Ted Turner quotes:

To be happy in this world, first you need a cell phone and then you need an airplane. Then you're truly wireless.

I made a lot of money. I earned a lot of money with CNN and satellite and cable television. And you can't really spend large sums of money, intelligently, on buying things. So I thought the best thing I could do was put some of that money back to work - making an investment in the future of humanity.

You should set goals beyond your reach so you always have something to live for.

I like Obama. I don't know who could do a better job. He's got an incredibly tough situation, and a good heart and mind. I'd like to see him rally support a little better.

I like snakes. I like hummingbirds. There's nothing on earth I don't like. Frogs. Salamanders. The bunnies, the giraffes, the hippopotamuses.

I love this planet... I want to see the environment preserved and I want to see the human race preserved. And I'd like to see everybody living decently in a more equitable, kind-hearted, thoughtful, generous world.

I think George Bush is the most dangerous man in the world.

I think Captain Cousteau might be the father of the environmental movement.

The Iranians don't intimidate! They're like the Vietnamese and the Iraqis. You want to start a war with them? They'll still be fighting in fifty years!

I love CNN. I love the Cartoon Network. I mean, I thought these things up.

The worst thing you can do if you want to start a fight is to use derogatory terminology.

I regret that I wasn't more successful with my marriages, but it is what it is.

It's going to cost trillions of dollars to rework the energy sources all over the world. Were going to have to move away from fossil fuels.

I've never run into a guy who could win at the top level in anything today and didn't have the right attitude, didn't give it everything he had, at least while he was doing it; wasn't prepared and didn't have the whole program worked out.

I've had the good fortune to have a much more diverse life than most people would, professional sports and television and news and movies.

Rupert Murdoch is the most dangerous man in the world.

The U.N. had such lofty goals to eliminate poverty and stop war and cure diseases and help refugees - things that no one country could do.

When I was young and ocean-racing competitively, and working the rest of the time, I was going 24 hours. I was on the verge of collapsing. But you've got to slow down a bit.

I know what I'm having 'em put on my tombstone: 'I have nothing more to say'.

I had more energy at 50. On the other hand, at 75, I've probably got a little more wisdom and good judgment than I had at 50 because I've got more experience. But I haven't really changed. I'm still driven by the same philosophy.

Over a three year period, I gave away half of what I had. To be honest, my hands shook as I signed it away. I knew I was taking myself out of the race to be the richest man in the world.

The media is too concentrated, too few people own too much. There's really five companies that control 90 percent of what we read, see and hear. It's not healthy.

Even when I started in 1970, I knew that television was having a negative effect on our society.

If you had the most prestige and you were the network that everybody turned to in times of a crisis, that that was the most important position, in the news business, to hold.

Sports is like a war without the killing.

We have to do more than keep media giants from growing larger; they're already too big. We need a new set of rules that will break these huge companies to pieces.

I'm hard of hearing. I miss a lot. It's really tough.

Just because your ratings are bigger doesn't mean you're better.

There's nothing wrong with being fired.

I don't watch entertainment. I haven't watched in years. I want to see serious news.

My son is now an 'entrepreneur.' That's what you're called when you don't have a job.

I fantasize about everything; being a fireman, an Indian chief, climbing mountains. Anything is possible.

CNN anchor Gwen Scott claimed it is common knowledge that Turner sits in his office and smokes marijuana.

It was a struggle financing CNN, but I did it without ever asking the government for a nickel.

Newspapers are technologically obsolete. In the days of instant electronic communications, its crazy to have to print these newspapers at a central plant and deliver them by truck. They're the biggest problem with our solid-waste disposal. And the news you get is a day old. You can get it off the Internet instantaneously for a fraction of the cost.

Every few seconds it changes - up an eighth, down an eighth - it's like playing a slot machine. I lose $20 million, I gain $20 million.

If people get all the sex they can handle, they're so happy and content they just sit around and smile. I mean, you never feel aggressive just after you've gotten laid, right? Lots of sex for everybody, that's a solution to the world's problems.

Be sure to set your goals so high that you can't possibly accomplish them in one lifetime. That way you'll always have something ahead of you. I made the mistake of setting my goals too low, and now I'm having a hard time coming up with new ones.

Jesus Christ would have been considered just another long-haired hippie freak if he hadn't been crucified. The folks weren't impressed with healing the sick, feeding the multitudes bread and fish or anything else, except maybe the walking on water. But when he got crucified, that gave him his big start.

You can never quit. Winners never quit, and quitters never win.

If there is a God, he is not doing a good job of protecting the earth. He's kind of checked out.

I love this planet I want to see the environment preserved and I want to see the human race preserved. And I'd like to see everybody living decently in a more equitable, kind-hearted, thoughtful, generous world.

Life is a game. Money is how we keep score.

I just love it when people say I can't do it, there's nothing that makes me feel better because all my life, people have said that I wasn't going to make it.

At Time Warner, I had ten percent of the stock after the merger. But when we merged with AOL, I was diluted down to three percent.

The mind is just another muscle.

When our time's up, it's up. All the money in the world won't buy you one more day.

Over-population is the 'cause of drive-by shootings' and other social ills, but the root of the problem is Christianity, which posits that people are more important than sea otters and elephants.

The sad thing about destroying the environment is that we're going to take the rest of life with us. The bluebirds will be gone, and the elephants will be gone, and the tigers will be gone, and the pandas will be gone.

I believe in pulling together to make the country better right rather than pulling, tearing it apart for partisan reasons. I think the country comes first.

Hell, we spent $200 Billion to get a scared guy who needed a shave out of a fox-hole! And he may even die of prostate cancer before we even get a chance to try him, dammit!

Every man sees a little of himself in Rhett Butler.

I believe in a reasonable amount of "right to bear arms". But private citizens of the United States are not allowed to own nuclear weapons. I always wanted a nuclear weapon, if I could have gotten one. I'm every other kind of power, but I'm not a nuclear power.

I'm a very good thinker, but I sometimes grab the wrong word. I say something I didn't think through adequately. I mean, I don't type my speeches, then sit up there and read them off the teleprompter, you know. I wing it.

We won't be signing off until the world ends. We'll be on, and we will cover the end of the world, live, and that will be our last event . . . we'll play 'Nearer, My God, to Thee' before we sign off.

I mean, there's no point in sittin' around and cryin' about spilt milk. Gotta move on.

War has been good to me from a financial standpoint but I don't want to make money that way. I don't want blood money.

The whole idea of television news or any kind of news is to inform people about things they need to know about.

The reason that the World Trade Center got hit is because there are a lot of people living in abject poverty out there who don't have any hope for a better life.

The biggest thing I learned from losing? Winning's better.

I think we've already voted at the U.N., in the Security Council, to get rid of nuclear weapons. Let's get rid of them. Let's get rid of ours and then Iran will stop, I believe. And so everybody else will, because if everybody doesn't have them, then we're safe, at least safe from a nuclear attack.

I'm 68 and a half years old; I grew up with newspapers; I love newspapers; I love the news business. I started CNN; I'm a journalist and proud of it.

I have both sleep apnea and atrial fibrillation, which are both debilitating conditions.

Men should be disqualified for public office. Women should run the planet. They're better than us.

When I started 'CNN,' I made the decision to stay out of endorsing candidates, and let the doers make up their own minds about politics, that it wasn't going to come from me.

The United States has got some of the dumbest people in the world. I want you to know that we know that.

I lost 80 percent of my wealth and then gave away over half of the rest. So I'm a man of modest means now. But if you budget carefully and watch your expenditures, you can get by on a couple billion dollars.

Even if we didn't have greenhouse gases, were going to have to move away from fossil fuels, as we're going to run out. They're finite, whereas solar and wind are infinite.

I travel a lot. I'm on the move.

I was gonna go broke if I didn't get things turned around real fast.

If I only had a little humility, I'd be perfect.

If I had any humility I would be perfect.

If you can get yourself where you're not afraid of dying, then you can move forward a lot faster.

A total population of 250-300 million people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be ideal.

All my life people have said that I wasn't going to make it.

Basically we are chimpanzees with about two percent more intelligence and a little less hair.

Christianity is a religion for losers.

Christians are losers.

Do something. Either lead, follow or get out of the way.

Every action or inaction has an impact-good or bad-upon our surroundings, and anything we do today will have an impact on the lives of our grandchildren.

Exposure to defeat is a very important thing. Anyone who doesn't look to get beaten is doing a disservice to himself.

I didn't care what, how much adversity life threw at me. I intended to get to the top.

I didn't get here for my acting... but I love show business.

I don't measure success in numbers, but I consider my contributions of more than $1.3 billion to various causes over the years to be one of my proudest accomplishments and the best investment I've ever made. Those dollars have improved lives, saved species, fought disease, educated children, inspired change, challenged ideas and opened minds; at the time of my death, virtually all of my wealth will have gone to charity.

I haven't been in a store to buy anything for five years.

I like something with 'vice' in it.

I see the whole field of environmentalis m and population as nothing more than the survival of the human species. I have wanted to have some bumper sticker made up saying 'Save the Humans'. At the bottom of it all, we are trying to save ourselves.

I see what keeps people young: work!

I thought, between sports and news and television and friendship, that you could end the Cold War and, by God, we did.

I wanted to better inform the world.

I was cable when cable wasn't cool.

I'd like to say that right now, in the last few years, the Democrats have been closer - have been more pro-environment. The coal industry is pretty well entrenched in the Republican Party and that's one of the things that we need to phase out.

I'd rather be smart and poor than rich and dumb.

If I had to predict, the way things are going, I'd say the chances are about 50-50 that humanity will be extinct or nearly extinct within 50 years. Weapons of mass destruction, disease, I mean this global warming is scaring the living daylights out of me.

If I only had a little humility, I would be perfect.

If I sold all my liabilities, I wouldn't own anything. My wife's a liability, my kids are liabilities, and I haven't sold them.

If the perpetrators of the World Trade Center plane crashes had a nuclear weapon, there's no doubt in my mind but that they would've detonated it in New York.

If the Russian nuclear arsenal was fired at the United States and other targets, and we fired back at them with thousands of nuclear weapons, it would be the end of life on earth.

If you never quit, you're never beaten.

If you panic that's a good way to lose. You have to stay in control.

If you think you're a second-class citizen, you are.

If you treat people with dignity, respect and friendliness, you can turn enemies into friends. An enemy is nothing but a friend in disguise.

I'm a human being, just like everybody else. I'm up some days and down others. Some days, I just refuse comment. If I'm feeling a little down, I won't say anything. But if I'm really up, I'll let it all hang out. I do have a slight propensity to put my foot in my mouth.

I'm a millionaire, I guess, but I'm just a normal person and I like everybody, taxi drivers, whoever you are, to call me by my first name and talk to me on a man-to-man basis. I think the garbage collector is as important as the goddamned president.

I'm just a socialist at heart.

I'm no genius. I'm not at all; I just happen to look five or 10 years ahead and think things through...

I'm sure God, wherever he is, wants to see us get along with one another and love one another.

It was okay for people to write negative things about me just as long as they spelled my name right.

It's been a long time since anybody caught me saying something stupid.

I've always tried to do the smartest and best thing.

I've got a virtually limitless supply of bullshit.

John is very aware of the responsibilities that come with being a landowner. I also feel that way. We both see landownership as a personal investment, but also an opportunity to contribute to the well-being of our planet and its inhabitants.

Life is like a B-movie. You don't want to leave in the middle of it, but you don't want to see it again.

Looking back, if I had to live my life over, there are things I would do differently, but the one thing I would not change is my charitable giving. I'm particularly thankful for my father's advice to set goals so high that they can't possibly be achieved during a lifetime and to give help where help is needed most. That inspiration keeps me energized and eager to keep working hard every day on giving back and making the world a better place for generations to come.

Make a way, find a way or get out of the way.

Man should be judged by the deeds done to help his fellow man.

Many times through the ages, like as not the chance appears, but because of indecision, man's fond hopes are drowned in tears.

Most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals.

Music has a great power for bringing people together. With so many forces in this world acting to drive wedges between people, it's important to preserve those things that help us experience our common humanity.

Never set goals you can reach in your lifetime.