Celebrity Talk: 20 Philosophically Incorrect Quotes

Some celebrities, occasionally at least, think of others on their way to the mirror.

Apparently, the former soap star, Leonardo DiCaprio, loves to sing in front of mirrors. I believe his favorite song is Can't Help Falling In Love (With You). But I'm being terribly unfair. Some celebrities, occasionally at least, think of others on their way to the mirror – and even God:

One: "We'll sell it [Samson and Delilah] as a story of faith, the story of the power of prayer. That's for the censors and the women's organizations. For the public it's the hottest love story of all time." – Cecil B. DeMille

Two: "The first century had its Apostle Paul, the thirteenth had St. Francis, the sixteenth had Martin Luther and the twentieth has Cecil B. DeMille." – Anonymous Church Leader

Three: "I think I just hit my knees. I said, help. And then I began to meditate on it . . . I read all those [Gospels] again. I remember reading bits of them when I was younger. Pain is the precursor to change, which is great. That's the good news." – Mel Gibson

Four: "He [Jesus] was beaten for our iniquities. He was wounded for our transgressions. And by his wounds we are healed. That's the point of the film." – Mel Gibson

Five: "Tearing up the Pope's photo (on a 1992 Saturday Night Live episode) was ridiculous. I'm a Catholic and had a very strong religious upbringing . . . it was a gesture of a prodigal daughter, although one who despite everything still hopes that she can find her true home in the church." –  Sinéad O'Connor

Six: "I think there is a God. No question. What that God is or what we know about that God, I'm not sure." – George Lucas

Seven: "Being anti-war in Hollywood was an act of bravery on the order of a keynote speaker at a PLO awards dinner making jokes about Ariel Sharon." – Ann Coulter 

Eight:  "I thought I could organize freedom/How Scandinavian of me." – Björk

Nine: "Always see it on TV/Or read it in magazines/Celebrities want sympathy/All they do is piss and moan/Inside the Rolling Stone/Talkin' about how hard life can be . . . Did you know when you were famous?/You could kill your wife/And there's no such thing as twenty-five to life/ As long as you've got the cash to pay for Cochran/And did you know if you were caught/And you were smoking crack/McDonald's wouldn't want to take you back/You could always just run for Mayor of D.C. . . ." – Benji Madden & Joel Madden

Ten: "I was attracted to the trappings of religion, as opposed to the hard, hard work of living a religious life [one finds in the Catholic priesthood]." – Martin Scorsese

Eleven: "When a child of God comes home, the devil is sad, but God rejoices. So when the child of God gives his life to the devil, God is mad. We have to keep our eyes on the prize, every day." – Mr. T

Twelve: "People's sex habits are as well known in Hollywood as their political opinions, and much less criticized." – Ben Hecht

Thirteen: "If you think about those old shows, they all had puppets. And somehow I think, symbolically speaking, that has contributed to a generational lack of ability to accept personal responsibility. It's why the baby boomers are such conspiracy theorists and I'm not. It's why everybody thinks we went to Iraq to get the oil and I don't." – Jack Nicholson

Fourteen: "I always hesitate to say things like this in interviews because they tend to come back to haunt you, but if I were an Arab-American, I would insist on being profiled. This is not the time for civil rights. There are larger issues for Americans." – Jack Nicholson

Fifteen: "It always struck me as a queer paradox, that Chaplain [the international liberal], who should know more about humility, having invented the great feet-apart clown, should never have adopted the same humility in his private life." – Errol Flynn

Sixteen: "There is no use telling a story arse backwards. Better begin where it all begins – in the womb – except where, as in my unique case, it so often ends." – Errol Flynn

Seventeen: "My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch." — Jack Nicholson

Eighteen: "So there's me, drunk off my ass [at Mardi Gras], waving free beads around and yelling, 'Show us your tits!' at the top of my lungs, whipping beads at strangers' heads and having the time of my life. If they would've blasted 'Don't Stop Thinking about Tomorrow' by Fleetwood Mac over some loud speakers, I would've been like Clinton at his first inauguration." – Drew Carey

Nineteen: "The education president, my ass. Public schools in America suck. You said as much yourself when you wouldn't send your daughter to one [Bill Clinton]. You think she'd be going to Stanford if she went to a public school in D.C.? She'd be lucky to go to a decent community college right now. Instead of being a doctor, her goal would be to read at an eighth-grade level." – Drew Carey 

Twenty: "Elizabeth Taylor is a pre-feminist woman. This is the source of her continuing greatness and relevance. She wields the sexual power that feminism cannot explain and tried to destroy. Through stars like Taylor, we sense the world-disordering impact of legendary women like Delilah, Salome, and Helen of Troy." – Camille Paglia

By the way, who was that tax-dodging, crack-smoking Democratic Mayor of Washington, D.C.?