Will Smith Quotes

“10 ways to love: listen, speak, give, pray, answer, share, enjoy, trust, forgive, promise.”

“99% is the same as zero. If you are gonna do 99, go ahead and stay home.”

“A rapper is about being completely true to yourself. Being an actor is about changing who you are.”

“Basic principles: no matter what, no matter when, no matter who... any man has a chance to sweep any woman off her feet. He just needs the right broom.”

“Boys laugh at what they put girls through but they don’t be laughing when they’re wiping tears off their daughters face for the same reason.”

“Don't be hanging with no jokers that don't help you shine. The prerequisite for spending time with any person is that they nourish and inspire you – they feed your flame.”

“Don't chase people. Be yourself, do your own thing and work hard. The right people – the ones who really belong in your life – will come to your. And stay.”

“Don't let success go to your heads and don't let failure into your hearts.”

“Fear is not real. The only place that fear can exist is in our thoughts of the future. It is a product of our imagination, causing us to fear things that do not at present and may not ever exist. That is near insanity. Do not misunderstand me danger is very real but fear is a choice.”

“Greatness exists in all of us.”

“Greatness is not this wonderful, esoteric, elusive, god-like feature that only the special among us will ever taste, it’s something that truly exists in all of us.”

“I believe you need to be educated on what you want to do in life, but I don't believe you necessarily need college to get there.”

“I don’t know what my calling is, but I want to be here for a bigger reason. I strive to be like the greatest people who have ever lived.”

“I had a hit single on the radio for 30 days before I graduated from high school.”

“I have a great time with my life, and I wanna share it.”

“I know how to learn anything I want to learn. I absolutely know that I could learn how to fly the space shuttle because someone else knows how to fly it, and they put it in a book. Give me the book, and I do not need somebody to stand up in front of the class.”

“I love being black in America, and especially being black in Hollywood.”

“I never viewed myself as particularly talented. Where I excel is ridiculous, sickening, work ethic. You know, while the other guy’s sleeping, I’m working.”

“I think that there's a certain delusional quality that all successful people have to have. You have to believe that something different can happen.”

“I wake up every morning believing today is going to be better than yesterday.”

“I want the world to be better because I was here.”

“I want to be the person that is the first person there and the last person to leave. That's who I want to be, because I think the road to success is through commitment, and through the strength to drive through that commitment when it gets hard. And it is going to get hard and you're going to want to quit sometimes, but it'll be colored by who you are, and more who you want to be.”

“I want to represent the idea that you really can make what you want. I believe I can create whatever I want to create.”

“I was raised in a Baptist household, went to a Catholic church, lived in a Jewish neighborhood, and had the biggest crush on the Muslim girls from one neighborhood over.”

“I'm a student of world religion, so to me, it's hugely important to have knowledge and to understand what people are doing.”

“I'm very serious with my kids about them comprehending the intricacies of global finance.”

“I've trained myself to illuminate the things in my personality that are likeable and to hide and protect the things that are less likeable.”

“If it was something that I really committed myself to, I don’t think there’s anything that could stop me becoming President of the United States.”

“If you don’t fight for what you want, don’t cry for what you lost.”

“If you're not willing to work hard, let someone else do it. I'd rather be with someone who does a horrible job, but gives 110% than with someone who does a good job and gives 60%.”

“If you’re absent during my struggle, don’t expect to be present during my success.”

“In my mind, I’ve always been an A-list Hollywood superstar. Y’all just didn’t know yet.”

“Let your smile change the world. Don’t let the world change your smile.”

“Life is lived on the edge.”

“Life isn't how many breaths you take, but it's the moments that take your breath away.”

“Look at your 5 closest friends. Those 5 friends are who you are. If you don’t like who you are then you know what you have to do.”

“My first record came out while I was a senior in high school, which is dangerous.”

“My school was 90 percent white, but 90 percent of the kids I played with were black. So I got the best of both worlds. I think that is where my comedy developed.”

“Never lie, steal, cheat, or drink. But if you must lie, lie in the arms of the one you love. If you must steal, steal away from bad company. If you must cheat, cheat death. And if you must drink, drink in the moments that take your breath away.”

“Never underestimate the pain of a person, because in all honesty, everyone is struggling. Some people are just better at hiding it than others.”

“Smiling is the best way to face every problem, to crush every fear, and to hide every pain.”

“So if you stay ready, you ain’t gotta get ready, and that is how I run my life.”

“Sometimes you have to forget what’s gone, appreciate what still remains, and look forward to what’s coming next.”

“Stop letting people who do so little for you control so much of your mind, feelings and emotions.”

“The first step is you have to say that you can.”

“The first time that I performed as an actor was the first day on the set of 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air'.”

“The keys to life are running and reading. When you're running, there's a little person that talks to you and says, "Oh I'm tired. My lung's about to pop. I'm so hurt. There's no way I can possibly continue." You want to quit. If you learn how to defeat that person when you're running. You will know how to not quit when things get hard in your life.

For reading: there have been gazillions of people that have lived before all of us. There's no new problem you could have--with your parents, with school, with a bully. There's no new problem that someone hasn't already had and written about it in a book.”

“The only thing that I see that is distinctly different about me is I'm not afraid to die on a treadmill. I will not be out-worked, period. You might have more talent than me, you might be smarter than me, you might be sexier than me, you might be all of those things you got it on me in nine categories. But if we get on the treadmill together, there's two things: You're getting off first, or I'm going to die. It's really that simple, right?
You're not going to out-work me. It's such a simple, basic concept. The guy who is willing to hustle the most is going to be the guy that just gets that loose ball. The majority of people who aren't getting the places they want or aren't achieving the things that they want in this business is strictly based on hustle. It's strictly based on being out-worked; it's strictly based on missing crucial opportunities. I say all the time if you stay ready, you ain't gotta get ready.”

“The separation of talent and skill is one of the greatest misunderstood concepts for people who are trying to excel, who have dreams, who want to do things. Talent you have naturally. Skill is only developed by hours and hours and hours of beating on your craft.”

“The things that have been most valuable to me I did not learn in school.”

“There's no reason to have a plan B because it distracts from plan A.”

“There’s two kinds of people in this world.There’s hammers and nails. You decide what to be.”

“Throughout life people will make you mad, disrespect you and treat you bad. Let God deal with the things they do, cause hate in your heart will consume you too.”

“Too many people are buying things they can't afford, with money that they don't have to impress people that they don't like!”

“Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like.”

“Whatever your dream is, every extra penny you have needs to be going to that.”

“When you create art, the world has to wait.”

“When you're wondering what to say, or how you look... just remember... she is already out with you. That means, she said yes, when she could've said no. That means she made a plan... when she could've just blown you off. So that means it is no longer your job to make her like you... It's is your job not to mess it up.”

“You can cry, ain't no shame in it.”

“You can't be scared to die for the truth. The truth is the only thing that is ever going to be constant.”

“You don’t set out to build a wall. You don’t say ‘I’m going to build the biggest, baddest, greatest wall that’s every been built.’ You don’t start there. You say, ‘I’m going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid.’ You do that every single day. And soon you have a wall.”

“Being realistic is the most common path to mediocrity.”

“If you’re not making someone else’s life better, than you are wasting your time. Your life will become better by making other people’s lives better.”

“Money and success don’t change people; they merely amplify what is already there.”

“There are so many people who have lived and died before you. You will never have a new problem. Somebody wrote the answer down in a book somewhere.”