Quotes by Will Smith

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

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.

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

And where I excel is ridiculous, sickening, work ethic. You know, while the other guy's sleeping? I'm working.

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

Grades are getting low, the teens are getting high!

Everybody need a partner to stand right by their side. Not only down for the good times. But also down through the bad times.

It's really beautiful. It feels like God visits everywhere else but lives in Africa.

Life is not the amount of breaths you take; it's the moments that take your breath away.

My skin is hard when it comes to my music. But with my movies, I'm still a virgin in a lot of ways. I'm not used to being shot down for no reason.

I think it would be arrogant and borderline foolish to believe there's no other life forms that exist out there.

There's a forgiveness that literary audiences will give you that film audiences don't give you. It's the two hour construct. You're in there and it needs to climax and finish.

I'm profoundly changed. There's a bittersweet emotion that I feel from playing this role... I want the world to be different because I was here. However lofty or crazy or delusional that may sound, I want people's lives to be better because I was here.

There's a certain delusional quality that all successful people have to have.

I think my general disposition on life is finding what's funny about it. When something happens, the first thing in my mind is, What's funny about it?

Something hurts, lean in. You just lean into that point until it loses its power over you. There's a certain amount of suffering that you have to be willing to sustain if you want to have a good life. And the real trick is to be able to sustain it with your heart open and still be loving.

Goofy was the word that was used most often by my sisters because I've been this tall ever since I was 12 years old.

What people are perceiving will dictate what their life and ultimately what your interaction is.

I read a Bruce Lee quote that shifted how I'm trying to live my life right now. He said, Some targets are only meant to be aimed at. Right? And I took that to mean a shift for myself from goal orientation to path orientation.

Tons of women would love to have sex with me. I hate the image of black men as promiscuous and unable to control themselves sexually. I don't like that image.

Don't ever let someone tell you that you can't do something. You got a dream, you gotta protect it. When people can't do something themselves, they are going to tell you that you can't do it. You want something, go get it. Period.

I refuse to accept anything less than 100% of what I can achieve.

I've always considered myself to be just average talent and what I have is a ridiculous insane obsessiveness for practice and preparation.

You're the dumbest smart person i know, you're the dumbest dumb person i know.

Just stay ready. Stay in shape and then you don't have to rush to train before the movie starts. I'll show you my abs later because I'm in shape. But that idea, if you stay ready, you don't have to get ready.

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

You be as truthful as you can to a specific situation, and it will become universal.

In black neighborhoods, everybody appreciated comedy about real life. In the white community, fantasy was funnier. I started looking for the jokes that were equally hilarious across the board, for totally different reasons.

I'm motivated by fear. Fear of fear. I hate being scared to do something. And I think what developed in my early days was the attitude that I started attacking things that I was scared of.

The execs don't care what color you are. They care about how much money you make. Hollywood is not really black or white. It's green.

I believe that I can create whatever I want to create. If I can put my head on it right, study it, learn the patterns, and -- it's hard to put into words, it's real metaphysical, esoteric nonsense, but I feel very strongly that we are who we choose to be.

Probably means there's a good chance. Possibly means we might or we might not.

The desire to be a good father is really innate. There aren't a lot of movies that depict that relationship because men, we have to pretend that we're not that emotional about it.

I consider myself an alchemist. An alchemist is basically a mystical chemist, right? And one of the great feats that alchemists used to do is they would take lead -- just take a chunk of lead -- and they could turn lead into gold.

Adolf Hitler was a vile, heinous, vicious killer responsible for one of the greatest acts of evil committed on this planet.

We didn't grow up with the sense that where we were was where we were gonna be. We grew up with the sense that where we were almost didn't matter, because we will be becoming something greater.

The best feeling in the world is knowing that you actually mean something to someone.

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.

The first eight years of schooling was with all white people. So that helped me to understand how white people think. I think that transition is what helped me bridge the gap, because that's what my success has really been about: bridging the gap between the black community and the white community.

The women who don't seek attention are usually the women you need to be giving your attention to.

I think with movies I am really connecting to the Joseph Campbell idea of the collective unconscious.

You can't break poor people mentality. Once you grow up poor, you don't take anything for granted. It can have the negative side also because you can never truly be relaxed.

I have no idea what my limits are. I believe that if I set my mind to it, within the next fifteen years, I would be the President of the United States.

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

The first step before anybody else in the world believes it, is that you believe it.

If the world attacks and you slide off track, remember one fact, I got your back.

Being famous is such a gift for me because small things make people's lives brighter. You just shake somebody's hand. You just smile and write your name and people will talk about it for the rest of their lives.

Even Hitler didn't wake up going, 'Let me do the most evil thing I can do today.' I think he woke up in the morning and using a twisted, backwards logic, he set out to do what he thought was 'good.'

The central idea of love is not even a relationship commitment, the first thing is a personal commitment to be the best version of yourself with or without that person that you're with. You have to every single day-mind, body, and spirit-wake up with a commitment to be better.

You can create whatever you want. You just have to know what you want and take the opportunities as they come your way. We are who we choose to be.

There is no pain worse than not achieving a dream when it is your fault. If God did not want you to have it, that is one thing. But if you do not get what you desire because you are lazy, there is no pain worse than that.

I first wanted to be a comedian when I was six or seven and my dad showed me Laurel and Hardy's Perfect Day on tv.

Why is life at this point in the twentieth century so focused upon the very beginning of life and the very end of life? What about the 80 years we have to live between those two inexorable bookends?

If we each get on a treadmill right now, one of two things is going to happen... either you're going to get off first or I am going to die. Period.

There is nothing like having to change your physical form to put you in contact with every weak part of yourself, to train yourself in discipline. Put somebody on a treadmill and I'll tell you how good they are at any other thing they do in life.

I was trying so hard. I would memorize the entire script, then I'd be lipping everybody's lines while they were talking. When I watch those episodes, it's disgusting. My performances were horrible.

If you're not making someone else's life better, then you're wasting your time. Your life will become better by making other lives better.

Greatness is not this, wonderful, esoteric, elusive, god-like feature that only the special among us will ever taste. You know? It's something that truly exists, in, all of us. It's very simple, this is what I believe, and, I'm willing to die for it. Period. It's that simple.

Any time you see a white guy in jail, you know he did something bad.

My God, my higher power. It's mine and mine alone. I create my connection and I decide how my connection is going to be.

Part of being an actor is almost self-hypnosis during those brief moments when the cameras are rolling. You want to actually believe you're Chris Gardner or Muhammad Ali.

I so connected to symbolically being able to turn lead into gold. My grandmother used to say, Life give you a lemon, you go ahead and make lemonade. To me, that's alchemy.

I've always been attracted to characters with insurmountable odds and obstacles, because innately, however inarticulately I've always believed that my dreams and my desires can command and bend time and space to be the things that I want them to be.

Gettin' jiggy wit it is, like, the next level of cool. It's cool to the eighth power. Some people are fly, some people are kind of hot. But when you are the jiggiest, when you exude jiggy-essence, it's the acme of cool.

I've always been a jokester. The things I got in trouble for, when I was little, was always about making a joke or setting up a prank or being silly when I should be paying attention.

When you connect to a primal idea -- life, death, hunger, hope, fear -- any of those primal ideas are going to translate, and I think that's the thing that I've always been attracted to in my work.

The Bible talks about your spirit being immortal, that you were created for existence beyond your physical body. Well, that's no different from Scientology! I don't think that because the word someone uses for spirit is thetan that the definition becomes any different.

Tommy Lee Jones is hilarious. I would say, if you look at the body of his work, the character he is most like is the one in 'The Fugitive.' That's how he talks and jokes. That is the type of energy he has.

My biggest emotional defeat and the greatest emotional pain I've had as an actor was when Wild Wild West opened up to $52 million. The movie wasn't good. And it hurt so bad to be the No. 1 movie -- to open at $52 million -- and to know the movie wasn't good.

Never lie to people, because the people you are able to lie to, are the people who trust you.

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.

If you're always ready, you don't have to get ready.

I love you and I'm here for you.

You'll never achieve 100 percent if 99 percent is okay.

Can I say something? Um, I'm the type of person that if you ask me a question and I don't know the answer, I'm gonna tell you that I don't know. But I bet you what, I know how to find the answer and I will find the answer.

Don't let failure go to your heart, and don't let success go to your head.

Those who say I can, and those who say I can't -- are both usually right.

The greatest dreams are always unrealistic.

You want something? Go get it.

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

There are so many people who have lived and died before you. You will never have a new problem; you're not going to ever have a new problem. Somebody wrote the answer down in a book somewhere.

Being realistic is the most common path to mediocrity.

Talent you have naturally. Skill is only developed by hours and hours and hours of beating on your craft.

Fear is not real. It is a product of thoughts you create. Do not misunderstand me. Danger is very real. But fear is a choice.

We spend money that we do not have, on things we do not need, to impress people who do not care.

Stop letting people who do so little for you control so much of your life.

I believe you need to be educated about what you want to do in life, but I don't believe you actually need college to get you there.

Boys laugh at what they put girls through -- but they won't be laughing when -- they're wiping tears off their daughters face for the same reason.

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

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

Your life will become better by making other lives better.

Sorry, I'm allergic to bullshit.

The person that works the hardest wins.

The road to success is through commitment.

Greatness lives on the edge of destruction.

Make a choice of what you want, who you want to be and how you're going to do it. The universe will get out of your way.

The separation of talent and skill is one of the largest misconceptions in modern society. Talent is something you born with, but skill can only be attained through Hours and Hours of hard work perfecting your talent as a craft. Which is why Talent will fail you without skill.

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

Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn now and again.

You can't win the war against the world if you can't win the war against your own mind.

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.

It is your responsibility to figure out how to take that pain and how to overcome that and build a happy life for yourself.

Taking responsibility is not an admission of guilt.

Taking responsibility is a recognition of the power that you see when you stop blaming people.

When you're in victim mode you are stuck in suffering.

If something is broken it's your responsibility to fix it.

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

There's so much negative imagery of black fatherhood. I've got tons of friends that are doing the right thing by their kids, and doing the right thing as a father -- and how come that's not as newsworthy?

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

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 belong to no organized party. I am a Democrat.

I love producing. I am loving doing that. I think that is my most natural space in the business. I just love producing or editing and that's where I thrive.

As a child, I watched 'Dallas' and that was my vision for my life for as long as I could remember.

I had to focus and create a character in Bagger Vance, not just do my 'Will Smith' thing and get paid.

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.

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

It's quite highly possible that I have peaked. I mean, I just can't imagine what else I could do beyond this. It's really a bittersweet kind of feeling.

Life is lived on the edge.

You can cry, ain't no shame in it.

I would have absolutely messed up 'The Matrix'.

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

I've viewed myself as slightly above average in talent. And where I excel is ridiculous, sickening work ethic.

I'm a student of patterns. At heart, I'm a physicist. I look at everything in my life as trying to find the single equation, the theory of everything.