Quote Of The Day: William Shatner On Good Deeds

William Shatner is best known for playing James T. Kirk in the “Star Trek” franchise, but the actor has appeared in numerous television roles worth checking out, from “Encounter” to appearances on “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “The Ed Sullivan Show,” and “One Step Beyond.” He also played a frightened flight passenger in the iconic “Twilight Zone” episode “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” where his character is terrorized by a gremlin.

Shatner went on to star in several television shows, including “The Outer Limits,” “Mission: Impossible,” “Gunsmoke,” “Columbo,” and “T. J. Hooker,” among others. The actor also played attorney Denny Crane in “The Practice” and reprised the role in five seasons of “Boston Legal.” His recent television credits include “Psych,” “Private Eyes,” and “Better Late Than Never.” Shatner has earned numerous accolades over the decades, including two Primetime Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and four Saturn Awards.

Shatner was also a part of prominent films like “The Brothers Karamazov,” “Miss Congeniality,” “American Psycho 2,” and many “Star Trek” films. Shatner’s legacy as Captain Kirk is foundational to modern sci-fi, which is why he is today’s quote of the day.

“But what does live on are good deeds. If you do a good deed, it reverberates to the end of time.”

The above quote is from Shatner’s 2023 interview with Variety. When asked about the kind of legacy he wants to leave behind, Shatner countered by saying that there’s no such thing as a legacy. “Statues are torn down. Graveyards are ransacked. Headstones are knocked over. No one remembers anyone,” the actor stated.

Although Shatner’s statement is rather blunt, he grounds it by saying that all that’s left after a person’s death are their good deeds. “It’s the butterfly effect thing,” Shatner states, emphasizing that a good deed is never forgotten.

William Shatner’s quote about legacy should be contextualized against his documentary “You Can Call Me Bill,” which explores his career highlights, influences, and personal interests. “In the movie, I didn’t just want to go on about ‘I did this or that when I was 7, or this is my favorite color,'” Shatner told Variety in the same interview. “I’m trying to discover something I’ve never said before or to find a way to say something I’ve said before in a different way, so I can explore that truth further.”

The premise of such a deeply personal project is inevitably linked to the actor’s legacy — a notion he rejects in favor of tangible actions that are worth being remembered after death. Shatner says that “You Can Call Me Bill” was his way of honoring his truth while dealing with the inevitability of human mortality.

“The sad thing is that the older a person gets, the wiser they become, and then they die with all that knowledge. And it’s gone,” the actor said. “What am I going to do with all these thoughts? What am I going to do with 90 years of observations? The moths of extinction will eat my brain as they will my clothing, and it will all disappear,” Shatner muses, underlining the fleeting nature of life.

• “[On his trip to space] I saw a cold, dark, black emptiness. It was unlike any blackness you can see or feel on Earth. It was deep, enveloping, all-encompassing. I turned back toward the light of home. I could see the curvature of Earth, the beige of the desert, the white of the clouds, and the blue of the sky. It was life. Nurturing, sustaining, life. Mother Earth. Gaia. And I was leaving her.” — from Shatner’s book, “Boldly Go: Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder” (via Variety)
• “[On mortality] I’m glad I didn’t know because what you know at 90 is: Take it easy, nothing matters in the end, what goes up must come down. If I’d known that at 20, I wouldn’t have done anything!” — from a 2021 interview with The Guardian
• “[On ‘Star Trek’ co-star and friend, the late, great Leonard Nimoy] So, when we met and were forced by ‘Star Trek’ to be in each other’s company, we began a friendship. Everything that happened to him, happened to me, through the three years on the set, and the many more years going to events, making the movies. It was a beautiful friendship. I thought and felt about him like a brother, the brother I never had.” — from a 2022 interview with Sharp Magazine