Oscar Hammerstein II - biography

“I know the world is filled with troubles and many injustices.  But reality is as beautiful as it is ugly.  I think it is just as important to sing about beautiful mornings as it is to talk about slums.  I just couldn’t write anything without hope in it.”

“You gotta have a dream.  If you don’t have a dream, how you gonna make a dream come true?”

“If you become a teacher, by your pupils you’ll be taught.”

“You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear.”

“A bell’s not a bell ’til you ring it, A song’s not a song ’til you sing it, Love in your heart wasn’t put there to stay, Love isn’t love ’til you give it away!”

“Be brave, young lovers, and follow your star.”

“Do you love me because I’m beautiful, or am I beautiful because you love me?”

“Peace is not the product of a victory or a command.  It has no finishing line, no final deadline, no fixed definition of achievement.  Peace is a never-ending process, the work of many decisions.”

“The dearest things I know are what you are.”

“The number of people who will not go to a show they do not want to see is unlimited.”

“There is nothin’ like a dame.”

“What is a sophisticate?  He is a man who thinks he can swim better than he can and sometimes he drowns.”

Oscar Hammerstein II contributed to the screenplay for the following films:
Viennese Nights (1930)
Golden Dawn (1930)
Song of the West (1930)
Music in the Air (1934)
Sweet Adeline (1934)
Rose-Marie (1936)
Show Boat (1936)
High, Wide, and Handsome (1937)
Swing High, Swing Low (1937)
The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939)
New Moon (1940)
The Desert Song (1943)
State Fair (1945)
Show Boat (1951)
The Desert Song (1953)
Carmen Jones (1954)
Rose Marie (1954)
Oklahoma! (1955)
Carousel (1956)
The King and I (1956)
South Pacific (1958)
The King and I (1999)