Macklemore Quotes

When I was an orphan, I was the richest kid at the orphanage because everyone else was complaining about not having anything. But when I discovered that you could get two cents for a Coca-Cola bottle, I would follow people around who were drinking it and ask them if they were almost through with it.

It's really interesting to me how all of us can experience the exact same event, and yet come away with wildly disparate interpretations of what happened. We each have totally different ideas of what was said, what was intended, and what really took place.

One person's crazyness is another person's reality.

Summer boarders often left clothes behind, and of what use were they to the landladies, for no rag-and-bone man ever called at their houses. The truth of the matter was that in less than a week I was well dressed from head to foot, all of these things being voluntary offerings, when in quest of eatables.

What you see is not what others see. We inhabit parallel worlds of perception, bounded by our interests and experience. What is obvious to some is invisible to others.

Then again, what seems like nothing in the eyes of the world, when properly valued and put to use, can be among the greatest riches.

If it isn't bolted down, bring it home.

Take what you got and fly with it.

All places that the eye of heaven visits Are to a wise man ports and happy havens. Teach thy necessity to reason thus; There is no virtue like necessity.

Nothing is so contagious as opinion, especially on questions which, being susceptible of very different glosses, beget in the mind a distrust of itself.

The poor also are willing to make, and do make, smart decisions, if you give them that opportunity.

He that hath money in his purse cannot want a head for his shoulders.

When I was studying at Chicago and at Stanford University, where many many cases of two people observing the same event have a different take on what happened.

There's a key for every door, and if you can't find it, you can make one. That's always an option.

You can wait forever for perfect conditions or you can make do with what you have.

I saw a sign on the side of the road in Tennessee once that said 'dirt for sale'... what a great country we live in. DIRT for sale. How would you like to get inside that guy's mind and look around for a hour? That guy sees opportunity at every glance, doesn't he?

I've always had a special place in my heart for old women digging through garbage bins. They saved my life so many times as a baby.

Using what you have is always creates more opportunities for the future.

For so much of my career I've been trying to find little things and make something out of it.

I learnt just how little it takes to survive, which is why I don’t waste things – food, money, friendships or opportunities.

Some folks are natural born kickers. They can always find a way to turn disaster into butter.

There is a legend of an artist who long sought for a piece of sandalwood, out of which to carve a Madonna. He was about to give up in despair, leaving the vision of his life unrealized, when in a dream he was bidden to carve his Madonna from a block of oak wood which was destined for the fire. He obeyed and produced a masterpiece from a log of common firewood. Many of us lose great opportunities in life by waiting to find sandalwood for our carvings, when they really lie hidden in the common logs that we burn.

We have to acknowledge that we can't look to manufacturing or natural resources to drive growth like we have in the past. Human capital, talent, and knowledge are our most important resources now. Every city has hidden seeds of opportunity waiting to be nurtured. Places like Detroit, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh are among my favorite cities. They have great universities, clusters of innovation across a range of industries, and pools of innovative and creative talent to build on.

From the fallen tree everybody makes firewood.

If dandelions were rare and fragile, people would knock themselves out to pay $14.95 a plant, raise them by hand in greenhouses, and form dandelion societies and all that. But, they are everywhere and don't need us and kind of do what they please. So we call them weeds and murder them at every opportunity