Tavis Smiley Quotes (19 Quotes)

He was an authentic American hero whose work will be respected and dissected for years to come. This media empire is still number one and still 100 percent black-owned.

When you work for something, you appreciate it more. So what are y'all going to do with all the opportunities you inherited that you didn't have to work for?

Give that to me so I can get out of here.

Jamestown changed the world in many ways, but perhaps it shaped our nation most profoundly the day Africans arrived. I can't think of a more relevant place to talk about the issues facing our community today than the place where African culture became American culture.

This is an awesome sight. It speaks to the hunger that exists in our community ... the hunger to be heard, the hunger to be empowered.

12, 13, you still lost your virginity. I don't care how old you were.

My personal assessment is that Dr. King is the greatest American we have ever produced. I can argue for Lincoln, I can argue for FDR, but for my money, King is the greatest American we have ever produced. His only weapon was love. He transforms a nation, transforms the world with one weapon and that of course being again the weapon of love. So that for me, King is the quintessential example of everything that I could ever want to be in my lifetime.

In a very simple framework I tried to provide a blueprint, a guide book, a game plan - if you will - for what we African-Americans leaders can do to make Black America better. We believe that when you make Black America better - you make all of America better. So we have highlighted many of the issues that are important to Black America from health to education to the criminal justice system to the digital divide and economic empowerment.

I'm trying to get to a point here of how much progress we've made in this business. Were you able to find that diverse crew that you wanted.

I thought our community should have a deep dialogue to make black America better. I believe if we make black America better, we make all of America better.

All kinds of folk, as you can imagine, have had things to say-as you well know-over the last week and a half about what you said.

We believe that when you make Black America better - you make all of America better.

My role on television is one of helping people reexamine the assumptions that they hold. I regard Dr. King. You would never hear me get up and speak without in some way, shape or form, referencing, Dr. King.

I don't think that left to its own devices, capitalism moves along smoothly and everyone gets treated fairly in the process. Capitalism is like a child: if you want the child to grow up free and productive, somebody's got to look over the shoulder of that child.

We give you the facts. I told you information is power - knowledge is power. We can't be in an ideological battle to redeem the soul of this country if we don't have the facts.

The storm came. Lives were washed away. Ancient pains resurfaced. Now it is time for a sea of change.

I'm delighted. I don't know if he is, but I'm delighted to welcome him back to the show, this time here in person in our studios in L. A.

This administration and these folk who run Washington are no more interested in our welfare and our well being than the man on the moon. And we have got to start taking our destiny into our hands.

How do you grow up in the shadow of a guy - I want to talk about the movie in a second - but how do you grow up in the shadow of a guy who really is a legend in his own time?