Bernie Mac quotes: awesome advice from the late comedian.
“Kick it!”
“You can’t change what happened. Just like you can’t change the future by worrying about it. You just have to keep moving.”
“What creates success is humility and hard work.”
“There’s no success story. Everybody’s got a ghetto story. You always want to make it bigger than what it is.”
“You have to meet all of the challenges, big and small. Because how you start is how you finish.”
“You can’t be a doctor if you don’t know the entire parts of the body. I think if you’re going to really be what you say you are, you have to really live it, work it, practice it, and think it.”
“I’m not afraid to fail. Sometimes when you lose, you win. Sometimes when you win, you lose. Failure is just life’s way of preparing you for success.”
“That’s the whole key to anything: don’t be afraid to fail.”
“Fear is not one of my attributes.”
“My grandmother always told me how you start is how you finish.”
“Suffering is a good teacher. It keeps you in its grip until you’ve learned your lesson.”
“If you mess something up, remember who got you there. Don’t be pointing fingers, even if finger-pointing is called for. Only one you got to blame is your own self.”
“Jealousy and envy are just like anger. The most hurt you’re doing is to yourself.”
“Only way you can get upset is when you expecting something. Don’t nobody owe you nothing. You’ve go to pay your dues. You go from A to Z, you don’t go from M to Z. You have to prove yourself, and you’ve got to put yourself in that position.”
“If you’re going to really be what you say you are, you have to really live it, work it, practice it and think it.”
“I hear people saying, ‘Get ya money on, get ya money on.’ I hate that. I mean, that’s your motivation? If you do well, the money will come.”
“Whatever success I’ve had, I always like to top it.”
“I’m an ordinary guy with an extraordinary job.”
“I’m not a politician; I’m a comedian. I know my limitations.”
“I love making people happy. That’s what got me in this business.”
“I want to come in every week, every single week, and I want to show you all that Bernie Mac is not a fluke. And I mean that. And I’m gonna show you that.”
“It took me a long time to get to where I’m at, in my career and as a man. I was going through my trials and tribulations in life, and it gave me the strength to tackle things that have come my way.”
“I learned hard lessons in life; I had to because I had so much happen. My mother died my sophomore year in high school. The next year, same day, my brother dropped dead. Two years after that, I got married because my girlfriend got pregnant. The year after my wedding, my father—who I had only recently met—died.”
“When I hit my 20s, I struggled to make it. I got married at 19, and my daughter was born a year later. I worked blue collar jobs during the day and comedy clubs at night, and I was earning about $25 a year doing stand-up. Stand-up is what I am; stand-up is what made me.”
“I’m very much disciplined because I’m more mature. When I was young I just wanted to live, I could jump, I could run, I was quick and I was relentless.”
“My long climb to the top has prepared me for the tough task of staying there.”
“I’m an entertainer and I really enjoy entertaining. I think if you’re going to really be what you say you are, you have to really live it, work it, practice it, and think it.”
“I’ve introduced myself with comedy, and once you’ve introduced yourself as something, that’s where people keep you. That’s where people like to hold you. I have so much respect for what’s funny.”
“You know, every time it comes, every time that light comes on or every time that camera comes on, every time that microphone comes on, the Mac Man seek and destroy. Comedy has been so good to me.”
“The Bernie Mac Show is my life. It’s the truth, and I’m not ashamed of a minute, an hour, or a second of my life.”
“It was rough being dark. I got heat from my own people more than anyone else. I remember going to my mom and saying, ‘Why am I so black?’ And she said, ‘Because I’m black. You just gotta always work harder than the average bear.'”
“When you see people in terms of race or religion, that’s when the trouble starts. I don’t understand why people work so hard at pointing out our differences; we should be celebrating the things we have in common.”
“I don’t need a church. I carry my church with me at all times, inside my own self.”
“When you’re offstage, that’s the footprint. That’s the man God’s gonna judge.”
“I don’t have no story. Everybody wants this Hollywood story, but the world don’t owe you nothing, man. It’s what you owe the world.”
“I’ve never been no superficial cat.”
“They say if you don’t have your health you ain’t got nothing, but the truth is you ain’t got nothing if you don’t have no one to worry about your health.”
“I can’t build myself by beating somebody down.”
“Hugs aren’t like pieces of pie. Plenty of hugs to go around.”
“When it comes to raising children, I believe in give and take. I give orders and they take ’em.”
“I want to have fun. Life ain’t no dress rehearsal. I want to have fun. I’m a comedian; I ain’t no politician. So everything I do is with humor, with love.”
“I didn’t come here for no foolishness!”
“I love who I am. I love what I’ve become.”
“Bernie Mac don’t sugarcoat.”
Related: Jerry Seinfeld quotes.
