170 Quotes by Sidney Poitier

My father was a poor man, very poor in a British colonial possession where class and race were very important.

I set my star so high that I would constantly be in motion toward it.

I always wanted to be someone better the next day than I was the day before.

You don't have to become something you're not to be better than you were.

I am the me I choose to be.

I lived in a country where I couldn't live where I wanted to live. I lived in a country where I couldn't go where I wanted to eat. I lived in a country where I couldn't get a job, except for those put aside for people of my colour or caste.

I think the way I want to think. I live the way I want to live.

So I had to be careful. I recognized the responsibility that, whether I liked it or not, I had to accept whatever the obligation was. That was to behave in a manner, to carry myself in such a professional way, as if there ever is a reflection, it's a positive one.

Living consciously involves being genuine; it involves listening and responding to others honestly and openly; it involves being in the moment.