I was born bad, and I have lived bad, and I shall die bad in all probability

You are probably right when you say that I could get a role in any producer’s film if I just asked.

The weapon of suicide bombarding is edgy to the point that you aren’t left with the probability of delivering retribution or rebuffing anybody; the fear-based oppressor is executed alongside his unfortunate casualties, his blood blending in with theirs.

The probable fact is that we are descended not only from monkeys but from monks.

He who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words.

It is probably better to realize that the probability concept is in a sense subjective, that it is always based on uncertain knowledge, and that its quantitative evaluation is subject to change as we obtain more information.

If a guy tells me the probability of failure is 1 in 100,000, I know he’s full of crap.

It appears that there are enormous differences of opinion as to the probability of a failure with loss of vehicle and of human life. The estimates range from roughly 1 in 100 to 1 in 100,000. The higher figures come from the working engineers, and the very low figures from management.

Don’t bother people for help without first trying to solve the problem yourself.

‘Unforgiven’ is probably an example of a script that I liked right away but thought, ‘This is great, but I’d like to do this when I’m older.’ So I stuck it in the drawer for ten years and then took it out.

The last time I took drugs, I probably took more than anybody could survive.

In flying, the probability of survival is inversely proportional to the angle of arrival.

Hope is the confusion of the desire for a thing with its probability

I had at one time a very bad fever of which I almost died. In my fever I had a long consistent delirium. I dreamt that I was in Hell, and that Hell is a place full of all those happenings that are improbable but not impossible. The effects of this are curious. Some of the damned, when they first arrive below, imagine that they will beguile the tedium of eternity by games of cards. But they find this impossible, because, whenever a pack is shuffled, it comes out in perfect order, beginning with the Ace of Spades and ending with the King of Hearts. There is a special department of Hell for students of probability. In this department there are many typewriters and many monkeys. Every time that a monkey walks on a typewriter, it types by chance one of Shakespeare’s sonnets. There is another place of torment for physicists. In this there are kettles and fires, but when the kettles are put on the fires, the water in them freezes. There are also stuffy rooms. But experience has taught the physicists never to open a window because, when they do, all the air rushes out and leaves the room a vacuum.

The consequences of an act affect the probability of its occurring again.