11 Quotes & Sayings By Harold Ramis

Harold Ramis, born in Chicago, was a writer/director and actor who made many memorable appearances on the big and small screen. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for his first feature film, Caddyshack (1980), and won an Emmy Award for his performance as the late comedian, Rodney Dangerfield in the HBO special, Dangerfield: Unplugged (1996). For his work as a director, Ramis received two additional Emmy Awards and four additional nominations. He died of complications from lymphoma on February 24, 2014.

1
A psychologist said to me, there are only two important questions you have to ask yourself. What do you really feel? And, what do you really want? If you can answer those two, you probably can leave your neuroses behind you. Harold Ramis
2
No one will laugh at how great things are for somebody. Harold Ramis
3
How one handles success or failure is determined by their early childhood. Harold Ramis
4
I never work just to work. It's some combination of laziness and self-respect. Harold Ramis
5
I always point out to my Passover guests that the Hebrews were not living in isolation. They were at the crossroads of several great, elaborate cultures with their own mythology and religion and art and architecture and cultural belief. In fact, so many of the mythologies of the world describe the same events, just from different points of view. Harold Ramis
6
The best description of the Old Testament that I heard was that it starts out as mythology, then it becomes legend, then it becomes history. In the mythological period - there is a distinct mythological period in the Old Testament, where the time spans are impossible and really just imagined. Harold Ramis
7
I had this 'War and Peace' thing of wanting to experience war as a kind of incredible human enterprise. I even applied to Officer Candidate School. Then the practical side of me kicked in and I thought, 'I really don't want to get drafted.' So I went down to the physical and checked every psychological disorder and drug on the medical history form. Harold Ramis
8
Life doesn't care about your vision. Stuff happens, and you've just got to deal with it. You roll with it; that's the beauty of it all. Harold Ramis
9
Films are big hits when they touch a lot of people. Things are not funny in a vacuum, they're funny because we respond to some personal dislocation, some embarrassment, some humiliation, some pain we've suffered, or some desire we have. Harold Ramis
10
Acting is all about big hair and funny props... All the great actors knew it. Olivier knew it, Brando knew it. Harold Ramis