Bill Cosby Quotes

Bill Cosby Bio

Bill Cosby was one of America's best-loved TV stars, but his son's death in a drive-by shooting and court battles over alleged sexual assaults have left the family man's image in tatters.William H. Cosby Jr. first took to the stage as a stand-up comedian while at college. By his early twenties, he had appeared in a number of television variety programmes including ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ and ‘The Johnny Carson Show’. However, his big break came in 1965 when he appeared as Alexander Scott in ‘I Spy’, winning numerous Emmys for his performance.

In 1969, he starred in his own series, ‘The Bill Cosby Show’. He was also one of the major characters on the children's television show ‘The Electric Company’ for its first two seasons, and created the humorous educational cartoon series ‘Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids’, about a group of young friends growing up in the city. Cosby also acted in numerous films, although none has received the acclaim of his television work. In 1984, ‘Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids’ stopped production, and ‘The Cosby Show’ commenced.

This portrayal of a middle-class African-American family – the Huxtables -
was originally rejected by ABC, accepted by a then-floundering NBC, and became an almost instant success. From 1985 to 1987 the show broke viewing records, with Cosby becoming a real driving force in US television during the 1980s. ‘The Cosby Show’ finally stopped production in 1992, conceding its dominant position to the cartoon series, ‘The Simpsons’. Cosby was also dissatisfied with the way ethnic minorities were portrayed on television. He produced the TV series ‘A Different World’ in 1987, which was set in a historically black college and concentrated on young people and education.


The late 1990s brought trouble for Cosby, first in early 1997 with the death of his only son, Ennis, who was shot to death in a random act of violence. Also that year, he was dragged into a court case that involved a young woman named Autumn Jackson who claimed that he was her biological father. Cosby admitted to an affair with Jackson's mother but denied fathering Jackson. She was convicted of extortion and sentenced to 26 months in prison. Cosby has received a number of awards during his career and in October 2009, the comedian was presented with the 12th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humour.

Bill Cosby Quotes

In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.

The past is a ghost, the future a dream and all we ever have is now.

Parents are not interested in justice, they're interested in peace and quiet.

You can turn painful situations around through laughter. If you can find humor in anything, even poverty, you can survive it.

Let us now set forth one of the fundamental truths about marriage: the wife is in charge.

I guess the real reason that my wife and I had children is the same reason that Napoleon had for invading Russia: it seemed like a good idea at the time.

No matter how calmly you try to referee, parenting will eventually produce bizarre behavior, and I'm not talking about the kids. Their behavior is always normal.

A grandchild is God's reward for raising a child.

Gray hair is Gods graffiti.

In spite of the seven thousand books of expert advice, the right way to disciplne a child is still a mystery to most fathers and...mothers. Only your grandmother and Genghis Khan know how to do it.

A sail boat that sails backwards can never see the sun rise.

When you become senile, you won't know it.

All Children Have Brain Damage!

There is hope for the future because God has a sense of humor and we are funny to God.

If you want to be seen, stand up.
 If you want to be heard, speak up.
 If you want to be appreciated, shut up.

Is the glass half full, or half empty? It depends on whether you're pouring, or drinking.

Sex education may be a good idea in the schools, but I don't believe the kids should be given homework.

Sigmund Freud once said, "What do women want?" The only thing I have learned in fifty-two years is that women want men to stop asking dumb questions like that.

Men and women belong to different species and communications between them is still in its infancy.

When you introduce competition into the public school system, most studies show that schools start to do better when they are competing for students.

If the new American father feels bewildered and even defeated, let him take comfort from the fact that whatever he does in any fathering situation has a fifty percent chance of being right.

You know the only people who are always sure about the proper way to raise children? Those who've never had any.

Human beings are the only creatures on earth that allow their children to come back home.

The worst thing to do is to die while reading LIFE magazine.