The Measure of a Man

by Sidney Poitier

‘I’m not talking about being as good as you. I hereby declare myself better than you.’”

“When the student is ready, the teacher appears.”

Truth is that there is a place of space that does exist between two opposites everywhere, and somewhere therein dwells a point at which balance can be found.

Of all my father’s teachings, the most enduring was the one about the true measure of a man. That true measure was how well he provided for his children,

On very rare occasions there comes a Gandhi, and occasionally there comes a Martin Luther King, Jr., and occasionally there comes a guy like Paul Robeson or a guy like Nelson Mandela. When these people come along, their anger, their rage, their resentment, their frustration—these feelings ultimately mature by will of their own discipline into a positive energy that can be used to fuel their positive, healthy excursions

There are myriad justifications for denial.

The powerful have to forgive themselves for their behavior.

I’ve learned that I must find positive outlets for anger or it will destroy me. I have to try to find a way to channel that anger to the positive, and the highest positive is forgiveness.

Marcus Garvey, who was so frustrated, who said, “These people are so intractable, they’re so bullheaded with their wrong-headedness, let’s all go back to Africa. Let’s just get out of here.”

You can’t be passing on to your kids a strong foundation if you don’t have one yourself—because whatever foundation you do or don’t have, that’s what you’re going to pass on. And when we pass on something that doesn’t serve our children, we have to be responsible for that.

The laws of economics don’t promote idealism or higher consciousness.

You don’t have to become something you’re not to be better than you were.

“You are a child of the universe; you have a right to be here.”

“His eye is on the sparrow.”

I am what I’ve become.

Is all that we’ve learned all that we know?

A seriously flawed man and a loving father are often one and the same person.

But I do know that I’m responsible not for what happens but for what I make of it. It’s up to me to take my own measure, to claim what’s real, to answer for myself.