Anita Roddick Quotes

Make a choice: continue living your life feeling muddled in this abyss of self-misunderstanding, or you find your identity independent of it. You push for colour-blind casting; you draw your own box. You introduce yourself as who you are, not what colour your parents happen to be.

What I always wanted to do when I was a kid was to speak out and help people which I continue to do afterwards.

I am a woman with a calling for social struggle and public service.

Some reporter called me 'the angriest gay man in the world' or some such. Well, it stuck, but I realized it was very useful.

I was able to realize that I definitely want to make sure that I use my voice, as it gets bigger and bigger, in the world for good.

I always say, as an actress, I get to portray the human condition, but as an activist, I get to change the human condition.

To see that I have this huge platform now, and so many people are listening to what I have to say, it really makes me want to orientate toward something that would really educate people, create awareness, do something more than just show them a cute outfit or what I'm having for lunch.

I love tennis. But even if I become the greatest of all time, I still don't only want to be defined by tennis. I'm my own person. And I want to be remembered as I really am.

I always knew I had to find a way to be a catalyst for positive change.

To me I think leadership is activism. It's giving back to your community, it's investing in oneself, and you know women and children.

I think so many women allow themselves to be defined by somebody else's narrative.

My mother said, 'Did you ever believe you would be an activist?' I said, 'No, not really.' But I just felt in my heart that I needed to step up and be a leader in the forefront.

I wish when I was 15 that I realized my voice was important and that even my thoughts and my opinions had value. Had I known, I probably would've spoken up more. I probably would've found my activism sooner and become a writer sooner.

The pain and the suffering that I went through made me an activist. It made me stronger; it made me more compassionate.

I think of myself as a complete person, not just a football player and athlete.

Excuse me ... but I reject your definitions of me.

But I am more than a name. More than they tell me

You don't get to Define me, only I can Define me, all I wish from you is to recognize my Definition.

I'm history! No, I'm mythology! Nah, I don't care what I am, I'm free!

Depending on their fondest memory of you, most people hold on so tightly to their fondest memory they don’t usually let you be anything greater than that. And that’s one of the things I think I allowed myself to be a victim of earlier in my career. What I learned as I got older is I decide. I decide what it’s like for me, not other people. You can be whatever you’d like to be. You just have to choose it.

I want to continue to speak out on issues that matter to me. I want to have even more of a voice.

I'd rather die on my feet making a speech than die of Alzheimer's - and that's what I'm planning to do.

My experience is that I find myself having to constantly define myself to others, day-in, day-out. The quote that's helped me the most through that is from Toni Morrison's "Beloved" where she says, "Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined" - so I find myself defining myself for other people lest I be defined by others and stuck into some box where I don't particularly belong.

I cannot be defined by what other people think.

Education without social action is a one-sided value because it has no true power potential.