13 Quotes & Sayings By Sidney Poitier

Sidney Poitier was born in Miami, Florida on February 20, 1927. He is the only person to have been awarded two Academy Awards for acting: one in 1964 for In the Heat of the Night and one in 1988 for Lilies of the Field . In 1999 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton for his contributions to American cinema. His films include: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, The Lilies of the Field, In the Heat of the Night, To Sir With Love , Uptown Saturday Night, In the Heat of the Night , The Bedford Diaries , The Hot Spot , Guess Who's Coming to Dinner , Uptown Saturday Night , Kiss of Death , and Stir Crazy .

1
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?. Sidney Poitier
A person doesn't have to change who he is to...
2
A person doesn't have to change who he is to become better. Sidney Poitier
3
Okay listen, you think I'm so inconsequential? Then try this on for size. All those who see unworthiness when they look at me and are given thereby to denying me value - to you I say, I'm not talking about being AS GOOD as you. I hereby declare myself BETTER than you. Sidney Poitier
4
So much of life, it seems, is determined by pure randomness. Sidney Poitier
5
Accept that environment compromises values far more than values do their number on environment. Sidney Poitier
6
I decided in my life that I would do nothing that did not reflect positively on my father's life. Sidney Poitier
7
I had chosen to use my work as a reflection of my values. Sidney Poitier
8
To simply wake up every morning a better person than when I went to bed. Sidney Poitier
9
I had to satisfy the action fans, the romantic fans, the intellectual fans. It was a terrific burden. Sidney Poitier
10
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. Sidney Poitier
11
But my dad also was a remarkable man, a good person, a principled individual, a man of integrity. Sidney Poitier
12
My father was a tomato farmer. There is the phrase that says he or she worked their fingers to the bone, well, that's my dad. And he was a very good man. Sidney Poitier