"I'd rather be a could-be if I cannot be an are; because a could-be is a maybe who is reaching for a star. I'd rather be a has-been than a might-have-been, by far; for a might have-been has never been, but a has was once an are"
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Berle turns a vaudeville word-juggle into a surprisingly tough little manifesto about ambition, aging, and the dignity of trying. The grammar is deliberately mangled - "could-be", "are", "has-been" - because he is talking about identity the way show business treats it: as a label you wear, not a soul you possess. By chopping life into tenses, he makes status feel like something the culture can stamp onto you in five seconds.
The punch is how he rehabilitates two insults. "Could-be" usually means amateur hour, but Berle frames it as motion: a "maybe" with momentum, "reaching for a star". That image is pure entertainment economy - success as celestial, distant, and publicly visible - yet it also insists that aspiration has moral value even when it fails. Then he flips "has-been", the cruelest industry shorthand for irrelevance, into evidence: at least you entered the arena. You were an "are" once. You existed in the present tense when it counted.
The real target is the "might-have-been", a phrase soaked in cocktail-party regret and private self-mythology. Berle, a comedian who watched careers rocket and vanish (including his own, repeatedly), is allergic to the romance of unrealized potential. The subtext is almost combative: don't protect your ego by staying hypothetical. Better to risk embarrassment, even obsolescence, than to hoard a pristine version of yourself that never meets the world. In Berle's universe, failure is a credit; nonparticipation is the only unpayable debt.
The punch is how he rehabilitates two insults. "Could-be" usually means amateur hour, but Berle frames it as motion: a "maybe" with momentum, "reaching for a star". That image is pure entertainment economy - success as celestial, distant, and publicly visible - yet it also insists that aspiration has moral value even when it fails. Then he flips "has-been", the cruelest industry shorthand for irrelevance, into evidence: at least you entered the arena. You were an "are" once. You existed in the present tense when it counted.
The real target is the "might-have-been", a phrase soaked in cocktail-party regret and private self-mythology. Berle, a comedian who watched careers rocket and vanish (including his own, repeatedly), is allergic to the romance of unrealized potential. The subtext is almost combative: don't protect your ego by staying hypothetical. Better to risk embarrassment, even obsolescence, than to hoard a pristine version of yourself that never meets the world. In Berle's universe, failure is a credit; nonparticipation is the only unpayable debt.
Quote Details
| Topic | Motivational |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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