Bernard Hopkins Quotes

None of my peers avoided prison. None of 'em.

I think of my brother just out of prison again. He will have spent ten years of the last 30 in prison.

And I did wonder - because it's now three years ago since I left prison - whether there would come a time when I would forget it, or it would be in the past as anything else might be - no, it's there every day of my life.

I came out even with all the struggles I endured on Rikers Island.

If I’m ever released, I do the same again. Exactly the same.

We're recycling very dangerous criminals over and over again.

All the former prisoners are now the government.

I'm not incapable of going through things.

I spent five years of my youth in prison - some very bad prisons.

I went to prison; therefore, I've been rehabilitated, and now I want to get on with my life. I have paid for what I did, end of story.

It's not as if I've ever been to prison or been close to going to prison. The closest I've got is knowing people who have been in jail - after all, I was a member of Parliament - and visiting them there during their sentence.

Everyone needs a place to live. Everyone needs a place to come home to every night. I don't understand why our society, our government, can think that you can lock a person away for months or years... and then release them back after they pay their debt without any support and expect it to be okay.

It was very cold in jail. But inmates were good. They shared their stories with me.

It's not difficult to move forward when you have nothing to lose. Right? At the time, I had nothing to lose. So, even when people were trying to degrade me, I couldn't let them take the only thing I had, which was my dream. I had to move forward and, thank God, I kept trying.

The most successful people in the world are people who were rejected more than anybody else.

Young people can understand, and must understand, that we had success, we had failures, but we never gave up. We never gave in. We never became bitter. We didn't hate. We continued to press on. And that's what we're saying: There are some ups, there are some downs, and when you're not down, you must have the capacity and the ability to get up and keep going.

I never listened to the people who said I should give it up, which is the main advice I got.

I just love it when people say I can't do something. There's nothing that makes me feel better, because all my life people have said I wasn't going to make it.

About 70% of those released from prison return within a few years, and the majority of those who return in some states do so in a matter of months because the challenges associated with mere survival on the outside are so immense.

There will be those who will tell you that you can't make it because of how you look, because of the way you talk. We all have heard that - I almost listened.

We all, we all good people just trying to escape the negative influence that come around us and that's the story of my life, you know? Trying my best to get around the ills and I bumped my head a few times but I think, you know, music is my savior for right now, for me and my whole group.

All successful people learn that success is buried on the other side of frustration.

Never take no personally. Sometimes people tell you no for a reason that has nothing to do with you. You must keep going.

I need people who look at adversity as a challenge and failure as a learning opportunity.

After people become convinced they have what it takes to succeed, they persevere in the face of adversity and quickly rebound from setbacks. By sticking it out through tough times, they emerge stronger from adversity.