Mary J. Blige Quotes

The important thing is to realize that no matter what people's opinions may be, they're only just that - people's opinions. You have to believe in your heart what you know to be true about yourself. And let that be that.

There's not enough time to be disrespecting... Life is too short.

I know who I am. I am not perfect. I'm not the most beautiful woman in the world. But I'm one of them.

I don't know. Only God knows where the story ends for me, but I know where the story begins. It's up to us to choose, whether we win or lose and I choose to win.

We are all just a work in progress.

There's so many things that life is, and no matter how many breakthroughs, trials will exist and we're going to get through it. Just be strong.

You either learn from your experiences or go back and do the same thing, and I learned from my experiences.

Negative words are powerful boomerangs so be careful what you say about people and yourself.

For the first time in my life, I'm proud of myself

If you're looking for inner peace from the outside world, you're not going to get that. The inner peace starts with looking at you from the inside.

When you hold on to anger and unforgiveness, you can't move forward.

When you tell your truth, you are coming from a real place, so you are automatically a leader.

God comes first - if I don't love him, I can't love anybody, and if I can't love me I can't love nobody.

I started speaking about what I was dealing with through my music, and 4 million women responded and said, 'Us too, Mary.' And I didn't know that everyone was hurting like I was hurting. I had no idea.

If you're here right now in your life, your journey continues and you've lived to tell the story.

If you're looking for inner peace from the outside world, you're not going to get that. The inner peace starts with looking at you from the inside. Understanding that everything that comes to you is what you are. Everything from friends to boyfriends to the job you get - it's all a direct reflection of what you are on the inside.

When you come from so many damaged places you don't ever want to spiral back there, so you gotta continue to check yourself.

I believe there are certain things that God uses to get us out of a bad situation, and I believe music was one of the things he used for me.

Once you climb to another level, you have to figure out how to sustain it.

It's up to us to choose whether we win or lose...and I choose to win.

Believe in yourself when nobody else does.

It hurts when you have to smile and you don't want to smile, but the best thing to do is to smile.

You have to have a plan. Everything has to be planned. For me, I start with the title of my album, before I even start with the songs. I write down different things that I want album to say, and then the songs come from the different words.

Life is full of trials and tribulations. It's dramatic when you don't treat people right when you're in the tribulations, but I know now how to get out of it. You have to make a decision to say 'No more', and then you know what to do when the trials happen.

When life is real, it's not going to be smooth.