9 Inspirational Quotes From Cicely Tyson On Her 94th Birthday - Page 3

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Cicely Tyson, the iconic, legendary actress has starred in some memorable classics including The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, “Roots,” The Women of Brewster Place and my personal favorite Annalise Keating’s mother in “How To Get Away With Murder.”  But in addition to her groundbreaking work, Tyson has spent her life advocating for arts education and advocating for human and civil rights. With such a body of work, it should really come as no surprise that she would have some wisdom to offer us. Check out some of the quotes she’s offered over the years.

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Challenges make you discover things about yourself that you never really knew.

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Age is just a number. Life and aging are the greatest gifts that we could possibly ever have.

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I have learned not to allow rejection to move me.

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One of the things I have always said about the man-woman relationship is that I don’t want anybody to walk ahead of me, and I don’t want anybody to walk behind me. I want a man who will walk along beside me. And that’s how I feel about equal rights.

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In my early years, there were a number of experiences that made me decide I could not afford the luxury of just being an actress. There were a number of issues I wanted to address. And I wanted to use my career as a platform.

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When I told my mother that I wanted to be an actress, she said, you can’t live here and do that, and so I moved out. I was determined to prove her wrong because she was so sure that I was going to go astray. And that’s the juice that kept me going.

On natural hair

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The moment anyone tries to demean or degrade you in any way, you have to know how great you are. Nobody would bother to beat you down if you were not a threat.

On racism

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I am not a quitter. I will fight until I drop. It is just a matter of having some faith in the fact that as long as you are able to draw breath in the universe, you have a chance.