Wit & Attitude Quote by Harry Anderson

Harry Anderson’s line lands like a barroom aphorism with a showman’s shrug: everybody knows the stars are untouchable, but the real tell is who keeps reaching anyway. It’s a neat flip of the usual motivational script. Most pep-talk culture frames ambition as something the smart pursue and the foolish overreach. Anderson reverses it: the “fool” is the one who can recite the limits, while the “wise” are the ones willing to look ridiculous in public for the chance of getting closer than anyone expects.

The intent isn’t to deny reality; it’s to downgrade reality’s authority. “You can’t” is treated as common knowledge, almost boring. Wisdom, in this framing, isn’t measured by accurate forecasting but by a cultivated refusal to let inevitability become obedience. The subtext is about dignity: trying for the impossible is not a failure mode, it’s a stance. There’s also a little sting in the phrase “won’t keep” - as if the wise are mildly annoyed by the reminder, because they’ve already decided the attempt is the point.

Coming from an actor, the quote quietly defends the entire profession’s gamble. Performance runs on visible risk: auditions, rejection, public embarrassment, the thin line between “aspiring” and “delusional.” Anderson’s showbiz context gives the sentence its credibility. In a culture that loves to call dreamers naive after the fact, he offers a different status symbol: not success, but the nerve to keep reaching when the outcome is basically written in pencil.