Explore the most impactful and insightful quotes and sayings by Mary J. Blige, and enrich your perspective with the wisdom. Share these inspiring Mary J. Blige quotes pictures with your friends on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, or your personal blogs, completely free. Here are the top 151 Mary J. Blige quotes for you to read and share.
Really, every woman is an example to me, because as women we go through so much pain. We have to live this perfect life when we are messed up inside. We all go through trials and tribulations. -- Mary J. Blige
Negative words are powerful boomerangs so be careful what you say about people and yourself. -- Mary J. Blige
Believe in yourself when nobody else does. -- Mary J. Blige
I would be a liar and my fans would hate me if I said to them, 'Oh, we're perfect and everything is great.' We have situations just like everyone else. We're not out in public trying to kill each other, but it's real. We love each other. -- Mary J. Blige
Don't go a full day or night without washing your face. You have to get all the dirt and makeup out of your pores. -- Mary J. Blige
If you're not confident in yourself, you're going to waver. I've wavered, and I've lost. -- Mary J. Blige
When you know what pain is, and when you have to make a choice, you learn that it is a decision. People think it's a fairytale thing, love and happiness, but you have to work hard. And then - you feel it deeply. -- Mary J. Blige
I can go out raw with nothing, and my fans would still be happy, but I feel that I owe it to them to give them almost like a Broadway musical at this point in my life. I have to give them something more, so I do have to think of different ways to do it. -- Mary J. Blige
I don't think there's anything they can say about me that I haven't said about myself already. And I would be an absolute total liar, and my fans would not respect me, if I said that my life and my marriage are perfect. But we absolutely love each other; we have fun together - it's great. -- Mary J. Blige
One day I realized that I wasn't getting anywhere by blaming other people for my circumstances. I finally understood: Even if you feel someone has wronged you or owes you something, no one is going to give you anything for free. -- Mary J. Blige
I remember a time when all my fans were crying and sad and going through hell. Now, we're trying to uplift each other and accept ourselves for who we are, even if nobody else does. -- Mary J. Blige
The music business is really, really small. The real music is becoming almost extinct, if you don't stay true to who you are. -- Mary J. Blige
I care about me now. When I didn't care about me, I was, like, 'Why is this going wrong? Why is my life so bad?' But when you don't care about yourself, nobody else is going to care about you. So I learned to love myself, even if nobody else does. -- Mary J. Blige
I'm going down! Because you ain't around, baby, my whole world's upside down! -- Mary J. Blige
When you finally understand who you are, ages 6 through 60 will understand who you are. Because when they see a person that's come through all that I've come through, still standing, it's amazing. -- Mary J. Blige
I've been a tomboy my whole life. But then you get older, you get married, you soften up. -- Mary J. Blige
Then my life crashed and burned down: trials, men, drama, no self-love, no identity. A little identity, but not a lot of love for myself, my life. -- Mary J. Blige
I felt ashamed about everything. Me dropping out of high school, me not, you know, just not being beautiful enough. I just didn't feel like I was smart enough or beautiful enough, you know, for years. -- Mary J. Blige
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. -- Mary J. Blige
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. -- Mary J. Blige
You can hate me. You can go out there and say anything you want about me, But you will love me later because I told you the truth. -- Mary J. Blige
You demand respect and you'll get it. First of all, you give respect. -- Mary J. Blige
It's OK showing yourself some love. -- Mary J. Blige
There's not enough time to be disrespecting ... Life is too short. -- Mary J. Blige
My main exercise is cardio. The treadmill is fine, but running outdoors gives me the best results. I try to log 6 to 8 miles a week. I could be in the worst mood, but when I do my cardio, I feel much, much better. -- Mary J. Blige
The streets respect me because I kept it real with me. You gotta be real with yourself, and the streets recognize game. -- Mary J. Blige
I just want fans to walk away knowing that no matter what's going on, no matter how happy you are, no matter how sad you are, we did it. We're strong in this. We've come a long way, and life is not just one thing. -- Mary J. Blige
'My Life' is not an autobiography. It's just music. -- Mary J. Blige
I grew up watching MTV, when Journey was huge, when Pat Benatar had 'Love Is a Battlefield,' and my friends and I used to cut school to watch this woman in the video. We loved Pat Benatar. -- Mary J. Blige
So many people are like, 'I'm perfect.' I'm so imperfect; that's why I'm able to let everything out and let people see everything. 'Cause I'm just a mess like every other person that's a mess out there. -- Mary J. Blige
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. -- Mary J. Blige
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. -- Mary J. Blige
You can look at my palm and see the storm coming. Read the book of my life and see I've overcome it. -- Mary J. Blige
Growing up, I was the preferred hairstylist for all of my friends. -- Mary J. Blige
I've just been growing right along. It's painful, but it's a great pain, and I like suffering for great results. It's like going to the gym. It hurts really bad at first, but after a couple of months and after that diet, you're looking so hot. -- Mary J. Blige
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. -- Mary J. Blige
That's the message I want to give to every up-and-coming artist: Do everything that is going to help you later. If you clone somebody else, that's all they're gonna keep wanting from you. -- Mary J. Blige
I always want to be a messenger, a person that, you know, that's not afraid to pass on wisdom. -- Mary J. Blige
I have to have lemon and honey. I have to have apple cider vinegar, Braggs. And I have to have either Red Vines or Twizzlers. These things, you know, are the things that help my vocal performance. -- Mary J. Blige
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. -- Mary J. Blige
It hurts when you have to smile and you don't want to smile, but the best thing to do is to smile. -- Mary J. Blige
I didn't know how to show my self love, and I didn't want anyone else to hurt me. So my tough girl attitude was like, 'I'm not having it.' -- Mary J. Blige
It hurts a lot when you cannot really comprehend what a person is saying in a meeting, or you don't even understand what you're reading in your contract. -- Mary J. Blige
I mean, I know my heart is not clean, and your heart is not clean, and none of our urban hearts are clean. But you can be washed again. -- Mary J. Blige
I blame my mother for nothing, but forgive her for everything. -- Mary J. Blige
I think women should band together to get us more respect in all the businesses that we're in because, you know, if we turn 40, we're nothing and nobody. We all should band together and just say we're not gonna go down like that. -- Mary J. Blige
My God is a God who wants me to have things. He wants me to bling. He wants me to be the hottest thing on the block. -- Mary J. Blige
This music business can suck all the love out of you, all the compassion for people - you can start to think you're better than them. But I want to continue to let people know that I'm no better and no worse, I'm just like you. -- Mary J. Blige
No one intimidates me because I'm not trying to do what you do, because I can't do what you do. I can only do what Mary J. Blige can do, so that relaxes me right there, and it gets me out of the competition and that whole thing. -- Mary J. Blige
I'm searching for a real love. -- Mary J. Blige
I'm a singer who thinks like a rapper. -- Mary J. Blige
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. -- Mary J. Blige
I truly enjoy Bono. I think he is an amazing person; I love him. -- Mary J. Blige
I believe there should be no more drama, but it's everywhere you go. It's just about how you get out. You've gotta bob and weave because it's everywhere. How do I keep the drama low? It's about using your head. -- Mary J. Blige
I'm striving toward this acting thing. I'm definitely gonna work hard on that, whatever comes my way, I'm gonna work hard on it. -- Mary J. Blige
Don't give up, be positive and if you know someone who knows someone at a record company don't stop beating down their door till you get heard. Don't ever say it'll never happen or it'll never happen. -- Mary J. Blige
As far as men go, they never gave me a chance to be me; they were always scared that somebody was going to take me. -- Mary J. Blige
In the inner city, there's a mentality that the government owes you something. My breakthrough came when I stopped feeling sorry for myself and took responsibility for every part of my life. No more pity parties. I've gotta love me more than anybody else loves me. -- Mary J. Blige
When someone comes up to me and says, 'Mary, you helped save my marriage', or, 'Mary, you helped me get out of this abusive relationship', I'm in it, really in their lives. And I'm so passionate about my feelings, but also about showing people the way through theirs. -- Mary J. Blige
In your life there's peaks and valleys and sometimes we regress, and we don't even know we regress. You just have to learn how to accept all of your mistakes and learn to love yourself again. -- Mary J. Blige
Two hurt people can not help each other. They can not. -- Mary J. Blige
When you tell your truth, you are coming from a real place, so you are automatically a leader. -- Mary J. Blige
When you hold on to anger and unforgiveness, you can't move forward. -- Mary J. Blige
Music makes us want to live. You don't know how many times people have told me that they'd been down and depressed and just wanted to die. But then a special song caught their ear and that helped give them renewed strength. That's the power music has. -- Mary J. Blige
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. -- Mary J. Blige
For the first time in my life, I'm proud of myself. -- Mary J. Blige
We are all just a work in progress. -- Mary J. Blige
I like to do interior design, I love to quilt, I love to see different colors together, and I love to match things up. -- Mary J. Blige
I wouldn't adopt, but what I will do is give my time and go and try to be there for people. -- Mary J. Blige
Your circumstances do not make you who you are! -- Mary J. Blige
By the time I was a teenager, when I went outside the house, it was about hip-hop all the time. Nothing but hip-hop, block parties. -- Mary J. Blige
I'm a child of God. God is my mommy, my daddy. That's the only thing that'll keep my head up. If I don't remember who I am in him, I'm done. -- Mary J. Blige
As long as I live, I know I'll have feelings. And that's what I'm passionate about. -- Mary J. Blige
As a kid, I was in love with Michael Jackson, and I just knew I was going to marry him someday. -- Mary J. Blige
It's challenging to find an identity as a young person if you don't have the sustenance of love, because you're being shipped around. -- Mary J. Blige
I don't want no drama in my life, even though we have a little bit, but no more letting people control you. That's drama, because then you become something that you're not. -- Mary J. Blige
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. -- Mary J. Blige
When life is real, it's not going to be smooth. -- Mary J. Blige
I never do any album to beat it. I do it to extend it. -- Mary J. Blige
I'm hoping that my entrepreneurial side will have me at a place where I don't have to do anything. That's what I'm striving for. -- Mary J. Blige
I like French fries; I like mashed. I love potatoes. -- Mary J. Blige
My first album is playful. -- Mary J. Blige
I like hanging out with me, and I've accepted everything about me good, bad whatever it is. That's why I'm able to, that's why no one can tell me anything negative about myself. -- Mary J. Blige
I've done well, I've been disappointed, and I think it all goes back to you. Of course the labels are going to be the labels. It's the music business. You are a business. That's what they do. So you've got to protect yourself. -- Mary J. Blige
Just don't let the hype of what people are saying and how much they love you, y'know, just take the compliment and be thankful that people are complimenting you, but don't let it consume you; don't let your circumstances around you and the way people view you make you act a certain way. -- Mary J. Blige
'My Life' is soft, with notes of pear and gardenia, but still bold, with a woody base. -- Mary J. Blige
I hated myself for so many reasons, and I thought so many things were my fault that happened to me growing up. -- Mary J. Blige
People know what they see but they don't know what's happening inside. If you want to know who you are and how you feel about yourself, take a look at your environment. -- Mary J. Blige
Thank you so much for supporting me from the day I stepped foot into the music industry. It really means something to me to have Maya Angelou speak on my behalf. It also means a lot to have Oprah on my speed dial! -- Mary J. Blige
I was inspired to create 'My Life' so I could finally share a personal part of my life beyond my music. -- Mary J. Blige
Nowadays, with the state of the music business, for any artist, whether you're up-and-coming or you've been in it for awhile, you have to explore different revenues and different ways of expressing yourself. -- Mary J. Blige
I can have as many bad days as anyone. But I choose to say, 'I'm just fine.' -- Mary J. Blige
Yonkers made me strong and made me believe in myself, because so many people would doubt you and not believe. There are people that would believe in you, but the environment was so harsh, nobody wanted you to get out, you know? -- Mary J. Blige
I still get nervous about singing. I drink tea with honey and lemon before every concert. And I need to have scented candles in all of my hotel rooms. -- Mary J. Blige
I wish I had an extra day with my mom sometimes. Or another hour in the day with my family, husband and children. -- Mary J. Blige
You have to create different things, either through lighting or changing the format of the songs and how you're going to sing them, and even sometimes props. -- Mary J. Blige
The younger Mary J. Blige, I would call her, she was very unaware, ignorant. -- Mary J. Blige
I don't know what kind of God the rest of y'all are serving, but the God I serve says, 'Mary, you need to be the hottest thing this year, and I'm gonna make sure you're doing that.' -- Mary J. Blige
The only person that I'm really feeling - because she has an identity of her own, even though she has listened to Mary J. Blige - is Jill Scott. -- Mary J. Blige
Music is where my love is. I don't think the acting thing is going to start outweighing that, but I think it's going to start being a good chunk of something I want to do. -- Mary J. Blige
I decided to start my own label because so many people with talent come to me wanting to know how they can get in the music business. -- Mary J. Blige
When you wake up and learn to love yourself and want to take care of yourself, things are harder because people don't like the idea of it. But when you get in trouble, it gives people things to talk about. -- Mary J. Blige
I didn't never have to go to a therapist. I just always put it in a song and you heard me. -- Mary J. Blige
Cause I'm no better than you, you, or you. And I can't get on no throne and preach, 'cause I'm not God. -- Mary J. Blige
I like what I see when I'm looking at me when I'm walking past the mirror, -- Mary J. Blige
I believe that anything man himself can do for me, God can do for me in a greater way. I decided to pray and to seek God on my own. I just stayed in The Word. And it worked. -- Mary J. Blige
You know a lot, but you don't know everything. -- Mary J. Blige
The music business is not a good place for people who don't know things. -- Mary J. Blige
I've been praying to God to show me how to forgive myself. Because ... maybe ... that's the thing I've been searching for. -- Mary J. Blige
It's not just songs and glamour. It's sweat, blood, broken toes, and mistakes ... It's life. -- Mary J. Blige
You can't get around pain and opposition, but you can try to be joyful in the trial, and thank yourself for the trial, and thank God for the strength to get through it. -- Mary J. Blige
Sometimes I frown and I don't realise it. -- Mary J. Blige
Without your health, everything else means nothing. -- Mary J. Blige
When I was a child I didn't care about getting an education, and I didn't finish high school. -- Mary J. Blige
I've never been a mean person. -- Mary J. Blige
My responsibility to God is to live. That's the gift he gave me. -- Mary J. Blige
Love is wonderful, amazing, and the best thing that can happen to us. -- Mary J. Blige
I don't have any health problems, but to keep your health improves your quality of life. -- Mary J. Blige
I suffered from self hatred so much. It's like I didn't want to look like that any more. I didn't to feel like that any more. It had to be another way. -- Mary J. Blige
Larry David makes me laugh. -- Mary J. Blige
I'm my worst critic, and I like the fact that I can listen to myself now and make fun of myself, listen, make changes - 'Oh, man, that's messed up. Okay, I need to work on that; I need to work on this.' -- Mary J. Blige
I don't listen to people's opinions. I have people around me who I can trust, but most of all I listen to myself. -- Mary J. Blige
In the studio you can really concentrate on performing the song where as on stage you also have to worry about connecting with so many people, they're definitely different. -- Mary J. Blige
Working in the studio is a more personal experience whereas on stage in front of a billion people, its more exciting performing live. -- Mary J. Blige
I'm on my way to a place where I'd never dreamed I'd be, and that's perfection. -- Mary J. Blige
I wish I had known that education is the key. That knowledge is power. Now I pick up books and watch educational shows with my husband. I'm seeing how knowledge can elevate you. -- Mary J. Blige
I can't just make a song people can dance in a club to ... it still has to be real. -- Mary J. Blige
I listen to gospel music. -- Mary J. Blige
I barely have time for my own children. To adopt more children and not have time for them, that would be poor parenting on my part. -- Mary J. Blige
I do consider myself part of black history. -- Mary J. Blige
When you come from so many damaged places you don't ever want to spiral back there, so you gotta continue to check yourself. -- Mary J. Blige
I can see the music. I know what it looks like. I know what color it is. The words come easy, the tears come easy, and the joy comes easy. The music tells you what to do. -- Mary J. Blige
I can tell you I didn't feel good when I could not articulate properly. Getting my GED was important and I want other women to feel that. -- Mary J. Blige
It was only for two years, and I jumped from family to family. It's very scary. -- Mary J. Blige
I'm from the element of the streets that says that once you've made it, it's yours. But keep it to yourself. -- Mary J. Blige
It's sad that a lot of identities are lost and a lot of careers are lost because there's sort of a clone thing going on. -- Mary J. Blige
Everything is scary if you look at it. So you just got to live. -- Mary J. Blige
There are people out there who want to provoke me and bring back the old Mary but I'm not giving them the satisfaction. -- Mary J. Blige
As a kid, I dreamed about being onstage. -- Mary J. Blige
When I was a kid, I needed to sing because it makes me feel good about myself. It makes me feel good, period. -- Mary J. Blige
If you're here right now in your life, your journey continues and you've lived to tell the story. -- Mary J. Blige
If we didn't have understanding of our journey, we wouldn't be able to go on. We'd be stuck, like, 'Why me?' -- Mary J. Blige
I believe this generation should know their history and they should know that the struggle's not over yet. -- Mary J. Blige
My journey continues, because I've, you know, conquered a lot. And I know how to conquer the rest. -- Mary J. Blige
I don't think I'll do foster care or adopt, to be quite honest. -- Mary J. Blige
You either learn from your experiences or go back and do the same thing, and I learned from my experiences. -- Mary J. Blige
When I was little, like 7 to 15, there was nothing I wanted to do but go to church and go to school. -- Mary J. Blige
It's that first step-getting out the door-that's the toughest. If you can do that, you've already won. -- Mary J. Blige
I just love food, period. -- Mary J. Blige
When you're going to do whatever you're going to do, you have to get your, put your mind into it. -- Mary J. Blige
Once you climb to another level, you have to figure out how to sustain it. -- Mary J. Blige