My school was 90 percent white, but 90 percent of the kids I played with were black. So I got the best of both worlds. I think that is where my comedy developed.
Will SmithRead
Money and success don't change people; they merely amplify what is already there.
Interpretation
Success and money reveal a person's true character rather than altering it.
The quote by Will Smith suggests that the acquisition of wealth and success doesn't fundamentally alter a person's character or values; rather, it accentuates their existing traits. This means that if someone is generous or selfish, those qualities will become more pronounced with success, illustrating the importance of a person's inherent nature.
In practice
This quote can be used during a motivational speech about the effects of success on personal character.
My school was 90 percent white, but 90 percent of the kids I played with were black. So I got the best of both worlds. I think that is where my comedy developed.
In my mind, I've always been an A-list Hollywood superstar. Y'all just didn't know yet.
The first eight years of schooling was with all white people. So that helped me to understand how white people think. I think that transition is what helped me bridge the gap, because that's what my success has really been about: bridging the gap between the black community and the white community.
We all want to be in love and find that person who is going to love us no matter how our feet smell, no matter how angry we get one day, no matter the things we say that we don't mean.
I'm profoundly changed. There's a bittersweet emotion that I feel from playing this role. . . . I want the world to be different because I was here. However lofty or crazy or delusional that may sound, I want people's lives to be better because I was here.
The separation of talent and skill is one of the largest misconceptions in modern society. Talent is something you born with, but skill can only be attained through Hours and Hours of hard work perfecting your talent as a craft. Which is why Talent will fail you without skill.
The key to a winning season is focusing on one opponent at a time. Winning one week at a time. Never look back and never look ahead.
It is possible that the scrupulously honest man may not grow rich so fast as the unscrupulous and dishonest one; but the success will be of a truer kind, earned without fraud or injustice. And even though a man should for a time be unsuccessful, still he must be honest: better lose all and save character. For character is itself a fortune. . . .
There is one rule for the industrialist and that is: Make the best quality of goods possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible.
Let it be said to our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we didn't turn our back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.
It is always better to imitate a successful man than to envy him.
The only way to achieve true success is to express yourself completely in service to society.
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