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Daily Inspiration Quote by F. Murray Abraham

"I'm not going to just say nice things about everybody unless I mean it"

About this Quote

There’s a small act of rebellion tucked into that plainspoken line: an actor refusing the polite-mandatory praise cycle. “I’m not going to just say nice things about everybody unless I mean it” reads like a boundary set against an industry that runs on soft consensus - the red-carpet compliment, the “brilliant” co-star, the ritual thanks to everyone who ever held a boom mic. Abraham isn’t performing cruelty; he’s rejecting the performance of kindness as currency.

The intent is credibility. By declaring a higher bar for praise, he’s telling you his approval is scarce enough to matter. That’s a shrewd rhetorical move for a veteran character actor: he’s not selling approachability, he’s selling discernment. It also hints at fatigue with the way “nice” can become a professional obligation, a lubricant for networking rather than a genuine response to work. The subtext: forced positivity is its own kind of dishonesty, and dishonesty is corrosive to craft.

Context matters because Abraham’s career has been defined by precision and intensity, often in roles that require moral complication rather than charm. From that vantage, indiscriminate niceness can look like a flattening of reality - a demand to keep everything socially smooth even when the truth is messier. The line positions frankness as respect: if he says something good, it’s earned, not granted. In a culture addicted to applause, he’s quietly insisting that sincerity is worth the social discomfort.

Quote Details

TopicHonesty & Integrity
SourceHelp us find the source
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Abraham, F. Murray. (2026, January 15). I'm not going to just say nice things about everybody unless I mean it. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/im-not-going-to-just-say-nice-things-about-140650/

Chicago Style
Abraham, F. Murray. "I'm not going to just say nice things about everybody unless I mean it." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/im-not-going-to-just-say-nice-things-about-140650/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I'm not going to just say nice things about everybody unless I mean it." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/im-not-going-to-just-say-nice-things-about-140650/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

F Murray Abraham on Honest Praise
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F. Murray Abraham (born October 24, 1939) is a Actor from USA.

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