Tavis Smiley Quotes

Even behind bars, even on Death Row, you can fail up, because life is about committing ourselves on a daily basis to the best in us. Freedom is a state of mind. Freedom is an attitude. Freedom is a spirit. You may be behind bars, but you still have the capacity to be free.

There are really only two types of people. Either you're running scared or you're running free. I choose to run free, and you can, too, no matter what your circumstances in life.

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.

But freedom, liberty, is an attribute of the soul and it may exist even when the body is in bondage.

At the center of our agency is our freedom to form a healthy attitude toward whatever circumstances we are placed in!

Many people want payback and to see others suffer. Forgiveness is the key to freedom. You can choose to be enslaved and burdened or you can choose to be free. It's a choice. Forgiveness is a state of being. So once you do it, it alters who you are and the way you can be in the world.

The degree to which you resist is the degree to which you are free.

Many of us have had the attitude that life is something that happens to us and that all we can do is make the best of it. It is basically a victim's position, giving power to people and things outside of ourselves. We are beginning to realize that the power rests in us, that we can choose to create our life the way we want it to be.

Circumstances-what are circumstances? I make circumstances

We clearly realize that freedom's inner kingdom cannot be touched by exterior attacks.

Things don't weigh me down any more. I confront things, and I move on. I don't dwell on things; I don't let things simmer under the surface. I am where it starts and where it ends. I have the power in my life to be happy.

None but ourselves can free our minds.

People can dress you the way they want, they can do your makeup the way they want, but they can never take away your voice.

You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.

Running away will never make you free.

You must learn to exist with no religion, no country, no allies. You must learn to live alone in silence.

Freedom is what you do with what's been done to you.

The last of human freedoms - the ability to chose one's attitude in a given set of circumstances.

Freedom comes from strength and self-reliance.

It has taken me most of my adult life to come to terms with who I am. To do that, I had to break free of attitudes that brought me down.

Freedom is from within.

Our supreme duty is to advance toward freedom—physical, mental, and spiritual—and help others to do so.

Freedom resides within the soul.

It is not the mind, but the heart that makes free.

Freedom is internal. Another group cannot give you freedom.