Posturing Quotes

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.

I thought acting was showboating.

I like to get down there and get physical. I like to get down there and try to show my strength, try to be a macho man.

Guys are going to be physical, especially with me being the young guy. That tends to happen a lot. It's just guys trying to be stronger and bigger than me, so they're just trying to be more physical.

Liberals in their meetings utter bold words; they strut, grimace belligerently, and then issue a weasel-worded statement which has tremendous implications, if read between the lines.

North Korea is really just the kid who decided he'd be 'all out crazy,' hoping people would be scared off by the tirades and avoid stepping up to the plate.

Public Congressional Investigation hearings are freak shows.

I must say that acting was good training for the political life that lay ahead of us.

When it comes to Republican debates, fibs and fits come first; facts come last.

[Referring to George W. Bush] Anybody who has to spend all his time demonstrating his manhood has somehow got to know he ain't got it.

Apes beat their chests so they don't have to fight 24 hours a day.

When I fight, part of the swagger that I had when I used to fight on the street comes out. When I fought on the street, I used to try to embarrass someone for even wanting to fight me.

Those that are the loudest in their threats are the weakest in their actions.

Posturing is counterproductive. Posturing only works if things are screwed up.

No one, not even the most malicious democrat, can form a conception of the charlatanism and self-importance of our assembled diplomacy [the Prussian parliament].

I reckon you have to put a presence in front of your opponent - a bit of confidence and attitude - and then you can change what their next move may be.

Accidents will happen. We have formulated our policy on the assumption that some bluffing contest will eventually go wrong, resulting in dead soldiers. The focus has to be on minimizing damage.

Airs of importance are the credentials of impotence.

I didn't want to be short. I've tried to pretend that being a short guy didn't matter. I tried to make up for being short by affecting a strut, by adopting the voice of a much bigger man, by spending more money than I made, by tipping double or triple at bars and restaurants, by dating tall, beautiful women.

Sometimes you have two egos—one on each side—and as you go up the escalation ladder, one of them may do something just to appear strong.

Magic, whether it's mind magic or conjuring, is about the cheapest and quickest way of impressing people, and I think if you don't grow out of that as a magician then it shows, and people get a bit sick of that after a while, because it starts to feel like posturing. So I grew out of it.

Actors who have tried to play Churchill and MacArthur have failed abysmally because each of those men was a great actor playing himself.

If you are at a boys' school, especially, there is a level of bravado that you have to keep up otherwise you'll get picked on.

Pretentiousness was probably my substitute for actual confidence.

In my experience, growing up in Brooklyn and all that, the real tough guys didn't act tough. They didn't talk tough. They were tough, you know? I think about these politicians who try to pose as tough guys - it makes me laugh.