Sidney Poitier
Sidney Poitier
Sir Sidney Poitier, KBE, is a Bahamian-American actor, film director, author and diplomat...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth20 February 1927
CityMiami, FL
CountryUnited States of America
children father teaching
Of all my father's teachings, the most enduring was the one about the true measure of a man. That true measure was how well he provided for his children, and it stuck with me as if it were etched in my brain.
growth intrigued stills
I find myself, at this time in my life, no less challenged, no less plagued, no less intrigued by what I still don't know.
country jobs people
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.
father men poor
I'd seen my father. He was a poor man, and I watched him do astonishing things.
reflection use chosen
I had chosen to use my work as a reflection of my values.
liars use shapes
I know how easy it is for one to stay well within moral, ethical, and legal bounds through the skillful use of words - and to thereby spin, sidestep, circumvent, or bend a truth completely out of shape. To that extent, we are all liars on numerous occasions.
The older we get the less afraid we are.
powerful two people
Forgiveness works two ways, in most instances. People have to forgive themselves too. The powerful have to forgive themselves for their behavior. That should be a sacred process.
positive responsible happens
I do know that I'm responsible not for what happens, but for what I make of it.
hopeless hopelessness domination
There is not racial or ethnic domination of hopelessness. It's everywhere.
self flames trying
I've learned that I must find positive outlets for anger or it will destroy me. There is a certain anger: it reaches such intensity that to express it fully would require homicidal rage--self destructive, destroy the world rage--and its flame burns because the world is so unjust. I have to try to find a way to channel that anger to the positive, and the highest positive is forgiveness.
done energy good-things
If I'm remembered for having done a few good things and if my presence here has sparked some good energies, that's plenty.
better-than-you
You don't have to become something that you aren't to become better than you are.
children kids cutting
Child psychologists have demonstrated that our minds are actually constructed by these thousands of tiny interactions during the first few years of life. We aren't just what we're taught. It's what we experience during those early years - a smile here, a jarring sound there - that creates the pathways and connections of the brain. We put our kids to fifteen years of quick-cut advertising, passive television watching, and sadistic video games, and we expect to see emerge a new generation of calm, compassionate, and engaged human beings?