Sidney Poitier > Quotes

“I am the me I choose to be.”
― Sidney Poitier

“A person doesn't have to change who he is to become better.”
― Sidney Poitier, The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography

“I don't mean to be like some old guy from the olden days who says, "I walked thirty miles to school every morning, so you kids should too." That's a statement born of envy and resentment. What I'm saying is something quite different. What I'm saying is that by having very little, I had it good. Children need a sense of pulling their own weight, of contributing to the family in some way, and some sense of the family's interdependence. They take pride in knowing that they're contributing. They learn responsibility and discipline through meaningful work. The values developed within a family that operates on those principles then extend to the society at large. By not being quite so indulged and "protected" from reality by overflowing abundance, children see the bonds that connect them to others.”
― Sidney Poitier, The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography

“I've learned that I must find positive outlets for anger or it will destroy me. There is a certain anger: it reaches such intensity that to express it fully would require homicidal rage--self destructive, destroy the world rage--and its flame burns because the world is so unjust. I have to try to find a way to channel that anger to the positive, and the highest positive is forgiveness.”
― Sidney Poitier, The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography

“Okay listen, you think I'm so inconsequential? Then try this on for size. All those who see unworthiness when they look at me and are given thereby to denying me value - to you I say, I'm not talking about being AS GOOD as you. I hereby declare myself BETTER than you. ”
― Sidney Poitier, The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography

“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.”
― Sidney Poitier, The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography

“Child psychologists have demonstrated that our minds are actually constructed by these thousands of tiny interactions during the first few years of life. We aren't just what we're taught. It's what we experience during those early years - a smile here, a jarring sound there - that creates the pathways and connections of the brain. We put our kids to fifteen years of quick-cut advertising, passive television watching, and sadistic video games, and we expect to see emerge a new generation of calm, compassionate, and engaged human beings?”
― Sidney Poitier, The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography

“You don't have to become something you're not to be better than you were.”
― Sidney Poitier, The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography

“As I entered this world, I would leave behind the nurturing of my family and my home, but in another sense I would take their protection with me. The lessons I had learned, the feelings of groundedness and belonging that have been woven into my character there, would be my companions on the journey.”
― Sidney Poitier, The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography

“We're all somewhat courageous, and we're all considerably cowardly. We're all imperfect, and life is simply a perpetual, unending struggle against those imperfections.”
― Sidney Poitier, The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography

“So much of life, it seems, is determined by pure randomness.”
― Sidney Poitier

“Accept that environment compromises values far more than values do their number on environment.”
― Sidney Poitier, The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography

“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.”
― Sidney Poitier, The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography

“Acting isn't a game of "pretend." It's an exercise in being real.”
― Sidney Poitier

“Of all my father's teachings, the most enduring was the one about the true measure of a man. That true measure was how well he provided for his children, and it stuck with me as if it were etched in my brain.”
― Sidney Poitier, The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography

“I"ve learned that I must find positive outlets for anger or it will destroy me.”
― Sidney Poitier, The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography

“But perhaps more important, as someone wishing to make a comment or two about contemporary life and values, I don't have to dig through libraries or travel to exotic lands to arrive at a view of our modern situation refracted through the lens of the preindustrial world, or the uncommercialized, unfranchised, perhaps unsanitized-and therefore supposedly more "authentic"-perspective ofthe Third World. Very simply, this is because that "other" world, as alien as if separated by centuries in time, is the one from which I came”
― Sidney Poitier, The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography

“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.”
― Sidney Poitier, The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography

“...you know?”
― Sidney Poitier, The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography

“Greed and cruelty are pretty widely distributed throughout humanity, as are their victims.”
― Sidney Poitier, The Measure of a Man

“We put our kids to fifteen years of quick-cut advertising, passive television watching, and sadistic video games, and we expect to see emerge a new generation of calm, compassionate, and engaged human beings?”
― Sidney Poitier, The Measure of a Man

“We fight good wars in medical laboratories, endlessly seeking to cure the scourges of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and mental illness. We fight good wars when we devote time, energy, and money to relieve the suffering of hungry people around the world. We fight good wars when we come to the aid of those struck by the overwhelming forces of capricious nature: fire, flood, drought, hurricanes, and earthquakes. We fight good wars when we refuse to allow injustice to be done to others. We fight good wars when we oppose hate, bigotry, and ignorance. These”
― Sidney Poitier, Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter

“When you’re addressing power, don’t expect it to crumble willingly. If you’re going to say, “Hey now, look you guys, please look at what you did and look at yourselves and punish yourselves and at least try to square this thing, right?”—well, you’ll make slower progress at that than you would expect. I mean, even the most modest expectations are going to be unfulfilled. Think about it. Today there are still people all over the world who maintain that the Holocaust didn’t happen. There are people in the United States—people among that power echelon we speak of—who maintain that all slaves were happy. There are those power symbols that always say, “Well, it was for the good of the states. It was for the cohesion of the political process.” There are myriad justifications for denial. There are also people who say, “Hey, after thirty years of affirmative action, they’ve got it made. Black people—it’s their own fault if they can’t make it today.” Yeah, well, of course they say that. And they say it not just about black people. They say it in every country. We did something for you people, whoever “you” are. And we think that’s quite enough now. That’s the gist of it: we’ve done something, and we think it’s enough. It may not be perfect, but it damn sure comes close to being okay. Now let us hear you applaud that for a little while. And thank us. And you can take that hat off your head when you come in here thanking us. That’s the way it is. But let’s not get stuck there. We have miles to go before we sleep. We have lots to do, and some things just aren’t going to get done, you know?”
― Sidney Poitier, The Measure of a Man

“The willingness to receive help and appreciate its value when it arrives, sometimes unannounced, is a subject that returns us to the question of why and how our lives turn out as they do.”
― Sidney Poitier, Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter

“But there is one key ingredient that my wife has helped me to recognize over the years, and that is the importance of articulating love for one another on a daily basis. The words I love you, spoken in acknowledgment in the morning upon rising and before going to bed, or when sitting down to dine, make the most beautiful music recognized by human ears.”
― Sidney Poitier, Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter

“A tiny bit of myself is lost when my friends are gone. A tiny bit of myself was lost when my brothers, all but one, passed away.”
― Sidney Poitier, Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter

“John Cassavetes once gave me some advice that has proved invaluable... He said, 'We're good friends, but never, ever do an artistic favor for a friend. Loan friends money, be there for them in every other way, but don't do them any artistic favors, because you've got to have one area of your life where there's no room for compromise.”
― Sidney Poitier

“I’m telling you this so that if you ever are in the position of carrying a secret about something that you have done that makes you ashamed you will make the choice to confront yourself. It will take guts to admit that you have behaved in a way that prevents you from being your better self, and then choose to act differently. It”
― Sidney Poitier, Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter

“fear is a visceral response to imminent jeopardy, real or perceived, threatening to come crashing down on you with devastating results. Undoubtedly”
― Sidney Poitier, Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter

“We are what we are, and half of what we are is what we are not.”
― Sidney Poitier, Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter