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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.

Tavis Smiley

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Tavis Smiley
Age: 60
Born: 1964
Born: September 13
Businessperson
Journalist
Radio Personality
Talk Show Host
Television Presenter
Television Producer
Gulfport
Mississippi
Never
Roles
Assumption
Would
Television
Shape
People
Hear
King
Speak
Shapes
Helping
Kings
Reexamine
Form
Regard
Referencing
Without
Role
Smiley
Way
Hold
Assumptions

More quotes by Tavis Smiley

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We think of - there are too many wars, of course, in the world as we speak, but my read on this suggests to me that water is going to be the resource into the future that we're really - that countries, nations, are going to be fighting for control over.
Tavis Smiley
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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?
Tavis Smiley
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When it comes to the president, we have to respect him, we have to protect him, and we have to correct him. And in my career, since he'd been on the national stage at least, I've had - I've always respected the president.
Tavis Smiley
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This is not a skill problem, this is a will problem. Does America have the will to make education a priority? We know the things that work. Why don't we scale up those things that do work.
Tavis Smiley
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Be careful about gossiping because loose lips really do sink ships. Now that I'm in the broadcast business, and people talk about me, I know what it feels like to be the victim of gossip.
Tavis Smiley
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I love my cross-sectioned, cross-cultural audience. Some of them are doing better than the average guy, but my audience has always been people who are struggling to stay in the middle class.
Tavis Smiley
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Every community has a Martin Luther King Boulevard. It's the cornerstone we all know. It's not just a street or boulevard, but a place where Walmart stands together with your community to make every day better.
Tavis Smiley
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Sometimes rejection in life is really redirection.
Tavis Smiley
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Poverty and wealth inequality are a form of instability into the future.
Tavis Smiley
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We come to know who we really are in life during the dark and difficult and desolate days of our journey.
Tavis Smiley
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There are really only two types of people. Either you're running scared or you're running free. I choose to run free, and you can, too, no matter what your circumstances in life.
Tavis Smiley
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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.
Tavis Smiley
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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?
Tavis Smiley
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What determines your altitude in life is your attitude.
Tavis Smiley
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Competition's always been a product of American lifestyle
Tavis Smiley
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Be careful about gossiping because loose lips really do sink ships.
Tavis Smiley
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I don't want the Obama era to be more about symbolism than substance when it comes to black people. I love him, but I love black people even more.
Tavis Smiley
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Music is the soundtrack of our lives, it's essential for our lives.
Tavis Smiley
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The storm came. Lives were washed away. Ancient pains resurfaced. Now it is time for a sea of change.
Tavis Smiley
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To be clear, the gap between the have gots and the have nots is widening. In this most multicultural, multiracial, multiethnic America ever, that concerns me.
Tavis Smiley