course in law for undergraduates.
We're a lazy, undisciplined generation. I don't exempt myself: I spend way too much, even though I make a good income.
People ask how I can be a conservative and still want higher taxes. It makes my head spin, and I guess it shows how old I am. But I thought that conservatives were supposed to like balanced budgets. I thought it was the conservative position to not leave heavy indebtedness to our grandchildren.
Academic freedom is being lost by a great many people who dare to challenge Darwinism. That's a terrifying situation. That's contrary to the principles of science.
I have always been very concerned that Darwinism gave the basic okay to terrible racism and to the idea of murder based upon race.
If Iran and North Korea, by some horrible, devilish, nightmarish scenario, got together and went to war at the same time, one against Saudi Arabia and one against South Korea, I don't know what we would do about that. I don't know that we could stop them short of using nuclear weapons.
The education system should teach us about money; it's an incredibly big subject. I run into people all the time that don't have the first clue of what they should do about money.
I am scared of getting old. I am scared of being ill.
I have to tell you I never in my life anticipated getting this old, this fast. It seems as if I were 25 just a few days ago.
It's really amazing that in the age of unbelief, as a smart man called it, there isn't even more fraud. After all, with no God, there's no one to ever call you to account, and no accounting at all if you can get away with it.
My 'thing' is that I just lie in my immense bed and look out the window at the skyline over Virginia and the sky and the airplanes coming into Reagan. I really love doing that.
I spend so much time in fear of going broke, and I never have been even remotely close to going broke.
When Hollywood sees a good story about a man who sells confidence, they see themselves and they like it.
I have a great pic of my father and Rev. Graham laughing hysterically at some joke with George Pratt Shultz looking on back in 1972 or so.
For me, I've always believed that there was a God. I've always believed that God created the heavens and earth - so, for me it's not a huge leap from there to intelligent design.
It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it.
I'm not a Mensa member. I have no idea where that rumor came from. I never have been, and I doubt if I ever will be.
I'm an economist by training. I don't really work as an economist. I only worked briefly as an economist.
Traders can cause short-term volatility. In the long run, the market must revert to a sensible price/earnings multiple.
The sad fact is that spending rises every year, no matter what people want or say they want.
Darwinism doesn't explain where gravity comes from. It doesn't explain where thermodynamics comes from. It doesn't explain where the laws of physics come from. It doesn't explain where matter came from.
Israel is our strongest, most reliable ally in the Middle East. Of course, we're their most reliable ally, too.
I tell you why I don't think I will ever vote for a Democrat, if I may say so. Because for me, the number one issue is right to life, and I don't think the Democrats are very good on the right-to-life issue.
As to a media personality, well that just happened in large measure because people found me amusing, and I did lots and lots of T.V. news interview shows.
I am scared of running out of money.
If we are just specks of dust hit by lightning, if we have no spark of God in us, why not just take whatever we can and devil take the hindmost? I mean, we are fools not to do that if there is no right or wrong.
If there is no God, then man sometimes thinks he is god, and sometimes tries to live like a god.
I love sleeping in a moving car more than sleeping in bed.
Hollywood is largely about scammers and con men. It was my main livelihood for about 25 years, and the scams were beautiful and ugly, cheap and expensive, but, wow, were there a lot of scammers.
People getting rich in a free society in general - with some scammy exceptions, which are rare - makes everyone else richer, too.
Emperor Sid Caesar is gone to eternity himself now. He takes with him the gratitude of every one of us who first learned the relief of laughter from this genuinely great performer.
I always assumed scientists were free to ask any question, pursue any line of inquiry without fear or reprisal.
I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period.
It's a great stretch for me to do my game show. It's very hard. It's not me at all. The only part that's me is sort of when I'm sitting in the booth looking tormented. That's the only part that's the real me.
If there's a recession, I'd buy stocks. That's when you make money: when markets are spooked.
Trying to pick individual stocks is a trap. I can't do it. Warren Buffett can, but hardly anyone else can beat the indexes over a long period of time.
Put simply, the rich pay a lot of taxes as a total percentage of taxes collected, but they don't pay a lot of taxes as a percentage of what they can afford to pay, or as a percentage of what the government needs to close the deficit gap.
I think Darwinism as a theory explaining evolution within species is incredibly brilliant - just unbelievably, incredibly brilliant.
I think it's criminal how little people in the military are paid. These are people out risking their lives, taken away from their families for long periods of time. I think they should be paid dramatically more than they're paid.
I'd say the main way people get into terrible financial trouble is just to spend too much money relative to their income, and that is an endemic problem in the United States of America, and that's the kind of thing that should be taught about in schools.
I don't really consider myself to be a personal finance expert compared with some others. There are quite a few that know a lot more than I do.
It is so great to sleep in safe, glorious, beautiful America. I just cannot get over it.
If there is no God, why bother to tell the truth? Why not steal?
I am so used to having a comfortable life. What will it be like when I am no longer able to just buy anything I want?
