Top 180 Russell Simmons Quotes (2025 Update)
Page 3 of 4

101. “I want to promote poetry to the point where you got all the baldhead kids running around doing poetry, getting the music out of the way and having only words, the spoken word, and then see what happens.”

— Russell Simmons

102. “There are songs and melody that make you really happy. And there are spiritual gifts that you have – giving these gifts away sometimes gives you that feeling of inspiration. These seconds of awareness make you realize that any second can be your favorite one, and it really is up to you.”

— Russell Simmons

103. “I knew it was unrealistic to think I could build an institution overnight. But if I took baby steps, eventually it would happen.”

— Russell Simmons

104. “To separate yourself from your weakness and look at it objectively is a very powerful thing.”

— Russell Simmons

105. “Music is the noise that surrounds the stillness of the art form.”

— Russell Simmons

106. “In the end, the overriding factor in whether or not you realize your dreams is going to be you. Not the world. YOU.”

— Russell Simmons

107. “I think that’s what made rap such a stable footprint in culture, that it’s so honest.”

— Russell Simmons

108. “Cruelty is cruelty, whether it’s cruelty to children, to the elderly, to dogs and cats, or to chickens.”

— Russell Simmons

109. “Culture in America and everywhere else comes from the suffering, from those who don’t want the old ways. They want to bring in the new, whether it’s the ballet, when it started, or Shakespeare.”

— Russell Simmons

110. “I don’t know that God favors the person who has a greater reach than those who have a small reach. It’s the intention. I try to keep a positive intention, and use whatever resources I have to benefit others.”

— Russell Simmons

111. “Hip-hop is such a wide statement of culture that everyone is not the same, and it’s impossible to put it into one box.”

— Russell Simmons

112. “No matter what we’ve done or where we’ve been, every single one of us can change.”

— Russell Simmons

113. “I don’t eat anything that runs away from me.”

— Russell Simmons

114. “The seconds of presence are where most inspiration comes. There are sunsets that promote it.”

— Russell Simmons

115. “Labels cloud our vision and distract us from seeing how much we have in common with one another.”

— Russell Simmons

116. “I’m a big supporter of President Obama.”

— Russell Simmons

117. “If you run a corporation, your job is to maximize the return on investment for your investors. Good for you. But by the same token, we have to remember that corporations have no compassion. That’s why legislation and regulations are necessary.”

— Russell Simmons

118. “I think the artist’s job throughout history has been to tell – to say things that people are inspired by.”

— Russell Simmons

119. “I kind of think that artists throughout history, poets throughout history have been criticized for sharing what’s on people’s minds and I don’t think it’s any different now.”

— Russell Simmons

120. “There is no religious or any kind of a gender that should separate you from any religious ideas.”

— Russell Simmons

121. “My little girls are the most beautiful women in the world. I am a lucky, lucky man. I will spend every day making sure that they know this.”

— Russell Simmons

122. “If you are a good giver, you will be great getter. The less you need, the more you attract.”

— Russell Simmons

123. “I think that diversity is key for the next American entrepreneurs. They want to be a part of this society where there is so much diversity they have to have people from all the experiences.”

— Russell Simmons

124. “The past gives great examples of what can happen in the future. It’s always important to remember.”

— Russell Simmons

125. “We need to hear everyone. We need dialogue between police and the community. They’re angry. They’re hurt. A dialogue can cause a shift in consciousness in the person if he’s understanding you and listening.”

— Russell Simmons

126. “The best way to protect both the policemen and the community going forward is by creating a system that’s just, where everyone feels safe.”

— Russell Simmons

127. “Black actors on the road, flying around the country working as poets. Those people are inspirations for millions of kids who write.”

— Russell Simmons

128. “I think people instinctively know that their job is to give service and that they are part of a community. It had a great impact on me when my father walked the picket lines and I walked with him during the civil rights movement.”

— Russell Simmons

129. “Young people, when they’re left alone, always want to have compassion, and they always want to give. They always want to help people who are less fortunate.”

— Russell Simmons

130. “But rich or poor, black or white, none of us are entitled to anything.”

— Russell Simmons

131. “I feel the choices our president Barack Obama is making now are safer and better.”

— Russell Simmons

132. “Art allows people a way to dream their way out of their struggle.”

— Russell Simmons

133. “The reason I got a break in Hollywood when I moved here a few years ago is my good buddy, who I was on the beach with when he was a publicist, is now the chairman of HBO.”

— Russell Simmons

134. “Judgment of the people in the situation is not helpful. How can you help them is the question.”

— Russell Simmons

135. “Everything you need to know about success is inside of you, because I believe it is inside of all of us. That is, all human beings have potential for infinite success.”

— Russell Simmons

136. “Poverty and lack of knowledge must be challenged.”

— Russell Simmons

137. “If you learn late, you pass it on to people so they can learn early. It’s a step process.”

— Russell Simmons

138. “Without stillness, life is a blur.”

— Russell Simmons

139. “Nowhere in the Bible, Koran, or Torah does it say, “If you curse, then you’re going to hell.” But everywhere it says that if you kill, you’re going to wherever they send you, depending on the religion.”

— Russell Simmons

140. “When you give without reservation, you’ll become a magnet that pulls the world toward you.”

— Russell Simmons

141. “If it feels like your life has become a nasty, brackish puddle of water, never forget that you do possess the power to transform it into a beautiful, rushing stream that will carry you to enlightenment.”

— Russell Simmons

142. “The poets who do this are uniquely conscious of this silence, this stillness.”

— Russell Simmons

143. “People will always blame the poets for society’s ills. But these are the true artists.”

— Russell Simmons

144. “I’ve been thinking a lot about gay marriage. I’m a big supporter.”

— Russell Simmons

145. “There are poor white people who hear rap music and feel it is about them, because it is. That’s why you have an Eminem and a Bubba Sparxxx and rappers like that.”

— Russell Simmons

146. “Your vision makes your world. If you see the world as a happy, loving place, then that’s where you’re going to live. But if you see the world as a messed up, negative, and dangerous place, then that will be your reality.”

— Russell Simmons

147. “If you want to say something profound, writing from your heartbeat is different than writing from the loud voices you get from music. If they’re rapping from noise, it’s about robbing people. It’s that simple.”

— Russell Simmons

148. “American democracy is spoiled by people buying everything in sight and then selling and buying everything in sight, including our politicians.”

— Russell Simmons

149. “As I get, I give. Giving as you get is critical. It has everything to do with being happy for yourself, and making others happy is the cause of making yourself happy, and it’s the cycle of giving and getting.”

— Russell Simmons

150. “The soundtrack in the poetry is the soundtrack from your own heartbeat.”

— Russell Simmons