I've met presidents, but I've never performed for one. I said it was the first time in 50 years I actually had butterflies. You know, the Obamas were sitting out there, the Supreme Court, Maya Angelou, and Desmond Tutu for God's sake, all in the front row.

Dick Van Dyke

Categorized in : First Time President Butterfly

We should never judge a day by its weather.

Dick Van Dyke

judging weather inspirational

Women will never be as successful as men because they have no wives to advise them.

Dick Van Dyke

funny-inspirational women success

You can spread jelly on the peanut butter but you can't spread peanut butter on the jelly.

Dick Van Dyke

peanuts jelly peanut-butter

The secret to keeping moving is keeping moving.

Dick Van Dyke

secret moving

Somebody asked what I wanted on my gravestone. I'm just going to put: 'Glad I Could Help.'

Dick Van Dyke

gravestone wanted helping

I didn't know the answers, but I could feel that the things that gave life meaning came from a place within and from the nurturing of values like tolerance, charity, and community.

Dick Van Dyke

meaning-of-life tolerance community

You have to be able to laugh at yourself. Attitude is almost more important than what happens to you.

Dick Van Dyke

important attitude laughing

Walt Disney and I always said we were two children looking for our inner adults.

Dick Van Dyke

adults two children

In my seventies, I exercised to stay ambulatory. In my eighties, I exercise to avoid assisted living.

Dick Van Dyke

seventies eighty exercise

You need someone to love, and something to do that you enjoy, and something to hope for, and that's enough for me.

Dick Van Dyke

enjoy enough needs

If you spend your life thinking, "I wonder if today is when it ends," you're going to miss out on everything wonderful.

Dick Van Dyke

missing today thinking

I taught Sunday school when I was younger, and ended up an elder in the church, and it just seemed to me that a lot of people who went to church certainly weren't - the rest of the week - living what I would call an Christian life.

Dick Van Dyke

sunday christian school

Hope is life's essential nutrient, and love is what gives life meaning

Dick Van Dyke

and-love love-is giving

I wanted to be Stan Laurel, then I wanted to be Fred Astaire and then Captain Kangaroo. I actually started out as a radio announcer when I was 17 and never left the business so that's literally 70 years.

Dick Van Dyke

captains radio years

When I was a kid, I loved all the silent comedians - Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, Chaplin. And I used to imitate them. I'd go to see a Buster Keaton movie and come home and try things out I'd seen. I learned to do pratfalls when I was very young.

Dick Van Dyke

comedian home kids

I got into a Broadway show before I ever sang and danced. I learned how after I got in the show.

Dick Van Dyke

broadway-shows broadway shows

People think I'm talking like I'm in perfect health, but I have all the infirmities for my age. I have arthritis and all those things. But if you keep moving, that won't bother you.

Dick Van Dyke

talking moving thinking

I think that's the answer to a good marriage. Everyone has their own room.

Dick Van Dyke

answers rooms thinking

Only funny line I've had was my first day on the set of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. They were making me up, and I saw the director call the makeup man over, and he says "What are we going to do about the hooter?" And the makeup guy said, "I'm not a plastic surgeon." So I started that show with a big nose, and quite conscious of it.

Dick Van Dyke

makeup guy men

I wasn't a falling-in-the-gutter type. I drank at home because it relaxed me. I was shy around new people, but after a drink or two, I became more sociable.

Dick Van Dyke

home two fall