Best quotes by Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey
American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and philanthropist
Oprah Gail Winfrey (born January 29, 1954) is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and philanthropist. She is best known for her talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, broadcast from Chicago, which was the highest-rated television program of its kind in history and ran in national syndication for 25 years, from 1986 to 2011.[better source needed] Dubbed the "Queen of All Media," she was the richest African-American of the 20th century, was once the world's only black billionaire, and the greatest black philanthropist in U.S. history. By 2007, she was sometimes ranked as the most influential woman in the world.
Winfrey was born into poverty in rural Mississippi to a single teenage mother and later raised in inner-city Milwaukee. She has stated that she was molested during her childhood and early teenage years and became pregnant at 14; her son was born prematurely and died in infancy. Winfrey was then sent to live with the man she calls her father, Vernon Winfrey, a barber in Nashville, Tennessee, and landed a job in radio while still in high school. By 19, she was a co-anchor for the local evening news. Winfrey's often emotional, extemporaneous delivery eventually led to her transfer to the daytime talk show arena, and after boosting a third-rated local Chicago talk show to first place, she launched her own production company.
By the mid-1990s, Winfrey had reinvented her show with a focus on literature, self-improvement, mindfulness, and spirituality. Though she has been criticized for unleashing a confession culture, promoting controversial self-help ideas, and having an emotion-centered approach, she has also been praised for overcoming adversity to become a benefactor to others. Winfrey had also emerged as a political force in the 2008 presidential race, with her endorsement of Barack Obama estimated to have been worth about one million votes during the 2008 Democratic primaries. In 2013, Winfrey was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama and received honorary doctorate degrees from Duke and Harvard. In 2008, she formed her own network, the Oprah Winfrey Network.
Credited with creating a more intimate, confessional form of media communication, Winfrey popularized and revolutionized the tabloid talk show genre pioneered by Phil Donahue. In 1994, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. Winfrey has won many accolades throughout her career which includes 18 Daytime Emmy Awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award and the Chairman's Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, including the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award, a Tony Award, a Peabody Award and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, awarded by the Academy Awards and two additional Academy Award nominations. Winfey was elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2021.
Oprah Winfrey quotes by category:
Think about any attachments that are depleting your emotional reserves. Consider letting them go.
Education is the way to move mountains, to build bridges, to change the world. Education is the path to the future. I believe that education is indeed freedom.
The struggle of my life created empathy... I could relate to pain... being abandoned... having people not love me.
When I look into the future, it's so bright it burns my eyes.
Tithe in kind where your spirit is fed.
I want every day to be a fresh start on expanding what is possible.
I believe that there are forces of light and darkness in the world, and I don't want to be a contributor to the force of darkness.
Declare today "sacred timeoff limits to everyone, unless invited by you. Take care of your personal wants and needs. Say no, graciously but firmly, to others' demands."
If something feels right, I do it. If it feels wrong, I don't. It's really very, very simple, but you've got to be willing to take your chances doing stuff that may look crazy to other people - or not doing something that looks right to others but just feels wrong to you.
The whole barrier exists because most people never come together and sit down at a table ... join together, break bread together, and celebrate their differences and their likenesses.
Your greatest power is to show love, to receive love and to be love.
We are held accountable for every intention, which is why you are sitting where you are right now.
I am disappointed by this controversy surrounding A Million Little Pieces because I rely on the publishers to define the category that a book falls within and also the authenticity of the work.
If you don't give something back when you get, you don't keep.
No matter how diligent or persistent you have been, there is not one of us who made this journey toward success by ourselves.
I've come to believe that each of us has a personal calling that's as unique as a fingerprint
People have power to make a difference in their lives.
What I know for sure is that whatever has happened to you has also happened for you.
Now that I have all the things I once thought would make me happy, they have little meaning for me. Experience, and not just a little heartache, has taught me money buys convenience and conveniences.
I believe the choice to become a mother is the choice to become one of the greatest spiritual teachers there is.
Even in bad times, always say thank you. Whatever you are going through, God is using you to get through. God has already put a rainbow in the cloud.
I've talked to nearly 30,000, people on this show, and all 30,000, had one thing in common: They all wanted validation...I would tell you that every single person you will ever meet shares that common desire.
There is a level of disrespect for the office that occurs. And that occurs in some cases and maybe even many cases because he is African American. There’s no question about that and it’s the kind of thing nobody ever says but everybody’s thinking it.
There's a group of 12 oak trees on my property in California that I call 'my disciples.' Their branches form a canopy over the ground, and I sit underneath them for inspiration.
If it's not hard, you're not dreaming big enough!
You have two choices: You can come down from the mountain and spend the rest of your days thinking it was so beautiful there, or you can create a vision, look upward, see the next mountain, and start the climb all over again.
Wow, wow, wow! I never imagined meatless meals could be so satisfying.
When you do your best, people notice.
Your soul tells you when it's time to move on.
There are still generations of people, older people, who were born and bred and marinated in it, in that prejudice and racism, and they just have to die.
Even as a kid, my memories are of books taking me out of myself.
The best way to look at aging is to see it as an opportunity to leave what didn't work behind and step boldly into a brand new future.
There is no doing in the world without being first.
That whisper you keep hearing is the universe trying to get your attention.
If I lost control of the business I'd lose myself - or at least the ability to be myself. Owning myself is a way to be myself.
The only thing that can free you is the belief that you can be free.
If you neglect to recharge a battery, it dies. And if you run full speed ahead without stopping for water, you lose momentum to finish the race.
Don't wait for someone else to complete you. 'Jerry Maguire' was just a movie.
No experience is ever wasted. Everything has meaning.
You know you are on the road to success if you would do your job, and not be paid for it.
Don't waste your time in the race looking back to see what the other guy is doing. It's not about the other guy. It's about what can you do. You just need to run that race as hard as you can. You need to give it everything you've got, all the time, for yourself.
What I know is, if you do work that you love, and work that fulfills you, the rest will come. I truly believe the reason I've been so financially successful is because my focus has never been on the money.
Failure is a signpost to turn you in another direction.
Excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism.
You must have some vision for your life. Even if you don't know the plan, you have to have a direction in which you choose to go... You want to be in the driver's seat of your own life because if you are not, life will drive you.
Do not waste your time with people who have shown you they really mean no good for you.
Every one of us gets through the tough times because somebody is there, standing in the gap to close it for us.
When you surrender and stop resisting and stop trying to change that which you can't change, but be in the moment, be fully open to the blessings you've already received and those that are yet to come and stand in that space of gratitude ... and look at where you are and how far you've come and what you've accomplished - when you can claim THAT and SEE that, the literal vibration of your life will change.
No matter who you are, no matter what your culture is, it is absolutely possible to look out and extend yourself in such a way, that you can connect to other people and find that we are more alike than we are different.
In God, I move and breathe and have my being.
I always knew I was a hit record just waiting to happen.
I don't believe in luck. Luck is just preparation meeting the moment of opportunity.
What matters is how you feel inside, because feeling beautiful on the inside is key to looking good.
You are built not to shrink down to less but to blossom into more.
God is a feeling experience and not a believing experience. If your religion is a believing experience ... then that's not truly God.
Although there may be tragedy in your life, there’s always a possibility to triumph. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from. The ability to triumph begins with you. Always.
If you want to feel good, you have to go out and do some good.
Truth allows you to live with integrity. Everything you do and say shows the world who you really are. Let it be the Truth.
We're all called. If you're here breathing, you have a contribution to make.
I believe there's a calling for all of us. I know that every human being has value and purpose. The real work of our lives is to become aware. And awakened. To answer the call.
If a man wants you, nothing can keep him away,If he doesn't want you, nothing can make him stay. Stop making excuses for a man and his behavior. Stop trying to change yourself for a relationship that's not meant to be. Slower is better. Never live your life for a man before you find what makes you truly happy..!
The essential question is not, "How busy are you?" but "What are you busy at?"
If you come to fame not understanding who you are, it will define who you are. It shouldn't change you. If you're a jerk, you just get to be a bigger jerk. What fame does is magnify who you are and puts that on a platter for the whole world to see.
Walk through life eager and open to self-improvemen t and that which is going to best help you evolve, because that's really why we're here - to evolve as human beings.
I was like you are. I thought Jesus came and died on the cross. Jesus' being here was about his death and dying on the cross but it really was about him coming to show us how to do it. To show us the Christ-consciousness that he had and that conciousness abides in all of us. That's what I got. That's what I got.
Ordinary people can bring about change.
Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother.
We create stress for ourselves because you feel like you have to do it. You have to. I don't feel that anymore
There is no greater source of strength and power for me in my life than going still, being quiet and recognizing what real power is.
I'm always interested in people being able to share stories that allow us to see the landscape of human foibles, challenges, and ultimately triumph.
There's a wealth that has nothing to do with dollars, that comes from the perspective and wisdom of paying attention to your life.
The way through the challenge is to get still and ask yourself, 'What is the next right move? What is the next right move?' and then, from that space, make the next right move and the next right move.
You make me proud to spell my name woman... you make me proud to be your friend.
I tried documentaries.It wasn't the time for me. I was going to try to do the same thing, I did make a valiant attempt but it did not work - to do the same thing with documentaries that we had done with the book club [in 2011]. The zeitgeist wasn't ready. It just wasn't ready.
You become what you believe. You are where you are today in your life based on everything you have believed.