1. “I cannot be understood in three minutes.” ― Sidney Poitier
2. “But I always had the ability to say no. That’s how I called my own shots.” ― Sidney Poitier
3. “If I’m remembered for having done a few good things, and if my presence here has sparked some good energies, that’s plenty.” ― Sidney Poitier
4. “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.” ― Sidney Poitier
5. “To simply wake up every morning a better person than when I went to bed.” ― Sidney Poitier
6. “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.” ― Sidney Poitier
7. “A person doesn’t have to change who he is to become better.” ― Sidney Poitier
8. “I never had an occasion to question color, therefore, I only saw myself as what I was… a human being.” ― Sidney Poitier
9. “I’ll always be chasing you… Glory.” ― Sidney Poitier
10. “I never had an occasion to question color, therefore, I only saw myself as what I was… a human being.” ― Sidney Poitier
11. “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.” ― Sidney Poitier
12. “If you apply reason and logic to this career of mine, you’re not going to get very far. You simply won’t.” ― Sidney Poitier
13. “I’m not a library.” ― Sidney Poitier
14. “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
15. “We’re all imperfect, and life is simply a perpetual, unending struggle against those imperfections.” ― Sidney Poitier
16. “You don’t have to become something you’re not to be better than you were.” ― Sidney Poitier
17. “I feel, internally, that I am an ordinary person who has had an extraordinary life.” ― Sidney Poitier
18. “Every new fashion is a form of rebellion.” ― Sidney Poitier
19. “So much of life, it seems to me, is determined by pure randomness.” ― Sidney Poitier
20. “I think the way I want to think. I live the way I want to live.” ― Sidney Poitier
21. “I wanted to explore the values that are at work, underpinning my life.” ― Sidney Poitier
22. “I did not go into the film business to be symbolized as someone else’s vision of me.” ― Sidney Poitier
23. “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.” ― Sidney Poitier
24. “I always wanted to be someone better the next day than I was the day before.” ― Sidney Poitier
25. “I wouldn’t change a single thing, because one change alters every moment that follows it.” ― Sidney Poitier
26. “The journey has been incredible from its beginning.” ― Sidney Poitier
27. “I wouldn’t change a single thing, because one change alters every moment that follows it.” ― Sidney Poitier
28. “I am the me I choose to be.” ― Sidney Poitier
29. “When I set out to become an actor, I had set myself a standard.” ― Sidney Poitier
30. “In America, it is difficult to be your own man.” ― Sidney Poitier
31. “I was not the kind of a principal player that was so in demand that eight or 10 or 12 scripts came per month.” ― Sidney Poitier
32. “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.” ― Sidney Poitier
33. “I had to satisfy the action fans, the romantic fans, the intellectual fans. It was a terrific burden.” ― Sidney Poitier
34. “History passes the final judgment.” ― Sidney Poitier
35. “We all suffer from the preoccupation that there exists… in the loved one, perfection.” ― Sidney Poitier
36. “Generally, I tend to despise human behavior rather than human creatures.” ― Sidney Poitier
37. “I have always been a learner because I knew nothing.” ― Sidney Poitier
38. “I always had the ability to say no. That’s how I called my own shots.” ― Sidney Poitier
39. “I come from a great family. I’ve seen family life and I know how wonderful, how nurturing, and how wonderful it can be.” ― Sidney Poitier
40. “The impact of the black audience is expressing itself. They look to films to be more expressive of their needs, their lives. Hollywood has gotten that message – finally.” ― Sidney Poitier
41. “I had chosen to use my work as a reflection of my values.” ― Sidney Poitier