I'm not bothered by the idea of getting old, or I guess you could say by having arrived at old. I was 10 when my mom turned 55. For 1955, she was a very old mom. Penn Jillette More Quotes by Penn Jillette More Quotes From Penn Jillette Luck is statistics taken personally. Penn Jillette statistics luck taken The skills that we have are the actual magic skills - not the performing skills. We have to separate those. But the actual skills that make the tricks work, we don't get to use again. Penn Jillette magic skills use TV networks are dying. The death throes of religion give us jihads. The death throes of television give us reality shows. Penn Jillette dying giving reality America was founded on Christians not trusting each other, and they sometimes seemed more willing to reach out to the godless than to someone from another sect. Penn Jillette trusting-each-other christian america Tolerance is you saying something crazy and me smiling and saying, 'That's nice.' Penn Jillette tolerance crazy nice So many people say, ‘You know, your taxes aren’t taken by force,’ and that’s foolish. If you don’t pay your taxes and you don’t answer the warrant and you don’t go to court, eventually someone will pull a gun. Eventually someone with a gun will show up. Penn Jillette gun taken people Every poker player is smarter than me. Penn Jillette smarter player One thing you learn doing magic tricks for a living is how close every performance of every magic trick is to disaster. There are no robust magic tricks. They're all hanging from a thread - sometimes literally. Penn Jillette disaster magic sometimes I believe in individual rights so much that I don't like any sort of 'what's good for the cause'-type questions. Penn Jillette causes rights believe The word ‘holiday’ comes from ‘holy day’ and holy means ‘exalted and worthy of complete devotion.’ By that definition, all days are holy. Life is holy. Atheists have joy every day of the year, every holy day. We have the wonder and glory of life. We have joy in the world before the lord is come. We’re not going for the promise of life after death; we’re celebrating life before death…For atheists, everything in the world is enough and every day is holy. Every day is an atheist holiday. It’s a day that we’re alive. Penn Jillette holiday atheist mean Whereas you have someone like Houdini, who works really, really hard to get really, really famous, and then has actual intellectual ideas that he puts into the culture that stay there. Penn Jillette intellectual culture ideas One of the things that Teller and I are obsessed with, one of the reasons that we're in magic, is the difference between fantasy and reality. Penn Jillette magic differences reality I've never revved my car at a light for an attractive woman or an auto-rival, not even as a joke. Penn Jillette rivals car light There never was a God. 'God is dead' is a halfway measure I won't go with. Penn Jillette god-is-dead halfway Technology adds nothing to art. Two thousand years ago, I could tell you a story, and at any point during the story I could stop, and ask, 'Now do you want the hero to be kidnapped, or not?' But that would, of course, have ruined the story. Part of the experience of being entertained is sitting back and plugging into someone else's vision. Penn Jillette technology hero art You don’t have to be brave or a saint, a martyr, or even very smart to be an atheist. All you have to be able to say is “I don’t know”. Penn Jillette smart atheist brave You have to be careful as a libertarian because you can sound very Republican. Penn Jillette libertarian republican sound The purpose of art is to collide the intellectual and visceral together at the highest speed possible. Penn Jillette intellectual together art Once you have somebody that is telling you, 'We are interpreting God for you,' it seems like you either agree or you don't. You either say, like Martin Luther, 'I'm going to have a direct relationship with the word of God,' or I''m going to go through a conduit of God on Earth,' which would be the Pope. Penn Jillette like-you earth would-be Barack Obama is way smarter than Bush - so way, way smarter than me. Obama is way more charismatic than me. Penn Jillette charismatic barack way
