Russell simmons quotes

Anyone whose mission is keeping people apart is swimming against a very strong tide.

Never change for the mainstream—stay in your lane, and if you’re talented and resilient enough the mainstream will come to you.

[T]here's nobody Black in charge of anything in Hollywood.

You don't need a record deal. You'll have the industry begging for you, when you build your buzz.

The key ingredient to any kind of happiness or success is to never give less than your best

In the morning I stand up, scratch a little bit, then I light a candle and I meditate. Every morning. I've been meditating for maybe 20 years. I meditate so I can make choices; so I'm not a sheep all the time. So I can see better than what everyone else is doing.

You can be anything you want to be, and you can start today, instead of waiting for some opportunity.

In my heart, I know that marriage equality for every human being isn't a question of if, but only a matter of when. I ask those who feel that giving freedom to others somehow binds you, to please take a good look at what you are standing behind.

But rich or poor, black or white, none of us are entitled to anything.

Mistakes only cost you when you don't acknowledge them.

Success is happiness. People say, "Oh that sounds corny." No matter how rich you are you can only sit your ass in one seat at a time. You have to be comfortable in that seat.

There was a moment when I was watching Martin Lawrence and Will Smith in 'Badboys' that I felt, you know, inspired. I don't know if I was proud, because so many people do the work. Everyone's part of a team that develops over the years and gives people chances. There have been some good moments watching people develop.

An animal products diet is like smoking 20 cigarettes a day.

I want to promote poetry to the point where you got all the baldhead kids running around doing poetry, getting the music out of the way and having only words, the spoken word, and then see what happens.

If you don't break a hole through the brick wall, don't just start digging a new hole. Keep going until you break through that wall.

Always focus on your effort, instead of the results of that effort.

The world belongs to the people who say, 'I can'.

Look at all the billionaires. If I know 15 billionaires, I know 13 unhappy people.

If you just remember to breathe and smile before you act, you’ll always make the right decision.

The poets who do this are uniquely conscious of this silence, this stillness.

We meditate so we can see miracles unfolding. Without stillness life is a blur.

If you want to say something profound, writing from your heartbeat is different than writing from the loud voices you get from music. If they're rapping from noise, it's about robbing people. It's that simple.

You've got to do things that promote what's important.

I'm not a politician. I only want to help relieve the suffering in communities, and I want to help people see their community in each other.

You cannot find it anywhere, because it is located inside you... happiness is your natural state.

I try to use my voice. I know that celebrity is valuable, and people do listen.

Respect your parents. What they tell you is true. Hard work, dedication and faith will get you anything. Imagination will drive itself. You can get anything you want, but you have to have faith behind all your ideas. Stick to your goals and have an undying faith.

Service is the key to everything in life.

I want to fight poverty and ignorance and give opportunity to those people who are locked out.

I think Hollywood is incredibly segregated. I've never seen any place like it. The gatekeepers who are the most progressive activists inspired to make the world better... they're better people, right? They're segregated. It's self segregated in some cases, but there's nobody Black in charge of anything in Hollywood.

It's all about the work. Nothing is going to fall into your lap.

Meditation can reintroduce you to the part that's been missing.

I don't know that God favors the person who has a greater reach than those who have a small reach. It's the intention. I try to keep a positive intention, and use whatever resources I have to benefit others.

There are poor white people who hear rap music and feel it is about them, because it is. That's why you have an Eminem and a Bubba Sparxxx and rappers like that.

It's very simple: When you're working your hardest, the world opens up to you.

I have 2 million Twitter followers. Some of those people are also yogis and activists and people who really go out and make a difference. I do as much as I can with my voice. It's effortless in some cases. I try to remind everybody that they have that kind of voice.

Art allows people a way to dream their way out of their struggle.

A person's strength is to know their weaknesses.

I try to make my life about service, and hope that one day we can all 'see' a little better because God is with everyone and everywhere.

In my experience, there's only one thing that will always steer you toward success: That's to have a vision and to stick with it... Once I have a vision for a new venture, I'm going to ride that vision until the wheels come off.

Reacting to the world with a smile instead of a curse, a wave instead of the middle finger, will actually help you live longer.

Get unstuck from whatever it is you perceive is holding you back from realizing your dreams.

When you do good by the world, the world will do good by you

If you learn late, you pass it on to people so they can learn early. It's a step process.

You have to be able to say what people are thinking but won't say. It's like Donald Trump.

The word mantra comes from two Sanskrit words man, ("to think") and tra ("tool'). So the literal translation is "a tool of thought." And that's how mantras are used in Buddhist and Hindu practices, as tools that clear your mind of distractions. Because when you focus on repeating that mantra over and over again, soon the noise will die down and all you will hear is your inner voice.

You just have to smile and breathe. You do the best you can with what you have and that's it.

Don't worry what others are doing. Do you!

If you give a good thing to the world, then over time your karma will be good, and you'll receive good.

I mostly eat healthy. I just do. I'm not a vegan for health reasons - although obviously I'm 20 pounds lighter than when I started. I stayed 20 pounds lighter. I feel better. My friends say I look better. All that's true. But I'm a vegan for compassionate reasons.

...if we are open and we prepare for promoting dialogue and love, and a better understanding of each other, and tolerance and so forth, that's what the world will become, a more tolerant, loving place.

When you're a good giver you're a good getter.

Every day set the simple goal of trying to be more awake and less distracted.

Decide that no matter what is happening around you, the sun will always be shining in your world.

When you read a book, and it's really, really beautiful, you're so engaged you forget to breathe. If you're in a car accident, and everything moves slowly, you can be shocked into the present. The past and the future disappear.

Never pass up any opportunity to share your gifts with the world.

Meditation helps everything.

The difference between blues, jazz, rock n' roll and rap is that rap stayed poor. Even the white rappers are poor. It's scarier to look at poor people; it makes everyone uncomfortable. Their pain is something that people would like to see swept under the rug.

People are murdering each other without any recourse... So we need to get in our communities and work from the inside out.

When you sit quietly and look inside, things that seem so difficult on the outside become a lot easier to digest. Concerns that might've caused a lot of anxiety just come and go.

Labels cloud our vision and distract us from seeing how much we have in common with one another.

When you give without reservation, you’ll become a magnet that pulls the world toward you.

I read "The Yoga Sutras" every day.And also the "The Bhagavad Gita." Those two books sit by my bed.

There are no failures, only quitters.

The research shows that if you meditate, the mind becomes still, and they can see the functionality and gray matter in the brain increase, the nervous system calm, the immune system improve and a reduction in stress.

You have to live your life as if you are already where you want to be.

Be encouraged. Stay on your hustle. You can't fail until u quit.

As I get, I give. Giving as you get is critical. It has everything to do with being happy for yourself, and making others happy is the cause of making yourself happy, and it’s the cycle of giving and getting.

Give what you want to receive. If you want happiness, make others happy.

What holds most people back isn't the quality of their ideas, but their lack of faith in themselves.

You have to learn to laugh all the time. It's a practice of life. It's a practice of happiness.

Embrace struggle... It is your greatest teacher.

You've got to put your head down and do the work. There are no shortcuts.

Judgment of the people in the situation is not helpful. How can you help them is the question.

The imagination is how things get done. You have to cultivate creativity.

If you wake up deciding what you want to give versus what you're going to get, you become a more successful person. In other words, if you want to make money, you have to help someone else make money.

Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you.

You've got to keep reminding yourself of what's important.

It's important to focus on what we do best and master one craft at a time.

I used to think anxiety and insomnia drove me to success, but it was the stillness that let me be good at anything. When you extend the seconds of stillness, that's when you're able to think and learn.

There's something about the authenticity that Hollywood is missing when it comes to urban culture.

Whatever you chase will run away from you. So, stop chasing success and realize you already have it all.

It's all about the work. Nothing is going to fall into your lap. If you want to be a lawyer, see yourself as a lawyer, go to the library and start learning the law. If you want to be a rapper, start rapping and get out there. Live your life as if you already are where you want to be.

Everyone's goal is to be happy. Happiness is achieved by promoting happiness to others.

A clear and focused mind will last a lifetime. Getting your mind in shape is nothing less than the key to sustainable success in the world.

Being a thoughtful vegan makes our time on this Earth more peaceful and joyous, because you get to have a hand in promoting and increasing the happiness, good health and well-being of others -- both animal and human -- rather than being an instrument of their suffering and death.

I am very lucky that I have talented and creative people around me. Also, mediation has been a very big part of my freedom, because it allows me to watch all the things going on and allows me to focus.

I like to move towards a place where my greatest experience is promoting happiness for others. I know that that creates a cycle of the same great experience.

Your purpose is to act on the resources God gives you. If God gives you a bucket of fish, you have to distribute those fish. If you don't, they're going to rot, attract a bunch of flies, and start stinking up your soul.

You will be a great entrepreneur if you operate with a real sincere wanting to serve.

I've been blessed to find people who are smarter than I am, and they help me to execute the vision I have.

I don't believe that people create their own visions. Rather, I believe that visions are actually God's way of communicating with us.

Poverty and lack of knowledge must be challenged.

Those who need nothing attract everything.

Needing nothing attracts everything.

Don't ruin a good today by thinking of a bad yesterday, Let it go!

The thing about hip-hop is that it's from the underground, ideas from the underbelly, from people who have mostly been locked out, who have not been recognized.

I don't like to say, Oh, this is my favorite record because there was a moment that that record made me feel a certain way. The one on the radio at the present moment could be the one that's most inspiring, because it's at that second that you're aware of "the infinite everything."

I think the rap community always tells the truth. And I think that it's important that we listen to their voices so we can have a roadmap, because artists - almost every single artist in hip-hop, they paint a picture of society that's overlooked. The misogyny, the racism, the violence, the homophobia, these are things that we try to avoid instead of dealing with. All of that I see it so often.

Not every move you make has to be a great leap

You just have to pay attention to what people need and what has not been done.

I knew it was unrealistic to think I could build an institution overnight. But if I took baby steps, eventually it would happen.

Quit taking, start giving.

Happy can make you money, but money can't make you happy.

No matter what you're doing, try to work at that task like it's your dream job.

The pain that's created by avoiding hard work is actually much worse than any pain created from the actual work itself. Because if you don't begin to work on those ideas that God has blessed you with, they will become stagnant inside of you and eventually begin to eat away at you. You might seem OK on the outside, but inside you will be ill from not getting those ideas out of your heart and into the world. Stalling leads to sickness. But taking steps, even baby steps, always leads to success.

I don't use my brain about the creative thing. From a business standpoint, I instinctively do things: when I get something right, it's never because I use my brain.

No matter what we've done or where we've been, every single one of us can change.

As long as you are passionate about your vision, you should keep moving forward.

One positive thought can change your whole day.

"...piling up zeros in your bank account, or cars in your driveway, won't in and of itself make you successful. Rather, true success is based on a constant flow of giving and recieving. In fact, if you look up affluence in the dictionary, you'll see its root is a Latin phrase meaning "to flow with abundance". So in order to be truly affluent, you must always let what you have recieved flow back into the world."

No matter where you want to go, as long as you follow your path with faith, dedication and hard work, you are going to get there.

I don't eat any animals or anything that has to do with animals. No fish or egg or dairy because I personally don't feel it's a good practice to eat anything that might run away from you.

I look for people who have insight in places where I don't.

In the end, the overriding factor in whether or not you realize your dreams is going to be you. Not the world. YOU.

The artists are now big brands.

I know some people say "Keep your eyes on the prize," but I disagree. When your eyes are stuck on the prize, you're going to keep stumbling and crashing into things. If you really want to get ahead, you've got to keep your eyes focused on the path.

Good givers are great getters.

If it feels like your life has become a nasty, brackish puddle of water, never forget that you do possess the power to transform it into a beautiful, rushing stream that will carry you to enlightenment.

If you aren't passionate about a vision, it's hard to have faith in it.

My experiences have been, from the very beginning, cultural and creative. And my business has been a way of exposing the culture, exposing the artists so that the world could hear and see them.

Whatever obstacles appear in your path, put your head down and get past them. Those obstacles aren't real. They're just God's way of testing you. He's asking you, 'Do you want to make it or not?'

Always try to be yourself.

Everything you need to know about success is inside of you, because I believe it is inside of all of us. That is, all human beings have potential for infinite success.

Money doesn't make u happy .. But happy makes you money.