Quotes from Sidney Poitier

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

I was not the kind of a principal player that was so in demand that eight or 10 or 12 scripts came per month.

Far as I can tell, I still have most of my hair, my gut is not hanging over my belt, and I still have all of my teeth.

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.

My autobiography was simply the story of my life.

I had to satisfy the action fans, the romantic fans, the intellectual fans. It was a terrific burden.

Racism is very painful. That's life. It never ends.

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

I couldn't adjust to the racism in Florida.

I come from a great family. I've seen family life and I know how wonderful, how nurturing, and how wonderful it can be.

I'm going to quit writing.

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

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'm a good person.

I know how easy it is for one to stay well within moral, ethical, and legal bounds through the skillful use of words - and to thereby spin, sidestep, circumvent, or bend a truth completely out of shape. To that extent, we are all liars on numerous occasions.

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

I learned to hear silence. That's the kind of life I lived: simple. I learned to see things in people around me, in my mom, dad, brothers and sisters.

The journey has been incredible from its beginning.

I want my great-granddaughter to have a fairly good understanding of the world in which I lived for 81 years and also the world before I came into it - all the way back a hundred thousand years, to the beginning of our species.

So I had to be careful. I recognized the responsibility that, whether I liked it or not, I had to accept whatever the obligation was. That was to behave in a manner, to carry myself in such a professional way, as if there ever is a reflection, it's a positive one.

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

Generally, I tend to despise human behavior rather than human creatures.

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.

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