Matthew McConaughey Quotes

My last name is originally Irish. I'm not exactly sure whereabouts it's from, but I've got family branches that were traced back there.

By their fruits ye shall know them.

Without exercise, I don't feel like my head works right.

There are a whole bunch of roles where people say, 'Oh, you're playing yourself.' I guess it's kind of a compliment. Or people say, 'Oh, man, you just roll out of bed and do that.' The work is to make it look effortless. That's the hard part.

There are three things, to my account, that I need each day. One of them is something to look up to, another is something to look forward to, and another is someone to chase.

I work through life with commas. I don't even know, do you have parentheticals?

Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Africa is probably one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.

I keep a diary - one for each film and foreign land I travel to.

Try not to make a straight line crooked.

Kids will remind you that, even though you've gone down a road 100 times, it's brand new for them - and that's healthy.

I've been in a couple of weddings where the coolest people that were the most day before so mellow and then the day of the wedding freaking out.

'Unbelievable' is the stupidest word in the dictionary.

Call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.

The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few.

Water's never clumsy.

Life's barely long enough to get good at one thing. So be careful what you get good at.

Man who invented the hamburger was smart; man who invented the cheeseburger was a genius.

My life is the road, man. I need to keep moving.

I've got a great sense of humor, and if I'm able to say or do something in a movie that people feel like they want to repeat, that's hugely flattering.

Good ideas are free - or at least they should be.

I think I can keep a rhythm to a beat, but there are quite a few people who would argue with me.

Traveling is a great love of mine. I love South America and Africa. I'm your ultimate backpacker when I'm away. It's just me and my backpack. It's good for getting away from the industry.

I'm a fan of the word selfish. Self. Ish. When I say I have gotten a lot more self-ish, I mean I am less concerned with what people think of me. I'm not worried about how I'm perceived. Selfish has always gotten a bad rap. You should do for you.

Romantic comedies are built to be light. They're built for a certain buoyancy.

I'm not trying to put on airs for anybody. I'm only trying to impress myself by doing the best job I can do.

If happiness is what you're after, then you are going to be let down frequently and be unhappy much of your time. Joy, though, is something else. It's not a choice, not a response to some result, it is a constant. Joy is 'the feeling we have from doing what we are fashioned to do,' no matter the outcome.

I don't dabble and spend much mind or time dealing with, I don't know, people's perceptions of me. I truly don't.

I go on The Daily Beast. The Daily Beast is one of the websites that I check out.

In whatever adulation you get, there's truth and there's not truth. And wherever they dog you, and they say it was horrible - there's truth and there's not truth. It's human nature to like to read the adulation more.

The challenge for me as an actor is if you become a celebrity, you don't meet strangers anymore. And strangers are where we have our anonymity. And I believe it's essential for the soul to be anonymous, especially if you're going to be an actor.

A drunk doesn't try to stand up; a drunk tries not to fall down.

My favorite dish is cleaning out the fridge on Sunday night and improvising a great medley.

I'm obsessed with trying to understand what somebody is talking about and trying to get them to understand me.

When I'm surfing, I'm sure not thinking about the paparazzi. I guess if they start getting on floaties and coming out there in the water, then I might be a little upset.

I have some good friends of my own who happen to be gay, and when it comes to gay, straight, or whatever, I'm for anything life-affirmative. I'm for gay power, straight power, male power, female power; everybody should feel empowered without oppressing anyone who's different.

As an actor for hire, my job is to do some pre-production work for myself. Then my job is to show up and give the best performance I can.

To bring a healthy child into this world, raise them right and watch them grow is the biggest miracle there is.

Each of the films, whether it's Magic Mike or Dallas Buyers Club, was a challenge for me. I had to dig deeper. Also, my decision to shake things up came after my first child was born. I had taken nearly two years off and I thought that I would enjoy my time as a dad and wait until something interesting came along

Hypocrites do the devil's drudgery in Christ's livery.

When you have good friends you've been around, every time they talk, you don't give them your full attention. You don't look them in the eye and stop. Half the time, you're listening, half the time, you are ignoring them.

The unsaid rule for living in a trailer park is: 'If the door's shut, don't come a-knockin.' But if it's open and you're walkin' by, feel free to say, 'Hello.'

I like the 'Alive' part. Now I've made it. Wait until you see the roles I could take after this. You're going to see my gut hanging over, plus 22lbs. It'll be a whole new kind of sexy!

I like the city. I like the concrete. I like big business. I like being a CEO of my own company and having a lot of responsibilities. At the same time, when I can go off with a backpack or off on a surfboard or even off on a run somewhere in the woods - that's where I'm really happy.

I think the discipline comes with turning that cellphone and Blackberry off and unplugging completely. You do that and you go through some withdrawals in the beginning. You start thinking, 'Oh, do I need to do this? Do I need to do that?' You forget that we were doing just fine with the payphone.

Absolutely not. I have no problem with commitment. In fact, I love having someone in my life.

Life is not a popularity contest. Take the hill, but first answer the question: What is my hill?.

I know who I am. And after all these years, there's a victory in that.

If you can be mentally stimulated by the workout and find out how to get through it, it's more fun.

No computer, no gadget, no trickery. I am an animal, it is a plant. I will beat the weed!

If you want your hair to be thicker, cut it when the moon is about to be full - a heavy, full, waxing moon. Do not cut it when the moon's waning.

Man shall not live by bread alone.

Give thanks. Appreciate what you DO have ... the more we give thanks, the more we receive to be thankful for. Gratitude is the gift that always gives back.

Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

The hardest thing was going through different stages of weight loss. At the beginning, it was easy to take off the weight with exercise and eating less but then you reach a point where 90% of the weight loss is achieved purely through reducing your calorie intake. My goal was to lose four lbs per week and that worked well for the first few months but then things got tricky.

There's a gap between what I want to do, what I do on camera, and what gets edited. Right? So the goal is to try and close the gaps. What's the biggest compliment is if I read a review and it's exactly what I wrote down in my diary before ever filming it. That's really cool. That's the biggest signifier of closing the gaps.

The tree is known by his fruit.

What the heck is true love? I remember feeling, back when I was 12 and 'going' with this girl, 'Is this true love?'

There's a difference in thinking you are a champion and knowing that you are.

I only pick one thing; North, South, East or West. I just get on the road and go. That's the point. The only governor I give myself is what's the time limit.

A genius could be anybody that he wants, but ingenious is always one person at that time.

In romantic comedies there's a certain ceiling and a floor that you can't necessarily love as hard, or hate as hard, or have as much pain, because you sink the shop of the romantic comedy. But in a certain drama, like some of the ones I've been doing, the ceiling and the floor was my own. And in many ways, that was a higher ceiling and a lower floor, so that was more of a band-with for those emotions.

So, to any of us, whatever those things are, whatever it is we look up to, whatever it is we look forward to, and whoever it is we're chasing, to that I say, 'Amen.' To that I say, 'Alright, alright, alright.' To that I say 'just keep living.' Thank you.

My best quality is that I'm a big hearted person. I'm resilient, too. My worst quality is selfishness, although everyone is guilty of that to an extent. Everyone should be, I think - you need to respect yourself.

The law says you cannot touch, but I see a lot of lawbreakers up in this house.

Directors like William Friedkin (Killer Joe), Steven Soderbergh (Magic Mike), and Lee Daniels (The Paperboy) got in touch with me and wanted me to be part of their films. That was a whole new chapter for me. I didn't chase any of those films and it made me think that I was right to take a chance, say no to the kind of thing I had grown tired of doing, and wait until something good came around. And it did!

Sure, I can get a little bit jealous. The good part about jealousy is that it comes from passion. It's also the dangerous part and it's an ugly emotion that hurts.

I like a good pair of jeans, but I also like putting on a nice tux. I'd rather go around in a good pair of jeans that you don't wash every day, because they get more and more comfortable.

The dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.

When thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what they right hand doeth.

It's one of the things I love about making films: the places I've got to travel that I would never have gone to before.

The best education I've had in my life is to travel.

I talk to myself all the time. Just make sure you answer.

There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.

I get it. You have the right to have guns. But look, let's forget that right. Let's forget the pleasure you get safely on your range, because it's in the wrong hands in other places.

I'm not arrogant enough to look back on my career and criticize my choices. It's really not my place.

The older you get, the more rules they're gonna try to get you to follow. You just gotta keep livin' man, l-i-v-i-n'

I'm one of the most adaptable guys I know in as much as travelling is my favourite thing to do in life. With every place I go, I try to stay there long enough to do it justice, long enough so that I can at least imagine what it would be like to live there. Once I imagine that, then it's OK for me to return home.

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin.

I've never been a jealous person, and I've never felt built up by someone else's failure - that's a cheap thrill.

I never go online on my iPhone. Sometimes I'm tempted but I remind myself and the kids - it's a tool. Use it as a tool. You're not the tool. My iPhone, 85% of the time I'm writing down ideas.

I have my own vocabulary. I love linguistics. That surprises people.

I love it. It's silly to say that it is a world of false and stupid people. Sure there are witches and swindlers, but you can meet there many creative, talented and generous persons too. Hollywood is a pleasant place, when you are hip to the game and you enjoy it for what it is really.

Life is not fair, it never was and it is now and it won't ever be. Do not fall into the trap. The entitlement trap, of feeling like you're a victim. You are not.

It'd Be a Lot Cooler If You Did.

You want to be a writer? Start writing. You want to be a filmmaker? Start shooting stuff on your phone right now.

Don't play an attitude; don't play a guy who's negative. Play a guy who's not trying to sell anybody on anything, he's just saying how it is and if you want to come by what he's thinking, you're welcome. If you do not, then do not.

I'm a golfer, and what are the two sports you can do till you drop? Golf and surfing. They're great for you limber-wise, they're great for you health-wise, and they put you in sweet locations.

I like to be directed, but when I'm flying and I'm on fire, I don't want someone coming and getting in my way just because they feel like they need to.

The best advice comes from people who don't give advice.

I think most defense attorneys know, to some extent, their clients are guilty.

Any artist, the work you do, if it's a painting or if it's a performance, you hope it translates to a common denominator with the people that they see something in their own life in there. Or they see something in somebody else's life. That's what's fun about sharing art.

There's two sorts of fear: one you embrace and one you should listen to and turn the other way.

Starting at about, I guess, forever, I've always looked forward to getting older. When I was 14, I couldn't wait to be 16 and get a driver's license.

See, 'A Time to Kill' was the one I got famous off of. Big ka-boom, over one weekend. After that, I did films that I really wanted to do.

I like to customize things. I customized the back of old Lincoln to be my mobile office. I had one of those little laptop desks like in a police car, and I had a cooler in there, so that was my mobile office.

When someone bestows something on you, no matter how true it is, when someone says, 'Sexiest Man Alive,' I'm honestly going, 'Thank you. Right on.' For me, it's never canceled out anything, it's never made me go, 'Does this make me less talented of an actor?'

If I'm doing something I do like to take it to the limit. I've got a high ceiling. A wide threshold for seeing what those boundaries are for myself. I'm very resilient inside. I find things that I like and do and boy, I do like to stick to them. I'm not necessarily a guy who gets addicted to more of certain things, but if I find something I like to do, I like to stick to it.

I say to the paparazzi, 'Fellas, take your shot and go.' It's just they usually find me on a beach.