Denzel Quotes

Do what you gotta do so you can do what you wanna do.

At the end of the day, it's not about what you have or even what you've accomplished. It's about what you've done with those accomplishments. Its about who you've lifted up, who you've made better. It about what you've given back" (23).

If you have an enemy, then learn and know your enemy, don't just be mad at him or her

What it taught me was forgiveness. It taught me that when people present themselves in a certain way, there's probably some back story or issue or reason for the way that they are. It's not you. It's them. And a lot of times, its about something that's completely out of their control

So you never know who you touch. You never know how or when you'll have an impact, or how important your example can be to someone else" (20).

Luck is when opportunity meets preparation.

We do what we have to so we can do what we want to.

The strongest, toughest men all have compassion. They're not heartless and cold. You have to be man enough to have compassion - to care about people and about your children" (217) - John Singleton "Oh Man, I've Become My Father

Some people will never like you because your spirit irritates their demons.

You pray for rain, you gotta deal with the mud too. That's a part of it.

Do what you have to do, to do what you want to do.

Just because you are doing a lot more doesn't mean you are getting a lot done. Don't confuse movement with progress!

Without commitment, you'll never start. But more importantly, without consistency, you'll never finish.

There is nothing good or bad, except by comparison" (209) - "Effort is Everything" by Bud Selig

When you don't understand something, you label it and condemn it" (94) - Danny Glover, "The Fundamental Things

What are you doing extra? That's what counts. That's when you're working hard - when you're going above and over what's expected of you" (102). - Tony Gonzalez, "The Giant Within

So you never know who you are going to touch. You never know how or when you'll have an impact, or how important your example can be to someone else" (20) - Denzel Washington, "So that We Might Follow

There are two kinds of pain in this world. The pain that hurts, the pain that alters.

Old man’s gotta be the old man, fish has gotta be the fish. You gotta be who you are in this world, no matter what.

Don't tell me what they said about me. Tell me why they were so comfortable to say it to you.

A wise woman knows the importance of speaking life into her man. If you love him; believe in him, encourage him and be his peace.

There's nothing good or bad, except by comparison" (210) - Bud Selig "Effort is Everything

Don't get all sentimental on me, Makes me think I'm gonna die.

Fall forward!

do what you got to do now, so you can do what you want to do later

Just because you don’t share it on social media, doesn't mean you’re not up to big things. Live it and stay low key. Privacy is everything.

Don't just aspire to make a living, aspire to make a difference.

And the more the image of black men is connected to everything wrong with the world, the easier it is to justify killing us. Racism comes to be seen as a natural reaction to the existence of black monsters.

Every day, sincerely and without phoniness, Lou demonstrated by his actions how very vital it is - more than anything else - to understand and appreciate the people who work with you...Do your job well, but always remember that the people you work with are your most valuable asset. Embrace them. Honor them. Respect them" (206) - "Prescriptions for Success" by John Schuerholz

We have all received our share of good fortune, so that's my definition of much. A single blessing is all the bounty in the world, and if you've been blessed at all you're meant to pass some of that on. You're meant to set a positive example. That's our responsibility" (20).

No matter what accomplishments you achieve, somebody helped you. —ALTHEA GIBSON • A mentor is someone who allows you to see the higher part of yourself when sometimes it becomes hidden to your own view. —OPRAH WINFREY • Show me a successful individual and I’ll show you someone who had positive influences in his or her life…. A mentor. —DENZEL WASHINGTON

We've all received our share of good fortune, so that's my definition of much. A single blessing is all the bounty in the world, and if you've been blessed at all you're meant to pass some of that on. You're meant to set a positive example. That's our responsibility" (20) - Denzel Washington, "So that We Might Follow

He taught us that everyone has a good story and the more of others you understand, the better your grasp of human nature, a gift given great weight in my family" (73). - Bill Clinton, "Paying Attention

Do what you have to do, to do what you want to do!

You have to do what you gotta do in this life in order to do what you wanna do...

What are you doing extra? That's what counts. That's when you're working hard - when you're going above and over what's expected of you" (102) - Tony Gonzalez, "The Giant Within

I know I got to eat. But I got to live too.

You'll never see a U-Haul behind a hearse,' Denzel Washington often said as we worked together on 'Fences.' 'I don't care how much money you have or what level of notoriety you've achieved, you can't take any of it with you.' There is a cap on earthly success, a ceiling on the amount of joy that possessions and awards can bring before disillusionment sets in. Our appearance, our prosperity, the applause: all of it is so fleeting. But a life of true significance has unlimited impact. It is measured in how well we've loved those around us, how much we've given away, how many seeds we've sown along our path. During her ninety-six years, Ms. [Cicely] Tyson has discovered the potent elixir: she has lived a life of that is bigger than she is, an existence grounded in purpose and flourishing in service to others. That is her defining masterpiece. That is her enduring gift to us all. [Viola Davis, Foreword]

Anger is what makes our struggle visible, and our struggle is what exposes they hypocrisy of a nation that fashions itself a moral leader. To rise against the narrative and expose the lie gives opportunity to those whose identity depends on the lie to question and, hopefully, change.

Follow your heart then love will follow your footsteps.

I say luck is when an opportunoty comes along, and you're prepared for it.

Success? I don't know what that word means. I'm happy. But success, that goes back to what in somebody's eyes success means. For me, success is inner peace. That's a good day for me.

He taught us that everyone has a story and the more you understand, the better your grasp of human nature, a gift given great weight in my family" (73) - Bill Clinton "Paying Attention

Every day, sincerely and without phoniness, Lou demonstrated by his actions how very vital it is - more than anything else - to understand and appreciate the people who work with you....Do your job well, learn your job well, but always remember that the people you work with are your most valuable asset. Embrace them. Honor them. Respect them" (206) "Prescriptions for Success" by John Schuerholz

Our struggle has inspired oppressed people the world over, because if former slaves can make the most powerful nation face itself, there's a chance for everyone else. In a twist, our rage becomes hope for others.

There is no UHaul behind the hearse.

The nigger is America's greatest asset and its biggest fear

We shouldn't be seeking the respect of an unjust system that will not respect us on the basis of our humanity alone.

At your highest moment, be careful, that's when the devil comes for you.

Ease is greatest threat to progress

Don’t just aspire to make a living. Aspire to make a difference.

Denzel Washington reminds us of this point: “You never know who you touch. You never know how or when you’ll have an impact, or how important your example can be to someone else.

To my Newly Forming Black Radical mind, women -- more specifically black women -- had a way of existing without being present. It's a natural result of consuming history and culture through the fables of masculine triumph.

Guys, this is just like that YouTube series Stuck Inside Minecraft by that streamer Michael,” Pari mentioned. “Pari…that’s an animation. It’s a show. It’s not real. This is nothing like that!” Denzel replied. “This is real!

What would we happen if we reframed the way we understand black male life in a way that took mental health seriously? If we looked outside and didn't see ruthless gangbangers, but teenage boys left hopeless and giving themselves suicide missions. If instead of chastising young men for fighting over sneakers we asked why they felt worthless and unseen without them. If we didn't label them junkies, but rather recognized their need for affirmation.

Anger is what makes our struggle visible, and our struggle is what exposes the hypocrisy of a nation that fashions itself a moral leader. To rise against the narrative and expose the lie gives opportunity to those whose identity depends on the lie to question and, hopefully, change.

He did everything. He studied hard. He went to Harvard. He got married. He had children. He worked. He dreamed big. He pulled his bootstraps all the way up from his humble beginnings to the presidency. He lived the American Dream. And he was called an African Witch Doctor. People asked for his birth certificate. A congressman shouted at him "YOU LIE!" He faced the most recalcitrant Republican Congress ever that was elected by a constituency that wanted to "take the country back."If a black man can be elected as guardian of the American empire, do exactly that, and still not be shielded from racism, what hope is supposed to be left?

People as diverse as James Baldwin and Michelle Obama, Miles Davis and Toni Morrison, Spike Lee and Denzel Washington, and anonymous teachers, store clerks, steelworkers, and physicians, were all products of the Great Migration. They were all children whose life chances were altered because a parent or grandparent had made the hard decision to leave.

Put God first in everything you do … Everything that I have is by the grace of God, understand that. It’s a gift … I didn’t always stick with Him, but He stuck with me.

Nothing in life is worthwhile unless you take risks. Fall forward. Every failed experiment is one step closer to success.

Talent comes from God. If you have been given some, then value it, cultivate it, work and develop it.

There are those of us who can retreat to a fantastical America, and those of us who are always here—stuck.

Don't just aspire to make a living, aspire to make a difference

One of the privileges of not being a part of a marginalized group is believing you can set your own benchmarks for bigotry.

He failed to appeal to the American ego, to be a cheerleader for American exceptionalism.

Good things come to those who wait but why wait when all good things come too a end.

Success? I don’t know what that word means. I’m happy. But success, that goes back to what in somebody’s eyes success means. For me, success is inner peace. That’s a good day for me.

Maybe I should go to jail to get my name up Then get out and show you how to fuck the game up [...] Get suburban white kids that want to hang with us It's your friendly neighborhood, I don't give a fuck!

So the desire you have, that itch that you have to be whatever it is you want to be … that itch, that desire for good is God’s proof to you sent already to indicate that it’s yours. You already have it. Claim it.

The most insidious and remarkable quality of American mythmaking is the ability to swallow up the lives of those who stood in open rebellion to the American project and turn them into obedient symbols of American exceptionalism.

At the end of the day, it’s not about what you have or even what you’ve accomplished. It’s about what you’ve done with those accomplishments. It’s about who you’ve lifted up, who you’ve made better. It's about what you’ve given back.

We make a grave mistake every time we invoke the history of oppression to diminish the reality of racism's present. Progress is real, but the narrative of progress seduces us into inaction. If we believe, simply, that it gets better, there is no incentive to do the work to ensure that it does.

But the anger has not only drawn attention to injustice; it has driven people to action, sparking movements and spurring them forward. At the very least, the public expression of black rage has allowed communities and people who have felt isolated in their own anger to know that they are not alone. Anger is what makes our struggle visible.

The problem is when progress becomes its own ideology—that is, when advocacy for incrementalism is seen as the astute and preferred mode of political transformation. It is never easy to win, but progress is also never sufficient. Incremental change keeps the grinding forces of oppression—death—in place. Actively advocating for this position is a moral failure.

I hope at 50 I'll be dancing like Gianluca Vacchi Party, whiskey, Bellini, Martini, Bloody Maries Bad & Boujee, Tutti Fruity booty, type that really moves me Kundalini rising, energy fill me completely I hope at 50 I'll be writing books like JK Rowling Pen and paper take me places, countries far and foreign Find a cafe up in Edinburgh, write in Scotland Let the stories in my head come out, bloom and blossom I hope at 50
I'll be wealthy like Carlos Slim Buying yachts and mansions and my mother shiny things Encrusted diamond dial on a new Patek Philippe Chill in Maldives but do charity in Ardabil I hope at 50
I'll be funny like Stephen Colbert Cracking witty jokes, making everyone laugh in tears Laughter it goes round and round like a carousel Chronic comic sonic sounds of haha everywhere I hope at 50
I'll be stoic like Robert De Niro Zeno school of thought put an end to my evil ego I hope at 50
I'll be fit as The Rock, Dwayne Johnson Hard rock abs to be paired with an even harder mindset I hope at 50,
I'll be wise like Denzel Washington
Wisdom, knowledge and the faith of God under my skin I hope at 50,
I'll find real love like George Clooney
Amal Alamuddin clone is the type that really moves me

If you’re in a female-dominated field such as social services or education, you may not face many obvious double standards. But if, for instance, you make your living in front of a camera, then you know full well that if you balloon up to a size 4, your career can tank, while leading men such as Denzel Washington, John Travolta, and Russell Crowe can go from hunk to chunk with no dip in box-office appeal or earnings.

Clara gawked. Like Myrna herself, her bouquets were huge, effusive and unexpected. This one contained oak and maple branches, bulrushes from the Riviere Bella Bella which ran behind Myrna’s bookshop, apple branches with a couple of McIntoshes still on them, and great armfuls of herbs. ‘What’s this?’ ‘Where?’ ‘Here, in the middle of the arrangement.’ ‘A kielbassa.’ ‘A sausage?’ ‘Hummuh, and look in there,’ Myrna pointed into the tangle. ‘The Collected Works of W. H. Auden,’ Clara read. ‘You’re kidding.’ ‘It’s for the boys.’ ‘What else is in there?’ Clara scanned the immense arrangement. ‘Denzel Washington. But don’t tell Gabri.

My kids have so much, and it's the only way I can teach them that there is a responsibility to their life that comes with being lucky. You give some of yourself to others.

Goals on the road to achievement cannot be achieved without discipline and consistency.

The chances you take… the people you meet… the people you love… the faith that you have – that’s what’s going to define your life.

Hate, hatred for yourself, for other people, will confine you, but love can set you free.

If You Don't Fail You're Not Even Trying

Those who can, do. Those who can't talk about those who can. Now, can you or can you not? [Are] you just one that sits on the sideline to talk about other people or can you step up?

And as the rest of the world watches, we still try to learn how to see ourselves.

It’s a meaningful shift in language that no longer places the burden of bravery on the marginalized to “come out” to a hostile world. “Inviting in” recognizes that it isn’t the marginalized who should be responsible for the terms of their own identity, but those who have made that identity dangerous to embrace. But

someone, some industry, is always ready and waiting to exploit us. It appears innocent enough at first. They even convince us that the arrangement is beneficial for everyone involved. But once you realize what’s happening, that they aren’t sacrificing nearly as much as you are but somehow receiving a larger portion of the spoils, and you confront them about it, they’ll try to convince you that you’re crazy. Where they once sold you on the relationship with promises of wealth, they now threaten you with poverty. And they’re willing to employ depraved measures in order show you just how bloody life is without them. When you recognize this, you have to

We are not the survival of the fittest. We are the survival of the nurtured. Louis Cozolino

Lance took a Lapis Lazuli crystal from his pocket and proceeded to get both me and Roxy to make the bond with Denzel. I might have crushed his hand in mine when I did it, but it was hard to say for sure as the whole time my gaze was fixed on the girl I couldn’t have. Once Darren had fucked off, we got on with our shadow lesson and I proceeded to watch every move that Roxy made while she made every effort not to look at me.

Too bad you can’t still fuck him, though, right?” Hendrix laments. “’Cause, ba-beeee, he looks good. And he got that smooth, Denzel kinda walk. That deep, chocolate voice. Your girl would be on that ex-with-benefits tip if I were you.

So, too, rose the language and music of urban America that sprang from the blues that came with the migrants and dominates our airwaves to this day. So, too, came the people who might not have existed, or become who they did, had there been no Great Migration. People as diverse as James Baldwin and Michelle Obama, Miles Davis and Toni Morrison, Spike Lee and Denzel Washington, and anonymous teachers, store clerks, steelworkers, and physicians, were all products of the Great Migration. They were all children whose life chances were altered because a parent or grandparent had made the hard decision to leave.

Ease is a greater threat to progress than hardship

Who the hell are you?” groused the elderly version of Denzel Washington as he poured coffee into a bowl. She wasn’t sure if his memory was faulty or if Mr. Willicott just didn’t give a shit about anything.

So, too, came the people who might not have existed, or became who they did, had there been no Great Migration. People as diverse as James Baldwin and Michelle Obama, Miles Davis and Toni Morrison, Spike Lee and Denzel Washington, and anonymous teachers, store clerks, steelworkers, and physicians, were all products of the Great Migration. They were all children whose life chances were altered because a parent or grandparent had made the hard decision to leave.

representational progress, while important, does not necessarily translate to material progress,

It is only logical, from the standpoint of the empire, to swallow up anything that may threaten its existence. Dissent is inevitable but need not be destructive. By co-opting the heroes of insurgence, the empire is able to bolster its constructed moral authority.

It would be a tremendous shame for the wealthiest nation in human history to admit that the wealth it has built came at a dreadful cost to the majority of people who live here. It would reveal the lie of the whole system.

Contrary to what personal finance charlatans would have us believe, poverty is not a mindset—it is the inevitable and necessary by-product of a system wherein life is only guaranteed to those who have wealth and wealth is distributed via ownership and not labor. Poverty is a capitalist’s main resource, as it ensures there will always be a class of people to exploit.

Our preoccupation cannot be with how to make Ocasio-Cortez president but with how we fill the halls of power with all the Ocasio-Cortezes waiting in the wings.

Successful people are grateful people. This is where we see the Law of Attraction in action. When you’re grateful, you attract more to be grateful for. The adverse is true as well. When you complain, you attract more to complain about. How do you change a lousy, self-pity, complaining, discouraged attitude? With appreciation. “Say thank you in advance for what’s already yours. That’s how I live my life. That’s one of the reasons I am where I am today.” ~ Denzel Washington

Donald Trump so undermines the idea of the president as agnostic leader that George W. Bush has come back around as a shining example of it. The scandals of the Trump White House move with such rapidity that nostalgia has set in for when they appeared only every few months. Trump has been so openly bigoted toward Muslims that Bush quotes about respecting Islam—absented the context of his all-out assault on majority Muslim countries—garner retroactive praise. Trump lies so much in service of himself that Bush’s lies in service of empire are noble by comparison. You can indulge this delusion if you don’t live in Iraq or New Orleans. Or if you didn’t lose your home because of predatory lending and treacherous Wall Street gambling. Then Bush can be your cuddly grandpa.