Jada Pinkett Smith Quotes

We don't back off obstacles and tough situations, we use them to make us stronger.

We all think there is a formula, but as long as we love our children, that's really the only solid thing I know that works across the board.

Hippos are the very definition of Disney cute. There is no way you could look at a big, fat, squishy, huggable hippo and not think, "Id she could talk like a human, she would sound just like Jada Pinkett Smith and be oh so sassy." You would totally name her Sassy-baskets, and she would be your tutu-wearing, ballet-dancing, strut-walking pal for life. Just you and Sassy-baskets against the world!

My belief is that every woman is worthy, a walking treasure, and deserves to live her life as the heroine of her own story.

Just because someone stumbles and loses their way doesn’t mean they are lost forever.

Look closely at the present you are constructing; it should look like the future you are dreaming. —ALICE WALKER

The War on Men Through the Degradation of Woman” - "How is man to recognize his full self, his full power through the eye’s of an incomplete woman? The woman who has been stripped of Goddess recognition and diminished to a big ass and full breast for physical comfort only. The woman who has been silenced so she may forget her spiritual essence because her words stir too much thought outside of the pleasure space. The woman who has been diminished to covering all that rots inside of her with weaves and red bottom shoes. I am sure the men, who restructured our societies from cultures that honored woman, had no idea of the outcome. They had no idea that eventually, even men would render themselves empty and longing for meaning, depth and connection. There is a deep sadness when I witness a man that can’t recognize the emptiness he feels when he objectifies himself as a bank and truly believes he can buy love with things and status. It is painful to witness the betrayal when a woman takes him up on that offer. He doesn’t recognize that the [creation] of a half woman has contributed to his repressed anger and frustration of feeling he is not enough. He then may love no woman or keep many half women as his prize. He doesn’t recognize that it’s his submersion in the imbalanced warrior culture, where violence is the means of getting respect and power, as the reason he can break the face of the woman who bore him 4 four children. When woman is lost, so is man. The truth is, woman is the window to a man’s heart and a man’s heart is the gateway to his soul. Power and control will NEVER out weigh love. May we all find our way.

Nobody gets out of life alive.

I’m willing to let go of whatever is gripping my heart and mind, and whatever is blocking my kindness and compassion.

When I go in search of the origins of my broken heart, it is this sense of not being a priority to the two people who gave me life that creates a fracture in my feeling of worth.

I think as women, we have to stop being scared to be the women we want to be and we have to raise our daughters to be the women they want to be — not the women we think they should be.

But how can we understand a significant other’s perspective if: (a) we don’t have the experience, maturity, or desire to identify differences; and (b) we lack the ability to recognize there is no right or wrong (except in situations where abuse is evident)? Often, with the inevitable misunderstandings and even heartbreaks that come along with most serious relationships, we forget that our opinions, priorities, and needs aren’t better than our partner’s, they are just different.

It’s not about NOT being scared when you need to move past fear. It’s about finding the courage to freaking do it anyway, even if you don’t think you can.

A woman who is starved for her real soul-life may look ‘cleaned up and combed’ on the outside, but on the inside she is filled with dozens of pleading hands and empty mouths.

Ricki, your man’s Jada Pinkett Smith-ing again.

In 1973, his refusal of an Oscar was perceived as the ultimate insult to the moviegoing public by an eccentric egotist. Yet, forty-five years later, during the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, Jada Pinkett Smith found affirmation for her own decision to boycott the Oscars by watching a clip of Sacheen Littlefeather refusing Brando’s award. Today, calling out Hollywood’s racism is no longer an extremist act. In the 1960s, Brando’s protests against racial segregation and discrimination—he was arrested at least once—were condemned by some as needlessly provocative. Now, in the era of Black Lives Matter, they seem the very least someone in Brando’s position could have done during that period of widespread injustice.

When we look back at our journey, we discover the choices we made that shaped the life we are living. We often forget that although many aspects of life are out of our control, our power of choice is not one of them. Behind the many choices we make (unconsciously or consciously) are wounds that can blind us to how we abandon love and kindness, sometimes taking us and others into shadowy tailspins. Unfortunately, when we are immersed in environments full of shadow, it can take a long while to unteach ourselves the methods learned there. But it’s okay. We can make different choices with better outcomes. We can have remorse and we can atone—without forgetting that sometimes we have to live who we’re not in order to know who we are.

No matter how hard it might get. The only way out is the way through.

Part of staying safe was hiding my feminine nature and taking on a more masculine bravado in how I carried myself.

You are so much more than your trauma.

This was real life, brutal and unfair.

A Queen is her own savior. Her magic is quiet, potent and mysterious.

There is no such thing as an overnight success. Everybody who grabs the spotlight probably looks like an overnight success 'cause you ain't know 'em before they got on the scene. Behind each one of those stories is someone who was willing to suffer setbacks and put in the hard work, hoping for a little sprinkle of luck.

We all have traumas in our childhood that can make us overlook the beauty that surrounds us. Oftentimes we believe we have to focus more on the negative events because they created so much pain. Some of us believe holding on to the negative is what protects us from not experiencing that pain again. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Unfortunately, we tend to relive aspects of the negative experiences because we stay stuck, by consciously or unconsciously holding on to the negative thoughts our painful experiences birthed.

When I saw my cousins with their dads, I might have missed having a father who could do daddy stuff with me. But I resolved early that maybe that kind of daddy love just wasn’t meant for me.

found god in myself/and i loved her/i loved her fiercely —NTOZAKE SHANGE

Many of us are born to parents and families who are already in the mix of trying to survive, withstand, move through traumas of their own. Some

do so more easily than others, while most of us, as children, are left caught in the storms of our family’s dysfunction. A lot of us had to feel the brunt of it, which left us feeling unsafe, unwanted, uncared for—unlovable. For many of the adults in our lives, this was not the intention, but this fact remains.

As adults, we no longer have to do that. When we allow the little one

within to heal and understand that we are enough to take care of ourselves, we no longer have to demand and be blameful when others can’t care for us. We realize, through self-care, that we are enough to love ourselves thoroughly.

For two decades, I had been putting on a good face, going with the flow, telling everyone I was okay. Yet underneath, bouts of depression and overwhelming hopelessness had smoldered until they turned into raging hellfire in my

I would later be diagnosed and informed that I suffer from complex trauma with PTSD and dissociation,

On paper,” it all looked grand—I had the beautiful family, the superstar husband, the lavish lifestyle, fame and fortune.

The sweetest part was my kids—Jaden, Willow, and my bonus son, Trey—my three favorite people in the world. They were, hands down, the best thing that ever happened to me.

If I remained the way I was, what good would I be to them anyway? Besides, I told myself, they would be okay. They would have their father, a devoted and great dad. Their being okay, in my mind, depended on me

Many of us, as women, to one degree or another, don’t recognize the insidious ways we are made to feel unworthy.

My belief is that every woman is worthy, a walking treasure, and deserves to live her life as the heroine

of her own story. A woman has a right to her adventures, even if it means courting her shadows as guides to her brightest light. And she has a right to her pitfalls as well as her triumphs, and to the wisdom gained that leads to her self-actualization. When we as women have the courage to find keys to the

treasure chest of ourselves, we find Divine freedom (a freedom that is not whimsical), and with this, our lives are deliberately and unapologetically crafted by our own hands.

Don’t forget the beauty that surrounded you, that fed you and nourished your energy in a way that

helped you get here, to where you are TODAY. Take time to remember the joy that existed so that we can reconnect our inner child to those pleasant moments that fed us the hope we needed, that gave us the strength to make it to this moment. You are so much more than your trauma.

What I find helpful is exploring my memories and feelings with pen and paper. If you find some quiet time today, take an opportunity to write three beautiful memories from your childhood, or simply from your past, that helped you to nourish the beautiful YOU that you are.

Suicidal thoughts were not completely new to me. What was new: I’d begun to think about how to have a fatal accident that wouldn’t look intentional—for the sake of my kids.

doing a good job of making my death appear to be conclusively accidental. As grim as it may sound, the world had become less heavy now that I had a solution, a plan for my own exit, and I was resolved.

Chaos in the midst of chaos isn’t funny, but chaos in the midst of order is. —STEVE MARTIN

As I saunter in with my new extended rattail down to my butt crack, I immediately catch eyes with a new dude across the room who is engaged in a very energetic conversation with one of our classmates. He’s wearing a thick old-school alpaca

sweater and jeans. He has beautiful brown skin with big brown eyes, heavy eyebrows, and a tiny peanut head. The minute I turn and notice him, he’s already staring at me. Me catching his eyes gives him the gumption to walk across the room and come right to me. Boldly, he smiles a big

ole smile, showing off his big ole teeth, and puts out his hand to shake mine. “Hi,” he says, “I’m Tupac.” I am struck by the power of that unusual name. Tupac.