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Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter QUOTES

Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter QUOTES

1 " The willingness to receive help and appreciate its value when it arrives, sometimes unannounced, is a subject that returns us to the question of why and how our lives turn out as they do. "

― Sidney Poitier , Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter

2 " A tiny bit of myself is lost when my friends are gone. A tiny bit of myself was lost when my brothers, all but one, passed away. "

― Sidney Poitier , Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter

3 " But there is one key ingredient that my wife has helped me to recognize over the years, and that is the importance of articulating love for one another on a daily basis. The words I love you, spoken in acknowledgment in the morning upon rising and before going to bed, or when sitting down to dine, make the most beautiful music recognized by human ears. "

― Sidney Poitier , Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter

4 " The great disease of mankind is ignorance. "

― Sidney Poitier , Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter

5 " I’m telling you this so that if you ever are in the position of carrying a secret about something that you have done that makes you ashamed you will make the choice to confront yourself. It will take guts to admit that you have behaved in a way that prevents you from being your better self, and then choose to act differently. It "

― Sidney Poitier , Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter

6 " We do not reject our traditions, but we are willing to adapt to changing circumstances, when change we must. We are willing to suffer the discomfort of change in order to achieve a better future. "

― Sidney Poitier , Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter

7 " fear is a visceral response to imminent jeopardy, real or perceived, threatening to come crashing down on you with devastating results. Undoubtedly "

― Sidney Poitier , Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter

8 " We fight good wars in medical laboratories, endlessly seeking to cure the scourges of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and mental illness. We fight good wars when we devote time, energy, and money to relieve the suffering of hungry people around the world. We fight good wars when we come to the aid of those struck by the overwhelming forces of capricious nature: fire, flood, drought, hurricanes, and earthquakes. We fight good wars when we refuse to allow injustice to be done to others. We fight good wars when we oppose hate, bigotry, and ignorance. These "

― Sidney Poitier , Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter

9 " We are what we are, and half of what we are is what we are not. "

― Sidney Poitier , Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter

10 " As a chief justice of the United States once said, blacks were three-fifths of a human, and only a full human being should have rights, the implication being that three-fifths of a human being was something fit to function only as a beast of burden. Well, that is a distortion exposing the enemies of logic and reason, and among them are mass hysteria, hate, prejudice, and ignorance. With "

― Sidney Poitier , Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter

11 " Stay from underfoot and don’t get into any trouble. You hear me?” “Yes, ma’am, I hear you.” Due to past experience, she may not have completely believed me. When "

― Sidney Poitier , Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter

12 " It is not a bad idea, Ayele, as you grow into adulthood, to fix your eye on people of your parents’ generation, or perhaps those even older, to find those you can admire for their qualities of character and contribution. Heroes and role models are important, especially because when you think of them they have the ability to buoy your spirits and ignite your energies to move you onward. In "

― Sidney Poitier , Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter

13 " We all have a capacity for love, for kindness, for passion. We also have a capacity for the opposite, but love is infinitely more effective in the world than hate, although they exist as equal opposites. "

― Sidney Poitier , Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter

14 " Even if you are someone used to wearing armor, guarded and afraid, I think love is such a strong force it would find a way through your protective guard. It will get to your heart, and you can’t put any fences around that. As much as you might try, you simply can’t. You’re going to have other forces that will be operative at the same time if it is right for you to fall in love with this activity or individual or cause or process. There "

― Sidney Poitier , Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter

15 " I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work,” he said. “I want to achieve it by not dying.” But "

― Sidney Poitier , Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter

16 " behind each word is a meaning. Some words are friendly; some are not. Some will cause you pain. Some will make you cry. Some will protect you. Some will deceive you. Still, words and their meaning can be indispensable in preparing you for the battles you must win in order to survive. The "

― Sidney Poitier , Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter

17 " And though she was devout in her faith, she wasn’t married to church doctrine, nor do I think that she actually recognized the fundamental differences between Anglican and Roman Catholic churches, and how the division came about. I don’t think she was aware that the king of England wanted to marry Anne Boleyn, and the Roman Catholic Church would not give him permission to get rid of his wife to do that. So he set up his own Anglican Catholicism. I’m pretty sure she didn’t know because my mother was not that versed a person. In fact, that was history I wouldn’t know much about until many years later. My "

― Sidney Poitier , Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter

18 " They have never found that area within themselves where they can be peaceful with who they are, what they are, and where they are. In "

― Sidney Poitier , Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter

19 " (Carl Sagan has said, “To make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.”) As "

― Sidney Poitier , Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter

20 " my mother chose to teach me that sometimes gratification has to be delayed. "

― Sidney Poitier , Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter