A person with Songhai and Touareg blood in his veins with no existing baby pictures to prove him ever being one, more nominations than movies he has acted in, and an affinity for beekeeping, Morgan Freeman is one helluva gifted man. And not only is he gifted with talent, but also with intelligence and wisdom. So, here we are with a list full of beautiful Morgan Freeman quotes that will surely be narrated in his voice in your head.
You might not have known this fact, but the first role mister Freeman got was as a punishment for misbehaving at school. Yup, his teachers thought that it would be a great lesson for the boy to be forced to enter an acting contest, but little did they know about his natural talent! He even got a partial drama scholarship but turned it down to join the United States Air Force. However, there's no escaping from one's talents, and although he rose through the ranks, the love for acting and dancing won him over. And lucky us! His roles in movies such as Shawshank Redemption (based on the novel by Stephen King, by the way), Seven, and Million Dollar Baby have definitely made it into cinema history, and we just couldn't imagine our movie libraries without these gems.
Now, just think about the experiences mister Freeman had over his lifetime! They definitely reflect in the wise words he has to share with us. His quotes about life are enlightening, and how could they not be! Then there's a whole slew of positive quotes about anything from love to loss; they all speak volumes of his intelligence and resonate deeply with anyone reading them. And if some of the famous actors seem to have lost themselves in the many roles they've played, then this is definitely not the case for Morgan Freeman - his moving quotes always show the importance of being the real you.
So, get ready for a good dose of inspiring quotes by Morgan Freeman - you won't believe how good they are until you actually read them! Once you do, though, vote for the ones you liked the best and share this article with your friends.
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“Somebody once said to me after I'd done 'Deep Impact,' "What is it like to play a Black president," and I said, "I didn't play a Black president. I played a president. I just happened to be Black. There's a difference.”
“You don’t know how much you appreciate your privacy until you don’t have it.”
"If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things."–
“Get busy living or get busy dying!”
“If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient?... If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?”
“I am going to stop calling you a white man and I'm going to ask you to stop calling me a black man.”
"Very often, you know, you stop walking because you say, ‘Well, I’m tired of climbing this hill. I’m never going to get to the top.’ And you’re only two steps from the top."
“The most important thing to do if you find yourself in a hole is to stop digging.”
“Finding joy is probably tantamount to finding yourself and being comfortable in your own skin.”
"You know, the ancient Egyptians had a beautiful belief about death. When their souls got to the entrance to heaven, the guards asked two questions. Their answers determined whether they were able to enter or not. 'Have you found joy in your life?' 'Has your life brought joy to others?'"
“Was I always going to be here? No I was not. I was going to be homeless at one time, a taxi driver, truck driver, or any kind of job that would get me a crust of bread. You never know what's going to happen.”
“People need to start to think about the messages that they send in the movies.”
Please go for your dreams. Whatever your ideals, you can become whatever you want to become.
“How are we going to get rid of racism? Stop talking about it!”
“I'm always trying new things and learning new things. If there isn't anything more you can learn - go off and die.”
“I always wanted to be a fireman, a cop, an Indian chief, a doctor, a lawyer. I always wanted to be all these things, so I am drawn to these kinds of characters.”
"I don't have to work. I could stop and never have to worry about paying the rent. I'm working for the joy of doing it."
"Self-control is strength. Calmness is mastery. You have to get to a point where your mood doesn't shift based on the insignificant actions of someon else. Don't allow others to control the direction of your life. Don't allow your emotions to overpower your intelligence."
“Once you've gotten the job, there's nothing to it. If you're an actor, you're an actor. Doing it is not the hard part. The hard part is getting to do it.”
“Don’t be different just for different’s sake. If you see it differently, function that way. Follow your own muse, always.”
“If you wake up and the snow is knee-deep outside, you are not filled with rage. It’s just something that you’ve got to cope with. If you’re living in a situation, it’s the only situation that you know, and you’ve got to deal with it.”
“A single mom who's working two jobs and still finds time to take her kid to soccer practice, that's a miracle."
“Forgiveness liberates the soul. It removes fear. That is why it is such a powerful weapon.”
“If you look back on your life and where you started from it's like looking back down a mountain back to the desert floor. It's like now I can't believe I had whatever it takes or perceived whatever it took to get here.”
"If your life turns out to be good and you have a tremendous amount of luck in your life, it’s a good thing to turn around and make it work for others."
“That’s your job as the actor—to understand the human part of the character, to make it real.”
“If I stay at home, I’m not famous. I’m only famous when I’m out in the streets, so I don’t go out on the streets much.”
“You’re not going to be able to look like anyone else, no matter how hard you try, unless you’re a mimic; then you’re not acting, you’re just mimicking.”
“Let me be the first to tell you, drinking alcohol is the worst thing to do in cold weather. Hot soup is the best because the process of digesting food helps to warm you up.”
“The best way to confront, or deal with, technological innovation is to keep moving technologically.”
“I always tell my kids if you lay down, people will step over you. But if you keep scrambling, if you keep going, someone will always, always give you a hand. Always. But you gotta keep dancing, you gotta keep your feet moving.”
“The highest power is the human mind. That’s where God came from and my belief in God is my belief in myself.”
“I do know there are a lot of people who seem to be in my corner, and that's, of course, wonderful. I'm really more interested in the nomination than in the award, because I think the nomination just puts you within a group of outstanding actors.”
“If you live a life of make-believe, your life isn’t worth anything until you do something that does challenge your reality. And to me, sailing the open ocean is a real challenge, because it's life or death.”
“Stage is really hard work. You’ve got to do it every night. Not like doing it once and walking away.”
“I am God. So it’s easy to play him. They say God is in all things. So if God is in me, then I am in God. Therefore, I am God. God does not exist without me.”
“I'm not intimidated by lead roles. I'm better in them. I don't feel pressure. I feel released at times like that. That's what I'm born to do.”
“There are things that I would like to do, but I make a big distinction between liking to do something and wanting to do something. If there’s something that I want to do, I’ve done it. If there’s something that comes up that I want to do, I will do it.”
“I have to remind myself that some birds aren't meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up, does rejoice.”
“I can say that life is good to me. Has been and is good. So I think my task is to be good to it. How do you be good to life? You live it.”
“I try to keep my mind active. I'm a solitaire and puzzle addict. I exercise religiously. I don't do many things religiously and I've taken up golf to have something to do when I have nothing to do.”
“And that if you become a star, people are going to go to see you. If you remain an actor, they're going to go and see the story you're in.”
“If you're playing somebody who is not you, then you can imagine that you are that person. You can feel like he feels, move like he moves, look like he looks - in your own mind.”
“I don't do comedy. I think if a situation is funny you just play it for real and if it's funny, it's funny.”
“I'm not one who can write out a speech and remember all the names of the people that you need to thank because you need to thank all of those people.”
“Even through my good-looking youth, I wasn't called on for any romantic parts, which is okay. What I was called on to do, I enjoyed doing. The funny thing about life is that if you live long enough, I think, you'll get every wish you ever had. It'll all come true.”
“Kindness in thinking or giving, creates profoundness and happiness. Kindness in saying creates an everlasting love."
"Stillness. It's what I learn from the actors I work with. That's all, and that's the hardest thing."
“I know people are saying they like you. I’m not being insulted, or pushed, around or anything. People are coming up because they like me. Nevertheless, I can’t be everybody’s. None of us can. I hate saying no to people.”
“Every job’s a challenge. The challenge is to do it and make it look right, like you belong there - wherever that is.”
“I’m a firm believer that things happen as they should. The universe unfolds just as it’s supposed to.”
“So we say, ‘Oh, my goodness; we think we’ve found another Earth-like planet.’ We will start trying to figure out how to get there. And I have this strong belief that whatever we think we can do, whatever we can dream, we can do.”
“I am passionate about what is going on with the oceans, mainly because we are for some idiotic reason, really screwing it up. I mean, we’re really killing the ocean. It’s like putting out the sun. Without it, there is no us.”
“One of the things you can always depend on, this is one of the truths of the universe. And you heard it first from here, whatever we decide we want to do is what we do.”
“Still, it can be more effective to accomplish what you need to accomplish with the minimum effort. Watch Anthony Hopkins. He doesn't appear to be doing anything. He is so still that you can't see him working, but you are drawn into his character through his very stillness.”
“People hear that and say I'm being modest. But I am not a modest person, but I have to be truthful about what I'm doing and what I'm doing is channeling.”
“Nobody is trying to save energy. We're trying to shift our use of fuel. Forget saving energy; if we get the right kind of energy, there are endless amounts.”
“I'm easy going for the most part but sometimes in the morning if I didn't sleep well I can be kind of grumpy. But my grumpiness doesn't have that much to do with my dissatisfaction with my station in life.”
“You want to retire from a job you're not that all enamoured with. I love what I do. I want to keep doing it till I can't get out of bed doing it.”
“Life doesn't offer you promises whatsoever so it's very easy to become, 'Whatever happened to... ?' It's great to be wanted. I spent a few years not being wanted and this is better.”
“I got my first job as a card-carrying actor in New York in 1967. Before that, I was a very desperate wannabe.”
“There's an exercise we do where someone is sat behind you and you're asked to close your eyes and fall backwards. That's acting.”
“Which lady would I like to meet? Um, I don't know that there's anybody left that I didn't meet. But the one that I really wanted to meet died and that was Princess Diana. I really wanted to get to know her. I like her.”
“I knew at an early age I wanted to act. Acting was always easy for me. I don't believe in predestination, but I do believe that once you get where ever it is you are going, that is where you were going to be.”
“In my career? Me. I'm the boss. I'm the end all and be all. I'm the alpha and omega in that.”
“I can remember when I first got to los Angeles . I didn't have a car, I didn't have any money. I was walking the streets, you know, trying to get from place to place on foot almost. Sometimes, you know, you say, how am I ever going to get from here to there? There are a lot of people still having that dream and not being able to get there. So you never know. The idea is to keep on tap dancing, though.”
“Being blind is as simple as closing your eyes. The blind don't act any different than you or I. You never see a blind person going around saying, 'I'm blind.' So if you want to play blind just close your eyes and keep them closed and fare thee well.”
"People like to say that this is all just about making money, but if you don't make money, you don't make anything.”
“Seeing is believing, but is it truth? Depends on your point-of-view. Are you listening, horsemen? When you emerge, and you will, I will be there... waiting. Because mark my words, you will get what's coming to you... in ways you can't expect... but very much deserve. Because once thing I believe in is an eye for an eye.”
"I'm not a campaigner or a crusader for ending racism, or anything for that matter. I believe you should live your life according to your own tenets. If there are people you don't like, avoid them. But not liking people based on generalities is stupid."
"I never think about awards or anything like that when I do a job. I was first named a best actor when I was 12 years old and it doesn't really mean anything when you get down to it, because there is no best. I don't get all that involved. My chest puffs up as much as I can puff it up but I am not trying to be better than the person I am acting with. I am trying to be at least as good. That's how it works."
“Audiences believe what you believe. It’s a matter of believing in yourself. If I believe me, then you’ve got no choice. None at all.”
“When I was doing theater, I was very successful at believing that I was great—God’s gift to the theater.”
“I don’t have anybody telling me what to say. I have people who would suggest, maybe, that I shouldn’t do this, that or the other, but that’s strictly up to me.”
“When I was a teenager, I began to settle into school because I’d discovered the extracurricular activities that interested me: music and theater.”
“I've always been a fan of or desired to or responded to variety. I like variety in life, so variety in work is a must.”
“I don't remember what my favourite comedy film is - truthfully! I saw Borat and I thought I was not going to be able to get out of the theatre because I was in so much pain from the laughter.”
“I feel fine, I don’t care who the director is. All you have to do is know what your doing – all of us – everybody in the business – that’s all you ask anyone – you know your job, I know mine, let’s go do it.”
“I’m making a great effort because sometimes, life is not enjoyable. Sometimes it’s painful, and sometimes it’s stressful, sometimes it’s agonizing, even, so I think once you get around those humps, strive for pleasure and peace.”
“My approach to acting is that I am totally intuitive. I read the script and I get it. If I don’t get it, I can’t do it.”
“I think you have to be left-brained, to a certain extent, to understand science. I can talk about it, but I can’t do it.”
