Tavis Smiley Quotes

The data is going to indicate sadly that when the Obama administration is over, black people will have lost ground in every single leading economic indicator category.

The choices we make about the lives we live determine the kinds of legacies we leave.

Don't envy someone else's gift. Discover your own.

The storm came. Lives were washed away. Ancient pains resurfaced. Now it is time for a sea of change.

Sometimes rejection in life is really redirection.

I believe if we make black America better, we make all of America better.

We need to elect leaders who understand that leadership is about loving and serving people, not about self-advancement.

Poverty and wealth inequality are a form of instability into the future.

Regardless of your race, religion or political affiliation, never hesitate to question those in authority.

Why don't we scale up those things that do work.

Capitalism is like a child: if you want the child to grow up free and productive, somebody's got to look over the shoulder of that child.

This administration and these folk who run Washington are no more interested in our welfare and our well being than the man on the moon. And we have got to start taking our destiny into our hands.

Live just because or live your life for a cause

In some states, not even 50 percent of black boys finish high school.

I don't want the Obama era to be more about symbolism than substance when it comes to black people. I love him, but I love black people even more.

Losing teaches you something

We give you the facts. I told you information is power - knowledge is power. We can't be in an ideological battle to redeem the soul of this country if we don't have the facts.

How do you grow up in the shadow of a guy - I want to talk about the movie in a second - but how do you grow up in the shadow of a guy who really is a legend in his own time?

I still think in this country, and this might surprise you, the one thing that George Bush said as president that I do agree with, I love that phrase, "the soft bigotry of low expectations."

When you work for something, you appreciate it more. So what are y'all going to do with all the opportunities you inherited that you didn't have to work for?

To be clear, the gap between the have gots and the have nots is widening. In this most multicultural, multiracial, multiethnic America ever, that concerns me.

My acting gives me my self-worth

Be careful about gossiping because loose lips really do sink ships.

History is replete with examples of moments in time when we talk about deficit reduction and try to advance on it around the world, that is, where it leads to job losses, not job creation.

What determines your altitude in life is your attitude.

I grew. Going outside my comfort zone is a big one for me.

I feel like I've been successful after being done with the film is when I see it, if I'm embarrassed, if I'm slightly mortified, and if I feel super-vulnerable, I think I did something.

I just find in our world that forgiveness is becoming more and more a difficult thing for us to do.

For me, like when you've put yourself out there emotionally, physically, and you've really put yourself on the line, for me, that means I've really done something.

When I'm at the premiere and I see the film in its entirety, I forget plot, I forget the story, I forget what my character goes through, because I really do just let it go.

I think when I stop fighting, I die in a sense.

Fear, fear, breeds hopelessness. When you're afraid, you don't know what to believe in, you don't know what to hold on to. You're struggling to find something to believe in.

If you don't have courage, you can't practice any of the other virtues.

Troubled times do call for troubled songs, songs that unsettle our souls and our spirits unapologetically.

It's hard these days to have a conversation, at least it is for me, about [Truman]Capote without "Good Night, and Good Luck" coming up in the same conversation.

I can't count the number of people I've talked to over the course of my career who have said to me that the thing that they most regret is the one time they did something just for the money.

I wanted to be a theater actress, and initially, I wanted to work in musical theater

Music is the soundtrack of our lives, it's essential for our lives.

Having to try and going through the trials and tribulations to actually overcome, to get there to win, to triumph, that's what makes life interesting

Competition's always been a product of American lifestyle

Loving your enemy is a radical concept.

This is not a skill problem, this is a will problem. Does America have the will to make education a priority? We know the things that work. Why don't we scale up those things that do work.

This whole notion of a post racial America was nonsense from the very beginning. It was a bad idea, a bad notion, a bad formulation when it was first raised.

We come to know who we really are in life during the dark and difficult and desolate days of our journey.

I fear that we are living in a society, living in a world where forgiving people is becoming more and more difficult to do.

John Carlos provided the world with one of the most iconic images of the 1960s with his Black Power salute after a medal-winning performance at the 1968 summer games.

I'm always fascinated by people from the Midwest, because it is so different than Hollywood, who discover at some point that they want to be in Hollywood.

He was a humanist then, he's a humanist now, and to my mind John Carlos is an authentic American hero.

[John Carlos] has spent much of his life since that time as a dedicated human rights advocate and public speaker, and he is out now with a wonderful new text; a memoir, in fact.

Democrats, too often, take blacks for granted, and Republicans, too often, simply ignore black voters.