I try to see the good in everybody, and I don’t care who people are as long as they’re themselves, whatever that is.

If you don’t set the tone for the day, the devil will set it for you.

I was born on a full moon. Both my children were born on full moons, too. Some people say that’s scary. It is what it is, man, I don’t be trippin‘. I couldn’t tell God when I wanted to be born.

For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.

If I’m gonna tell a real story, I’m gonna start with my name.

Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.

Commodities such as gold and silver have a world market that transcends national borders, politics, religions, and race. A person may not like someone else’s religion, but he’ll accept his gold.

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.

I always entertain great hopes.

God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another.

No matter the nationality, no matter the religion, no matter the ethnic background, America brings out the best in people.

When you’re doing a film and the majority of the film is cast black, for me, it’s most important to get people to view those movies as just movies, as just good movies. At the end of the day, regardless of the color of the cast, we’re all doing the same thing in this business: trying to make a good film.

Having nothing, nothing can he lose.

I never really had the classic struggle. I had faith.

Life’s too short to deal with other people’s insecurities.

I’m not a sheep.

I made my first white women friends in college; they loved me and were loyal to our friendship, but I understood, as they did, that they were white women and that whiteness mattered.

‚They‘ is… stay away from them, please. There is so many different definitions of ‚they.‘ You might have a personal ‚they.‘ They against you; they want you broken and miserable. They don’t like winners; they don’t like people who’s blessed. So everybody’s got a different ‚they.‘

In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider.

I don’t see the point of doing an interview unless you’re going to share the things you learn in life and the mistakes you make. So to admit that I’m extremely human and have done some dark things I don’t think makes me unusual or unusually dark. I think it actually is the right thing to do, and I’d like to think it’s the nice thing to do.

We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses.

I get that racism exists, but it’s not a catalyst for my content. I don’t need to talk about race to have material. My style of comedy is more self-deprecating. I think that makes me more relatable. When you deal with ‚topics‘ – race, white versus black – you’re not separating from the pack. You’re doing what everybody else is doing.

I wish they would only take me as I am.

Read the Bible. Work hard and honestly. And don’t complain.

The smallest seed of faith is better than the largest fruit of happiness.

Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‚I’m possible‘!

Let freedom reign. The sun never set on so glorious a human achievement.

Honestly, I like everything, boyish girls, girlish boys, the heavy and the skinny.

It’s a representation of yourself, and you can express a lot of your creativity with what your wearing.

I look like a woman, but I think like a man.

My style has always been my own, just like my flow and style.

Every day is a gift from God. There’s no guarantee of tomorrow, so that tells me to see the good in this day to make the most of it.

I don’t like to give advice. I like to give people information because everyone’s life is different, and everyone’s journey is different.

I don’t want to be fake. I’m just being me. And I have the power to break stereotypes and whatever useless rules that society puts on us.

Bragging just sounds good, man.

Sometimes, if you begin to sing in a halfhearted mood, you can sing yourself up the ladder. Singing will often make the heart rise.

I never wanted to stay in one genre; I never wanted to be pigeon-holed or defined as the actor who only worked in one genre. I want to be able to work in all different genres. For me it’s fun, and that’s how I grow as an actor.

It’s very important to know the neighbor next door and the people down the street and the people in another race.

It is better to do one’s own duty, however defective it may be, than to follow the duty of another, however well one may perform it. He who does his duty as his own nature reveals it, never sins.

To such an extent does nature delight and abound in variety that among her trees there is not one plant to be found which is exactly like another; and not only among the plants, but among the boughs, the leaves and the fruits, you will not find one which is exactly similar to another.

What I really want to say: That what the world really needs is a real feeling of kinship. Everybody: stars, laborers, Negroes, Jews, Arabs. We are all brothers.

No man who has once heartily and wholly laughed can be altogether irreclaimably bad.

Keep a good attitude and do the right thing even when it’s hard. When you do that you are passing the test. And God promises you your marked moments are on their way.

Every summer’s mine.

The answer I found is you stay away from the people who make fun of you, and you join these ad hoc groups who understand your craziness.

It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to see the other and honor him for what he is.

I still think I am the greatest.

Men do not accept their prophets and slay them, but they love their martyrs and worship those whom they have tortured to death.

It could be if I fight in front of one person or one million people. It’s still the same emotions.

The philosophical idea that there are no more distances, that we are all just one world, that we are all brothers, is such a drag! I like differences.

Our diversity is our strength. What a dull and pointless life it would be if everyone was the same.

Why, if someone is good in one field can they not be accepted or given the slightest opportunity to express and be creative in other fields?

Accept the terrible responsibility of life with eyes wide open.

All these walls that keep us from loving each other as one family or one race – racism, religion, where we grew up, whatever, class, socioeconomic – what makes us be so selfish and prideful, what keeps us from wanting to help the next man, what makes us be so focused on a personal legacy as opposed to the entire legacy of a race.

No man was ever great by imitation.

Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.

The only service a friend can really render is to keep up your courage by holding up to you a mirror in which you can see a noble image of yourself.

There is nothing wrong with America that faith, love of freedom, intelligence, and energy of her citizens cannot cure.

There is no man on Earth or devil in Hell who can keep you from the very best God put in you.

The only really committed artist is he who, without refusing to take part in the combat, at least refuses to join the regular armies and remains a freelance.

Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it’s always your choice.