Top 57 Quotes & Sayings by Phil Donahue

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American entertainer Phil Donahue.

Last updated on December 21, 2024.

Phillip John Donahue is an American media personality, writer, film producer and the creator and host of The Phil Donahue Show. The television program, later known simply as Donahue, was the first talk show format that included audience participation. The show had a 29-year run on national television in America that began in Dayton, Ohio in 1967 and ended in New York City in 1996. His shows have often focused on issues that divide liberals and conservatives in the United States, such as abortion, consumer protection, civil rights and war issues. His most frequent guest was Ralph Nader, for whom Donahue campaigned in 2000. Donahue also briefly hosted a talk show on MSNBC from July 2002 to March 2003. Donahue is one of the most influential talk show hosts and has been called the "king of daytime talk". Oprah Winfrey has stated, "If it weren't for Phil Donahue, there would never have been an Oprah Show." In 1996, Donahue was ranked #42 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time.

American - Entertainer | Born: December 21, 1935

Source: Wikipedia

I think the idea of creating a television news source that is not beholden to corporate interests is nirvana.

Phil Donahue

In reality, the most important things happen when you don't look for them.

Phil Donahue

Saddam was a bastard, but he was our bastard.

Phil Donahue

I could never understand how we could put 120,000 Japanese behind a fence in World War II. I remember being bewildered about that.

Phil Donahue

I find celebrity status difficult to bear when I am in the company of my mother.

Phil Donahue

Some people are uncomfortable with the idea that humans belong to the same class of animals as cats and cows and raccoons. They're like the people who become successful and then don't want to be reminded of the old neighborhood.

Phil Donahue

Oprah is more than an institution. Oprah is a very special star in the firmament. I can't imagine a greater success than she's enjoyed.

Phil Donahue

Spanking and verbal criticism have become, to many parents, more important tools of child rearing than approval.

Phil Donahue

Miss Child is never bashful with butter.

Phil Donahue

To a journalist, good news is often not news at all.

Phil Donahue

In a network situation, a vice president, while he's shaving, can decide your history.

Phil Donahue

Presenting statues of honor to reporters for covering an earthquake is like presenting a first prize to a doctor for performing surgery.

Phil Donahue

We should not use crippled children to sell hamburgers. Ever.

Phil Donahue

Marlo taught me things I thought I knew.

Phil Donahue

I was proud of the waves I had made, but wondered how many boats I was supposed to rock.

Phil Donahue

December 25th has become guilt and obligation.

Phil Donahue

The system of volunteerism is divisive. It pits one charity against the others for the charity dollar.

Phil Donahue

I have had time to analyze my feelings. I am certain that they are totally neurotic, sexist, silly, and a big waste of time.

Phil Donahue

They were terrified that we were going to become an anti-war kind of platform.

Phil Donahue

Television is not the exclusive target of promoters. Is Superman really worthy of a Newsweek cover?

Phil Donahue

Praising the Lord and passing the ammunition are mutually exclusive ideas.

Phil Donahue

Airlines are interesting. They not only favor celebrities, they court them.

Phil Donahue

Recognition should come to the reporter who uncovers public cheating or proves a convicted man innocent.

Phil Donahue

I believe celebrity spoils people - some worse than others.

Phil Donahue

I tip like crazy. They'll remember me. Celebrity can be expensive.

Phil Donahue

The Tube is a vehicle for selling things, not for exploring ideas.

Phil Donahue

Is it any wonder that for millions of men the only intimacy is physical, silent, and predictable?

Phil Donahue

When I was a kid, people who got divorced were people who had no gumption.

Phil Donahue

Everybody is under pressure to shut up and sing.

Phil Donahue

Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

Phil Donahue

At first, I thoroughly enjoyed being famous.

Phil Donahue

A large psychic void is left by a loss of faith. So many Catholics have tried so many things to replace it.

Phil Donahue

In 1953 there were two ways for an Irish Catholic boy to impress his parents: become a priest or attend Notre Dame.

Phil Donahue

I have moved from certainty to doubt, from devotion to rebellion.

Phil Donahue

When we had been married five years, we had six children. What, in God's name, was wrong with me?

Phil Donahue

There's a reason we seperate Church and State. The reason for the richness and the diversity of religion in this nation is because of the seperation of Church and State, and there are people out there who can't wait to make this nation a nation of one religion... THEIR religion.

Phil Donahue

There is no democracy without dissent.

Phil Donahue

Cindy Sheehan is one tough mother. And nothing you say or anyone else is gonna slow her down.

Phil Donahue

The biggest threat to this country isn't the Russians. It's our own inability to make democracy or capitalism work.

Phil Donahue

What really keeps me going is the constant belief that it could all disappear tomorrow.

Phil Donahue

The House looks like more fun. It's like the Donahue show. The Senate is like one of those Sunday morning public service programs.

Phil Donahue

I'm not a pacifist. I'm not that brave.

Phil Donahue

I realize what you can do when you scare the population and how media contributes to that.

Phil Donahue

The establishment people tell us that if the workers wanted to share the profits, it was called communism. When management wants to share profits, it's called a bonus.

Phil Donahue

I have been in the witness protection program for the last three weeks. I campaigned for Ralph Nader. I'm now living as a woman in Mississippi.

Phil Donahue

We [in USA] have people honestly believing that, if a president calls a war, you have to shut up and sing. That is not the nation my mother raised me to pledge my allegiance to. We should speak out. We sent thousands of Americans to foreign battlefields to protect our way of life, which includes free speech. If you're not going to use it, it's already lost. We'll find a Mussolini who will tell us what's good for us.

Phil Donahue

Its like threading a needle while walking on a water bed.

Phil Donahue

The radio of my youth ... is now a quaint memory replaced by computer hard drives.

Phil Donahue

The Commission on Presidential Debates is a corrupt stranglehold on our democracy.

Phil Donahue

This is Sesame Street. A place where people, birds, monsters all live in perfect harmony.

Phil Donahue

Women are smarter than men because they listen.

Phil Donahue

Science may have come a long way, but as far as religion is concerned, we are first cousins to the !Kung tribesmen of the Kalahari Desert. Except for the garments, their deep religious trances might just as well be happening at a revival meeting or in the congregation of a fundamentalist TV preacher.... As we move further from the life of ignorance and superstition in which religion has its roots, we seem to need it more and more.... Why has religion become a force just when we'd have thought it would be losing ground to secularism?

Phil Donahue

Will you remember me when I'm gone?

Phil Donahue

I tip like crazy. Theyll remember me. Celebrity can be expensive.

Phil Donahue

If Stalin ever told me to urinate, I'm not sure I'd be able to.

Phil Donahue

[Asserting] important First Amendment rights ... why should [executions] be the one area that is conducted behind closed doors?... Why shouldn't executions be public?

Phil Donahue

I certainly think we have an emergency in media, and we gotta fix it.

Phil Donahue

Top 57 Quotes & Sayings by Phil Donahue

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