Sidney Poitier Quotes

Living consciously involves being genuine; it involves listening and responding to others honestly and openly; it involves being in the moment.

You don't have to become something you're not to be better than you were.

To simply wake up every morning a better person than when I went to bed.

I never had an occasion to question color, therefore, I only saw myself as what I was... a human being.

I was the only Black person on the set. It was unusual for me to be in a circumstance in which every move I made was tantamount to representation of 18 million people.

A person doesn't have to change who he is to become better.

I do know that I'm responsible not for what happens, but for what I make of it.

I am the me I choose to be.

You don't have to become something that you aren't to become better than you are.

I always wanted to be someone better the next day than I was the day before.

I set my star so high that I would constantly be in motion toward it.

I think the way I want to think. I live the way I want to live.

So much of life, it seems to me, is determined by pure randomness.

We're all imperfect, and life is simply a perpetual, unending struggle against those imperfections.

I decided in my life that I would do nothing that did not reflect positively on my father's life.

When you walk with someone, something unspoken happens. Either you match their pace or they match yours.

A good deed here, a good deed there, a good thought here, a good comment there, all added up to my career in one way or another.

I was born two months early, and everyone had given up on me. But my mother insisted on my life.

I have always been a learner because I knew nothing.

If I'm remembered for having done a few good things and if my presence here has sparked some good energies, that's plenty.

There is not racial or ethnic domination of hopelessness. It's everywhere.

True 'joy' is the difference between just amusing ourselves to death and creating 'meaningful' pleasure.

But my dad also was a remarkable man, a good person, a principled individual, a man of integrity.

I had chosen to use my work as a reflection of my values.

So it's been kind of a long road, but it was a good journey altogether.

I couldn't adjust to the racism in Florida. It was so blatant... I had never been so described as Florida described me.

Forgiveness works two ways, in most instances. People have to forgive themselves too. The powerful have to forgive themselves for their behavior. That should be a sacred process.

I'd seen my father. He was a poor man, and I watched him do astonishing things.

If the image one holds of one's self contains elements that don't square with reality, one is best advised to let go of them, however difficult that may be.

Acting isn't a game of "pretend." It's an exercise in being real.

We all suffer from the preoccupation that there exists... in the loved one, perfection.

Every new fashion is a form of rebellion.

My mother was the most amazing person. She taught me to be kind to other women. She believed in family. She was with my father from the first day they met. All that I am, she taught me.

But I always had the ability to say no. That's how I called my own shots.

If you apply reason and logic to this career of mine, you're not going to get very far. You simply won't.

I wouldn't change a single thing, because one change alters every moment that follows it.

My autobiography was simply the story of my life.

As I've mentioned, a large part of my father's legacy is the lesson he taught his sons. He brought us together and said, 'The measure of a man is how well he provides for his children.

The older we get the less afraid we are.

I was a gift to my mother. She was a remarkable person. God or nature, or whatever those forces are, smiled on her, then passed me the best of her.

To be compared to Jackie Robinson is an enormous compliment, but I don't think it's necessarily deserved.

I find myself, at this time in my life, no less challenged, no less plagued, no less intrigued by what I still don't know.

I cannot be understood in three minutes.

In my case, the body of work stands for itself... I think my work has been representative of me as a man.

My father was a poor man, very poor in a British colonial possession where class and race were very important.

I"ve learned that I must find positive outlets for anger or it will destroy me.

I would like to grow less afraid of dying. I am infinitely less afraid today than I was 15 or 25 years ago. I was most afraid of dying when I was 33, because I come from a Catholic family.

I'll always be chasing you... Glory.

Marriage is no way of life for the weak, the selfish, or the insecure.

My father was a tomato farmer. There is the phrase that says he or she worked their fingers to the bone, well, that's my dad. And he was a very good man.