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

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!

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Fall forward!

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

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.

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

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

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...

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Ease is greatest threat to progress

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.

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

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

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

There is no UHaul behind the hearse.

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

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

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

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.

She went into the bathroom and opened the drugstore bag. She smiled when she noticed Denzel had bought her a pink toothbrush. Somehow, she wasn’t surprised he’d kept her femininity in consideration when he picked it out.

What I have come to accept is that being a victim of Americanism and a product of it are not mutually exclusive. It is the inescapable course for those of us who are not white, male, cis, hetero, and wealthy. Even as we suffer under the boot of oppression, we are not immune to indoctrination into the American myth. We are brought up in the very institutions that are responsible for perpetuating the lie of meritocracy, and it begins to sound plausible.

Reduced to an apolitical dreamer, he can be a tool to divert energy away from forming structural solutions to inequality and injustice while spreading grade-school-level bromides in favor of kindness.

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

the rise of movements such as Occupy, Black Lives Matter, and the Dreamers illuminated the need to organize around the ongoing, structural problems that persist regardless of the political party in power at any given moment, but especially when it is the party trading on a message of progressivism. It must be possible to note a welcome change in the possibilities for marginalized people while also remaining skeptical of a system of governance that creates and maintains the conditions for their marginalization.

I find myself, and many others, saying things like this from time to time, indignant over the fact that something objectionable from the past persists in the present, as if there had been some previously agreed-upon expiration date on injustice. But what it reveals is that even those of us with a healthy understanding of what created this nation also share in shaping its fiction. There is a part of us that wants to believe the good of America can outlast the bad.

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.

Douglass was addressing the white moderate, ever concerned with order, insisting that the struggle to abolish slavery would require more than an appeal to moral correctness. There would come a need for confrontation, an unsettling of the peace, or else the silence would lead only to the preservation of the institution. Douglass’s words were meant to urge action in the face of oppression.

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.

Dr. King’s treatment as an “infallible oracle” is not laziness; his perceived infallibility is related to the message he has been chosen to deliver. Reduced to an apolitical dreamer, he can be a tool to divert energy away from forming structural solutions to inequality and injustice while spreading grade-school-level bromides in favor of kindness.

Nor are they synonymous, which is what the kneeling protests, at their most potent, reminded us. Whether or not they were “American” in nature is inconsequential if we, as Americans, have failed to provide that term with meaning beyond the delusions we pass off as national treasures.

The white supremacist political party chose a white supremacist to represent it in the presidential election. An institution created for the protection of white supremacy installed that white supremacist into the nation’s highest office.

there is violence here, just as there is violence any place where the people are stripped of the means to build a meaningful life.

academics, media professionals, policymakers, presidents—excuse the presence of the police here, and in other hoods like this one, because it is their position that in order to stop the violence of the hood you must impose the violence of the state. The police are meant, from this view, to protect the people from themselves, to enforce the discipline their culture lacks.

This is all bullshit, and once anyone encounters a police officer doing their actual job, they know it is bullshit. Police patrol and harass. They reluctantly answer questions better suited for town visitor centers. They enforce traffic laws at their discretion, or to shore up municipal budgets through the imposition of exorbitant fines. They introduce the potential for violence in response to calls about loud music. They arrest people who have disobeyed them and then make up the charges later. They dismiss the stories of rape victims; they side with domestic abusers. They commit rape and domestic abuse at higher rates than the rest of the population. They quell rebellions. They arrest freedom fighters. They shoot and kill with impunity.

No matter what other responsibilities police have assumed, they have consistently inflicted violence on the most marginalized people in society and maintained the economic, political, and social dominance of the ruling class. When I say they have not strayed too far from these roots, I mean precisely that the main function of policing has not changed. It is still an institution built on the principle of using violence to ensure that people who are exploited by the ruling class are unable to assert any pressure on their oppressors. The

But with the propaganda machine churning on, the police, and the governments that direct them, are able to get buy-in from the very people they are meant to police. The community hears the gunshots, sees the addicts wandering hopelessly and the dope boys pondering their next move, grows fearful that a shouting match will turn ugly quickly, and they have been taught by teachers, counselors, television, movies, and the police themselves that the cops can solve this problem. So they call. There is no alternative. No one will even pay for them to have trash cans. How can a community deprived of the basics expect to receive the resources they need to no longer depend on police? They have, purposefully, been given nothing else.

The police are no solution, but they are, as it were, the final solution. It matters what you see as the problems in need of solving. Is it the people or the conditions? Is it blackness or anti-blackness? Is it poverty or the poor?

They will call the police, who will arrest this person, and for a night or two they will have a place to sleep in a jail cell. The police cannot solve poverty, joblessness, and the housing crisis—the actual culprits in the lives of the homeless. But if we’ve deemed the homeless, not poverty, the problem, then what the police can do is make them disappear. The major tools the police carry are handcuffs and guns; they can arrest or kill. The police can go forth and round up the homeless, then place them in cages. And to grant them the authority, local governments can criminalize the existence of the homeless: they can criminalize sleeping outside, or criminalize panhandling, which begins to look a lot like the criminalization of vagrancy as part of the Black Codes in the era that ended Reconstruction. And then, our local governments can fund a separate police force for the subway system to punish turnstile jumpers, arrest women selling churros, and clear out more homeless people, while neighborhood associations ensure no new homeless shelters get built near or in affluent neighborhoods. The streets remain the only place for them to call home.

the ignoble pursuit of status within a gendered hierarchy leaves all tactics of domination available to the in-group of power.

Abolition offers an alternative framework for thinking through how we care for everyone who is harmed, and for considering how to reduce and prevent harm from occurring. Prison is not a means of preventing violence, but for shifting it out of sight from polite society. In this way, it becomes harder to convince a society convinced of its own politeness that a confrontation with prison is necessary. Out of sight, and so on.

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.

This thing, whether rendered crudely or poetically, is the misguided belief that America’s history possesses something better to which we can return. But it is not there. We have not been friends, but competitors. We have not practiced affection—at our absolute best we manage tolerance. We silence our better angels before turning them into familiar devils.

refreshed Twitter every few minutes under the irrational belief that so long as I had a minute-to-minute update on the state of the world, then nothing truly catastrophic could happen.

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.

the mandates of progressive policing are exactly the same as those of authoritarian policing, which is to say that policing is policing no matter the adjective you put in front of it.