Quotes from Sidney Poitier

I had learned something of Miami from people who had visited there, so I knew what to expect.

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

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

I sometimes like the pictures photographers take of me.

As a man, I've been representative of the values I hold dear. And the values I hold dear are carryovers from the lives of my parents.

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

I am not a hugely religious person, but I believe that there is a oneness with everything. And because there is this oneness, it is possible that my mother is the principal reason for my life.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

History passes the final judgment

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

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

I knew what it was to be uncomfortable in a movie theater watching unfolding on the screen images of myself - not me, but black people - that were uncomfortable.

I lived in a country where I couldn't live where I wanted to live. I lived in a country where I couldn't go where I wanted to eat. I lived in a country where I couldn't get a job, except for those put aside for people of my colour or caste.

I had two roles for which I compromised.

Since I couldn't actuate the things that I wanted to do, the only weapon I had was to say no.

I am the me I choose to be.

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.