Quotes by Sidney Poitier

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

“If you apply reason and logic to this career of mine, youre not going to get very far. You simply wont. The journey has been incredible from its beginning. So much of life, it seems to me, is determined by pure randomness.”

“Southern Gentleman.”

“[Smith said he, too, is pleased by the recognition of African-American actors. He noted that Poitier was the last man to win a best actor award] and that was 28 years ago. ... Lilies of the Field.”

“Ill always be chasing you, ... Glory.”

“My mother is a Bahamian. My father is a Bahamian, as am I, ... And all that I am, Ive received from them and a country that has today given me the opportunities, and to my grandchildren, that I have never dreamt of.”

Child psychologists have demonstrated that our minds are actually constructed by these thousands of tiny interactions during the first few years of life. We arent just what were taught. Its 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?

A person doesnt have to change who he is to become better.

Okay listen, you think Im 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, Im not talking about being AS GOOD as you. I hereby declare myself BETTER than you.

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

Accept that environment compromises values far more than values do their number on environment.

I decided in my life that I would do nothing that did not reflect positively on my fathers life.

I had chosen to use my work as a reflection of my values.

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

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

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.

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, thats my dad. And he was a very good man.