Tina Turner Quotes

At every moment, we always have a choice, even if it feels as if we don’t. Sometimes that choice may simply be to think a more positive thought.

I’ve never met anyone who didn’t have problems of one sort or another. If we find ourselves without any problems, it’s just a matter of time until something pops up. That’s life!

If a negative thought arose, I’d repeat a positive one eight times in a row to counteract it. Soon, I began loving myself, imperfections and all. I stopped comparing myself to others (never compare yourself to others), and at last I started to look good to myself.

I’m often reminded of Nichiren’s words: “Life itself is the most precious of all treasures. Even one extra day of life is worth more than ten million coins of gold.

Laura says - Everybody's faith needs testing from time to time, I thought it would be amusing to introduce you to someone with a Tina Turner album, and see whether you still felt the same. Rob reflects - ...tonight, I have to confess (but only to myself) that maybe, given the right set of peculiar, freakish, probably unrepeatable circumstances, it's not what you like but what you're like that's important.

Rising from the ashes of my earlier life, I learned that our thoughts, words, and deeds are unified through spiritual practice. They are made whole within us. And when our thoughts, words, and deeds are aligned with our most positive intentions, magic happens.

Don’t worry if you think you’re the only one facing challenges. If the people around you don’t seem to have problems, that just means you don’t know them well enough to see their troubles, or they’re very good at hiding them. Problems are inescapable for all living beings. As Nichiren said: “No one can avoid problems, not even sages.” Living a joyful life, I’ve found, is not about trying to avoid the unavoidable. Joy comes from summoning a strong life force to overcome problems, from the smallest irritation to the biggest disaster

People can only live fully by helping others to live … Cultures can only realize their further richness by honoring other traditions. And only by respecting natural life can humanity continue to exist. —DAISAKU IKEDA

More valuable than treasures in a storehouse are treasures of the body, and the treasures of the heart are the most valuable of all. —NICHIREN

Jazz music itself is an example of changing poison into medicine. African Americans created jazz, a great medicine for people’s hearts, out of the poisonous experience of slavery. Jazz developed from African culture, gospel music, and blues to lift up the spirits of oppressed people, and now it brings joy to people the world over.

I believe we each hold within us what I call a “coin of God,” a piece of the eternal energy of the universe, the essence of Buddha nature. A coin is a minted piece of value from the greater system to which it belongs, and each living being is a priceless treasure piece, molded from our greater universe. May we each cherish ourselves and extend this kindness to all living beings with whom we share this blessed planet.

By honoring each other’s ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds, we become stronger and happier, brightening the cosmic masterpiece of artwork that is our world. Rather than emphasize differences, we should be looking for similarities. Our differences are ultimately superficial, and the best thing to do is celebrate them.

All along, I kept this encouragement from Daisaku Ikeda close to my heart: “One thing is certain: The power of belief, the power of thought, will move reality in the direction of what we believe and conceive of it. If you really believe you can do something, you can. That is a fact. When you clearly envision the outcome of victory, engrave it upon your heart, and are firmly convinced that you will attain it, your brain makes every effort to realize the mental image you have created. And then, through your unceasing efforts, that victory is finally made a reality.

If you are unhappy with anything - you mother, you father, your husband, your wife, your job, your boss, your car - whatever is being you down, get rid of it. Because you'll find when you're free, your true creativity, your true self comes out.

My heartfelt wish is that you and I, and everyone around the world, will continue expanding our hearts and minds while celebrating our differences and ridding ourselves of any form of discrimination. This, I believe, is a basic requirement for peace, both within ourselves and in our societies.

If you’re not certain of the value of mentorship, think of how many elite athletes or professional sports teams train without a coach. Zero. How many of your favorite films are made without a producer or director? Zero. How many of the best schools in the world function without teachers? Zero. It’s safe to say that every great leader, in any field, first had a great mentor. Finding a mentor who inspires and guides your growth is a life-changing experience. Mentors help us to transcend the limits, or perceived limits, of our abilities. A mentor can be anyone who teaches us and helps us to grow in ways we couldn’t have on our own.

I have always seen great value in practicing kindness. Although I had no money to buy gifts as a child, I gave my friends the gift of song to cheer them up. Depending on the situation, I’d sing to them and make up melodies and lyrics on the spot about whatever was going on in their lives. If a girlfriend was lonely or heartbroken, I’d make up a song about the handsome and adoring boyfriend I imagined coming into her life. Or if a friend felt deprived or neglected, I’d make up a song about a gift of a shiny new doll, or a velvet party dress, that I knew would make her happy.

What really matters is not whether we have problems but how we go through them. —ROSA PARKS

Marcus Aurelius, the Roman emperor and philosopher, alluded to this when he said, “The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.

The reward is not so great without the struggle. —WILMA RUDOLPH

I call something a miracle when an ordinary person achieves something extraordinary. We all have the potential to create miraculous changes. It is my hope and my prayer that you will become a miracle maker, a “human revolutionist,” too.

In 2014, my friend Herbie Hancock was invited to give the prestigious Norton Lectures at Harvard University, where he shared great insights on the topics of mentorship and changing poison into medicine. Herbie related lessons from his jazz mentor, Miles Davis, who taught him that “a great mentor can provide a path to finding your own true answers,” and to always “reach up while reaching down; grow while helping others.

Physical strength in a Woman... that's what I am

Difficulties are not necessarily unfortunate. It depends on your attitude. You can either let difficulties crush you, or you can use them to build your strength. —INDIRA GANDHI

Earth provides enough to satisfy everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed. —MAHATMA GANDHI

Rock Steady’ by Aretha Franklin, ‘Cold Sweat’ by James [Brown], all the Stax records, Ike and Tina Turner – we took it for granted, thinking that music would always be like that. That was just normal to us.

As German-Swiss author Hermann Hesse said, the more we mature, the younger we grow. What a beautiful sentiment!

Lately the muse has been treating me like Ike treated Tina.

Take your broken heart, make it into art. —CARRIE FISHER • Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved. —HELEN KELLER

The best way to attain Buddhahood is to encounter a good friend. How far can our own wisdom take us? If we have even enough wisdom to distinguish hot from cold, we should seek out a good friend. —NICHIREN • Having good friends and advancing together with them is not half the Buddha way but all the Buddha way. —SHAKYAMUNI • To not advance is to retreat. —TSUNESABURO MAKIGUCHI

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

And you know what I say to people who ask, “What do you do when all the odds are against you?” I say, “You keep going. You just don’t stop. No matter, if there’s one slap to the face, turn the other cheek. And the hurt you’re feeling? You can’t think about what’s being done to you now, or what has been done to you in the past. You just have to keep going.

So that’s what I did. I just kept going. I never said, “Well, I don’t have this and I don’t have that.” I said, “I don’t have this yet, but I’m going to get it.

The obstacles we face hold the lessons we must learn to make our dreams come true." - from Happiness Becomes You by Tina Turner

All the boys in the middle school locker room used to tease me and tell me I danced like Tina Turner. But that didn't stop them from throwing baloney sandwiches at me and whistling.

The only thing that could soothe and calm me during this era was music. That's continued to be true throughout my life. My mother would put my sister and me to bed and turn on the radio to sing us to sleep. There was something very comforting about being in a dark, cold room with Prince, Tina Turner, Cyndi Lauper, or Madonna playing quietly. I didn't have to think about anything - the music took me away from myself and I got lost in it. I needed it like a drug. I felt disconnected and alone, and I realized around this time that things would never get better. It got so bad that I would pretend to be sick at school just so I could come home and lie in bed listening to music. It was like being adrift on the ocean at night. I still have trouble falling asleep without music now.

The religious faith that we are born into is largely determined by the region where we live and the ethnic background of our family. In my case, I was born to an African American family in the southern region of the United States. Like most families of our description, we embraced the Baptist religious tradition. Although I went from Baptist to Buddhist, I’ve honored my family’s heritage and cherish the similarities between these two paths. Baptist teachings encouraged me to work toward attaining admission into a heavenly paradise, while Buddhism inspires me to attain the enduring and enlightened life condition of Buddhahood. Although the goals of these two spiritual paths may sound somewhat different, both focus on creating a state of indestructible, eternal happiness. To me, that is an important similarity. I’ve met people from all over the world, from many cultures and faiths, and I believe that all religious traditions share the same basic aspirations at their core—to experience everlasting joy by aligning with the positive forces of the universe. We may describe this ultimate reality as Jehovah, God, Allah, Jesus, Hashem, Tao, Brahma, the Creator, the Mystic Law, the Universe, the Force, Buddha nature, Christ consciousness, or any number of other expressions.

To me, a revolution of the heart means a change of being, attitude, potential, and a sense of social and global responsibility. When we experience a true revolution of the heart, we understand that differences of race, nationality, or culture do not need to create divisions or confrontations. The limitations in our own hearts and minds tear us apart, from ourselves and from others.

Maybe Jane was right. Maybe he was wrong to have filled her head with tales of Bessie Smith and Josephine Baker, let alone take her to see Jackie Wilson, Etta James, Tina Turner and the Ikettes. Maybe it wasn’t right to wake up to Chico Hamilton, Lee Morgan, Charlie Parker, and Art Blakey in the morning. Watch the sunset with Miles Davis, Cecil Taylor, and Little Willie John. But Greer didn’t know what else to offer that was beautiful and colored and alive, all at the same time.

If you are unhappy with anything - your mother, your father, your husband, your wife, your job, your boss, your car - whatever is bringing you down, get rid of it. Because you'll find when you're free, your true creativity, your true self comes out.

I never felt loved, so I decided it wasn’t important. Not to me. I think I put up a kind of a shield against it. I told myself, “If you don’t care about me, that’s okay, I’ll go on. If you don’t love me, I’ll go on.” I’ll go on was my mantra before I ever knew what a mantra was.

I learned to listen to my heart, which taught me that you and I are connected to each other and everything else on this planet. We are joined together by the mysterious nature of life itself, the fundamental creative energy of the universe. In this complicated world of ours, where contradictions abound, we find breathtaking beauty in the most unlikely places. The brightest rainbows appear after the heaviest of storm clouds. Magnificent butterflies emerge from the drabbest cocoons. And the most beautiful lotus flowers bloom from the deepest and thickest mud. Why do you suppose life works this way? Perhaps those rainbows, butterflies, and lotus flowers are meant to remind us that our world is a mystical work of art—a universal canvas upon which we all paint our stories, day by day, through the brushstrokes of our thoughts, words, and deeds.

However you must do it, to truly understand. When you say ‘Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo’ it will slowly remove all of the bad decisions you have ever made. The more you repeat the words the more you make your life clearer. The more you chant it the closer you get to your true nature. Your true nature is the right way of thinking and the right way of acting. The longer you go on this path, the more you avoid making wrong decisions. The Lotus Sutra helps me in my daily life. It is indeed mystical! And my life has proven this!

The show was great: Chuck Berry, Ike and Tina Turner, T. Rex, and finally the Stones.

I really do believe that age is just a number, and I have never let age stand in my way. Not at forty-two, when people said that I was too old to be a rock star. And not now, in my eighties, when the book I dreamed of writing for decades is finally in your hands. I’ve passed eighty, but I have not “arrived,” because I still challenge myself to grow, to step out of my comfort zone, to improve my life, and to be of service to others.

I visualized traveling the world, doing great things, and living in a home where I would be surrounded by beauty and love. Even after my parents moved away, and I was bounced around from one relative’s home to another, I decorated my makeshift rooms as best I could because I knew instinctively that I needed dignity in my life. There was no one pushing me to live a better life, or to dream; it was something I wanted for myself, and that desire fueled my seeking spirit. Through the losses and neglect of my childhood, the turmoil of my first marriage, and the battles to extricate myself from that and start over, I never gave up. There were never any limitations to my imagination. Visualization served me well—in my mind’s eye, I always saw a better life. Imagination, visualizing, and dreaming. big, combined with hard work, determination, and faith, are what got me where I wanted to go, and they can do the same for you. If you ever find your resolve melting away, tell yourself, “This time I’ll do it! This time I’ll win!” As long as you keep moving forward, despite any disappointments and setbacks, you will be on the path to victory.

What an endless chain of unhappiness prejudice forges. —LENA HORNE

We chose Madonna, Courtney Love, and Tina Turner for the cover. The shoot took twelve hours and involved seventy hairdressers, stylists, makeup people, and personal assistants

In 1971, there was the concert of all concerts, the Soul to Soul Music Festival, which was staged on March 6 as a celebration of Ghana’s fourteenth anniversary of independence. It was held in Accra, at Black Star Square, which is now called Independence Square, and it was fourteen hours long, ending at dawn. A number of Americans came to perform, like Wilson Pickett, Ike and Tina Turner, the Staple Singers, Santana, and Roberta Flack. For months before and for months afterward, Soul to Soul was the talk of the nation. Every town attempted their own mini replica, inviting multiple bands, trying to pack the venues and keep the show going until the crowd was knackered.

The contemporary music of Tina Turner might make you feel powerful and energized. South African music provides a mind-boggling choice of styles from folk tunes to jive. Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony has the magical ability to transport you to a country scene and trap you in a driving rain storm.

We are having an ongoing and critical conversation about race in America. The question on many minds, the question that is certainly on my mind, is how do we prevent racial injustices from happening? How do we protect young black children? How do we overcome so many of the institutional barriers that exacerbate racism and poverty? It’s a nice idea that we could simply follow a prescribed set of rules and make the world a better place for all. It’s a nice idea that racism is a finite problem for which there is a finite solution, and that respectability, perhaps, could have saved all the people who have lost their lives to the effects of racism. But we don’t live in that world and it’s dangerous to suggest that the targets of oppression are wholly responsible for ending that oppression. Respectability politics suggest that there’s a way for us to all be model (read: like white) citizens. We can always be better, but will we ever be ideal? Do we even want to be ideal, or is there a way for us to become more comfortably human? Take, for example, someone like Don Lemon. He is a black man, raised by a single mother, and now he is a successful news anchor for a major news network. His outlook seems driven by the notion that if he can make it, anyone can. This is the ethos espoused by people who believe in respectability politics. Because they have achieved success, because they have transcended, in some way, the effects of racism or other forms of discrimination, all people should be able to do the same. In truth, they have climbed a ladder and shattered a glass ceiling but are seemingly uninterested in extending that ladder as far as it needs to reach so that others may climb. They are uninterested in providing a detailed blueprint for how they achieved their success. They are unwilling to consider that until the institutional problems are solved, no blueprint for success can possibly exist. For real progress to be made, leaders like Lemon and Cosby need to at least acknowledge reality. Respectability politics are not the answer to ending racism. Racism doesn’t care about respectability, wealth, education, or status. Oprah Winfrey, one of the wealthiest people in the world and certainly the wealthiest black woman in the world, openly discusses the racism she continues to encounter in her daily life. In July 2013, while in Zurich to attend Tina Turner’s wedding, Winfrey was informed by a store clerk at the Trois Pommes boutique that the purse she was interested in was too expensive for her. We don’t need to cry for Oprah, prevented from buying an obscenely overpriced purse, but we can recognize the incident as one more reminder that racism is so pervasive and pernicious that we will never be respectable enough to outrun racism, not here in the United States, not anywhere in the world.

In July 2013, while in Zurich to attend Tina Turner’s wedding, Winfrey was informed by a store clerk at the Trois Pommes boutique that the purse she was interested in was too expensive for her. We don’t need to cry for Oprah, prevented from buying an obscenely overpriced purse, but we can recognize the incident as one more reminder that racism is so pervasive and pernicious that we will never be respectable enough to outrun racism, not here in the United States, not anywhere in the world. We must stop pointing to the exceptions—these bright shining stars who transcend circumstance. We must look to how we can best support the least among us, not spend all our time blindly revering and trying to mimic the greatest without demanding systemic change.

Lucy saw the delighted expressions of the guests and knew they looked like something out an Austen movie. Well, at least Jem did. She giggled a little and cleared her throat. “Something funny?” he murmured out of the corner of his mouth. “Just thinking how you’re just like Captain Wentworth and I’m just like Tina Turner.

You take your problems to a god, but what you really need is for the god to take you to the inside of you.

7. LEARNING Positive: Striving for self-improvement by studying new concepts through others’ teachings. Negative: Tendency to become self-centered; dismissive attitude toward others with less experience or knowledge.

When we dream, and especially when we dream big, there is always a gap between the reality of what we have and our goals. The key is finding a way to successfully bridge that distance. My spiritual practice is what bridged the gap for me. Hard work, tenacity, and spiritual fortitude helped me to achieve my dreams.

When we dream, and especially when we dream big, there is always a gap between the reality of what we have and our goals. The key is finding a way to successfully bridge that distance.

What good comes from complaints? Grumbling only brings you down. Find a way forward, smile, shake it off, love yourself. Use your challenges to become stronger. This is how you can transform your karma and open your heart.

One humid summer night in Austin, Texas, Mamrie Hart and I spent an hour drunkenly arguing and openly crying on the street while wearing David Bowie– and Tina Turner–inspired wigs, butterfly eyelashes, and KEEP AUSTIN WEIRD tie-dyed T-shirts.

Nowadays the most popular messages are those that declare the meaningless of love, its irrelevance. A glaring example of this cultural shift was the tremendous popularity of Tina Turner’s song with the title boldly declaring, “What’s Love Got to Do with It.” I was saddened and appalled when I interviewed a well-known female rapper at least twenty years my junior who, when asked about love, responded with biting sarcasm, “Love, what’s that—I have never had any love in my life.

Maybe you've allowed your negative voices to undermine your self-esteem, to hinder your work, or to keep you locked in unhealthy relationships. If so it's time to tell those voices you've heard their propaganda, and you're not going to take it anymore. Dismiss them, and you will be the only one holding the pen as you write the story of your life." from Happiness Becomes You

I tell you what completely took the biscuit for me – the song ‘Tonight’ with Tina Turner. Now she was really good, but I just thought, This record is so poppy.

Ike and Tina Turner’s “River Deep-Mountain High,” his most ambitious record, with the biggest, most implacable sound and an arrangement that made it feel as if the record lasted a lifetime, not three and a half minutes (“That,” the Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia said, “sounds like God hit the world and the world hit back”), failed to come anywhere near the radio; Spector closed his studio and began lecturing at colleges.

When I speak of dreams coming true, I’m not referring to the external desires in our lives.

Karma is a Sanskrit word that means “action.

I like astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson’s simple explanations of this. He said that to escape gravity, we must move at a speed greater than its force can resist. This speed is known as cosmic “escape velocity.

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.

It is important to be open and tolerant toward other beliefs, and to always respect one another despite any differences between religions.

That was the case with me before I started chanting. I mistook material fortune—my fame, a nice home, designer clothes, expensive cars—for moving forward in life.

There’s a saying that there are two things you should never worry about: the things you can change, and the things you can’t.

the more we mature, the younger we grow.

This belief lured waves of women who had never exercised before through the doors of studios and community centers to try aerobic dancing—which involved at least thirty minutes of vigorous movement to music—for the first time. Dancing felt safe, particularly for women uninterested in smashing any gender barriers. Dancing was conventionally feminine; dance classes were a popular activity for little girls. Few men felt threatened by a room full of mostly middle-class moms shimmying to Tina Turner.

As terrible as the experience was—and I felt sick for a long time—I learned something. My suicide attempt wasn’t a classic cry for attention, or help. When I took those pills, I chose death, and I chose it honestly. I was unhappy when I woke up. But I never tried it again because I made an important realization, one that changed the course of my life. I came out of the darkness believing that I was meant to survive. I was here for a reason. I knew now that there was only one way out of this nightmare, and it was through the door.