Tina Turner has endured so much throughout her life but instead of folding, she’s never backed down. I recently rewatched HBO’s Tina, a fantastic documentary about her incredible life and career, and it’s hard to believe someone can shoulder so much. She escaped an abusive relationship with her ex-husband, Ike Turner. She had a mild stroke after marrying German music executive Erwin Bach in 2013, and had to learn how to walk again. Three years later, she was diagnosed with kidney failure and intestinal cancer. She needed a kidney transplant and received one from her beloved Bach. She also lost her 59-year-old son to suicide.
Tina Turner, 82, has survived, thrived, and changed the world with her artistry. After overcoming so much, it’s easy to admit that she is one very inspirational figure. She showed determination, grit, and strength through some truly harrowing experiences. All of this to say, it’s clear that this icon knows a thing or two about life. I am so moved by her that I decided to curate a list of some of the most inspirational quotes that Tina Turner has gifted the world through the years. If you need some motivation, take a look at these moving quotes from the star.
Tina Turner on Being Labeled as ‘Strong’
In an interview with the New York Times, Turner opened up about her discomfort with being called a “strong” person. “I don’t necessarily want to be a ‘strong’ person,” she said. “I had a terrible life. I just kept going. You just keep going, and you hope that something will come. This [life] came.”
No matter what life throws at you, be sure to just put one foot in front of the next and keep going. This is some excellent wisdom from Turner to take to heart.
Tina Turner on Advocating for Yourself
In 1993, Turner got candid about standing up for herself in an interview with Vanity Fair. “You asked me if I ever stood up for anything,” she replied. “Yeah, I stood up for my life.”
This great quote is a reminder to put yourself and your well-being first and to stand up for yourself no matter what.
Tina Turner Encourages You to Be Positive
In her 2020 book, Happiness Becomes You, Turner had some encouraging thoughts on how you can reframe negative thinking for a more positive outlook.
“At every moment, we always have a choice, even if it feels as if we don’t. Sometimes that choice may simply be to think a more positive thought.”
Tina Turner Thinks It’s an ‘Exciting’ Time for Aging Women
Turner was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021 at the age of 81. It was the icing on the cake of a career that’s spanned over six decades. Then, it should come as no surprise that she has some refreshing thoughts on aging.
“Fifty is the new 30. Seventy is the new 50. There are no rules that say you have to dress a certain way or be a certain way. We are living in exciting times for women,” she told the Daily Express in 2009.
Tina Turner On Resiliance
“I believe that if you’ll just stand up and go, life will open up for you. Something just motivates you to keep moving,” Turner shared with Oprah in the May 2005 issue of O, the Oprah Magazine.
Those are wise words about believing in yourself enough to carry on and having the courage to face the unknown.
Tina Turner Wants You to Rid Yourself of What Makes You Unhappy
In a 1986 interview with Ebony, Turner had some direct advice for you and your happiness. She makes it sound easy but she’s not wrong.
“If you are unhappy with anything… whatever is bringing you down, get rid of it. Because you’ll find that when you’re free, your true creativity, your true self, comes out.”
Tina Turner Says It’s All About Perspective
According to Turner, you have to shift your point of view to appreciate the path you’ve walked in life. She opened up to Marie Claire South Africa in 2018 about how she now sees her life.
“People think my life has been tough, but I think it’s been a wonderful journey. The older you get, the more you realize it’s not what happened, it’s how you deal with it.”
Tina Turner’s Beauty Secret Is One for the Books
“My greatest beauty secret is being happy with myself. It’s a mistake to think you are what you put on yourself. I believe that a lot of how you look has to do with how you feel about yourself and your life,” Turner told Woman & Home magazine in 2016.
She could have shared a product she couldn’t live without but instead, she made it about self-esteem and being happy with yourself. How beautiful.
Tina Turner on Legacy
“My legacy is that I stayed on course… from the beginning to the end because I believed in something inside of me. So, my legacy is a person that strived for wanting it better and got it,” Turner told Oprah during an August 2013 interview.
Words to live by, right? Let’s all try to believe in something inside of ourselves!
Tina Turner on Finding Your Power
Turner also told Ebony in 1986 that the power she found inside herself is how she achieved her personal and professional success.
“The real power behind whatever success I have now was something I found within myself—something that’s in all of us.”
Tina Turner Knows Sometimes You’re the Only Person You Can Count On
As we mentioned, Turner had a difficult past. She opened up about having to find her own strength when others don’t have any to share with her in her 2018 memoir, My Love Story.
“I didn’t have anybody. Really, no foundation in life, so I had to make my own way. Always, from the start. I had to go out in the world and become strong, to discover my mission in life.”
Tina Turner Doesn’t Want You to Dwell on Age or Beauty
Turner spoke with Woman & Home magazine in 2016 about aging and how to do it right. We already know that Turner views her secret to beauty as self-confidence; let’s see what else she has to say about it.
“You can’t get hung up on age or beauty because you’re then always chasing after something you’ll never get back.”
13.
The living legend told Oprah for the May 2005 issue of O how she practices honesty and what it means to her. She wants to deliver the truth and you should too.
“My wish is to give the kind of truth to people that will help them change their minds. When that happens, I’ll be the best that I can be.”
Tina Turner Encourages a ‘Childlike View of Life’
Speaking with Oprah in the same issue of O, Turner explained how she practices self-love and it has a lot to do with outlook.
“I like me very much. When I look in the mirror and my skin glows back at me, I think, ‘Wow, that sure is pretty.’ I have a simple, childlike view of life, and I want to keep it.”
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Tina Turner Wants You to Find What Always Motivates You
“It is not in my nature to stay down for long. I’ve always found a way to get up again. What gives you the power to stand up again and again?” Turner asked in her book, Happiness Becomes You.
So, what motivates you to stand up again and again? I think we’d all be wise to find it and live by her words on keeping going forward.
Tina Turner Wants You to Chase Your Dreams
In her book, Happiness Becomes You, Turner shares all sorts of encouraging and motivational sentiments to help you build yourself and find the courage to go after whatever you want in life.
“Never give up! You can make the impossible possible and fulfill your dreams to be happy. What is your favorite dream?”
Tina Turner Wants You to Have Faith in Yourself
“For me, faith means recognizing the potential for happiness that exists within yourself. What does faith mean to you?”
It’s an important question that Turner poses here about finding faith in yourself and exploring your faith more broadly. Always having “the potential for happiness” is a pretty powerful idea to put your faith in. This quote was also pulled from Happiness Becomes You.
Tina Turner Wants You to Find Your Inner Light
“Love and respect yourself, live a life you can love, use every day and take good care of yourself and your body,” Turner writes in Happiness Becomes You. “These steps can help you to bring your inner light to shine.”
“The brighter my light shined the better my life became. What makes your inner light shine?” she also asks in the book.
Tina Turner Knows That Personal Happiness Is Only Possible When You Respect Others
“Always remember: Your personal happiness also depends on the respect you show to others,” Turner advises in Happiness Becomes You.
“By honoring each other’s ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds, we become stronger and happier,” she adds.
Tina Turner Shares Her Rule of 8 for Self-Love
“How did you learn to love yourself?” Turner asks in Happiness Becomes You.
“Whenever I had a negative thought, I repeated a positive one eight times in a row to counteract it. This is how I started to love myself,” she also shared.
Wow! What a great tip you can put into practice immediately.
Tina Turner Wants You to Discover Your Life’s Mission
“If you don’t have a good day today and feel down, remember that you were born with a special mission,” Turner also writes in Happiness Becomes You.
“Each of us is born with a unique mission, a purpose in life that only we can fulfill. What is your mission?” she urges you to ask yourself.
Tina Turner Says the Key to Wisdom Is Acceptance
“I’m not wise, but the beginning of wisdom is there; it’s like relaxing into – and an acceptance of – things,” Turner is credited with saying.
This is such a great quote about wisdom being the acceptance we can find for ourselves, our lives, and the lives of others.
Tina Turner Is Open to a Variety of Religions
“I never close a door on any other religion,” Turner said. “Most of the time, some part of it makes sense to me. I don’t believe everyone has to chant just because I chant. I believe all religion is about touching something inside of yourself.”
She seems to be tapping into a universal truth here that I think all of us should take to heart.
Tina Turner Never Doubted Her Comeback
“I didn’t worry about it,” she said of her career. “Because I kind of felt I left a good message and memory with the people in terms of my work, and I always felt with a good record, I could always come back.”
May we all channel Turner’s energy from this quote into our own professional lives.
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Tina Turner Wants You to Tap Into Your ‘Higher Level of Mentality’
“But I believe we have a higher level of mentality within us, but we have to use the power in the right way,” Turner said about finding your higher self. Perhaps we should all meditate more.
There you go! I hope you enjoyed these incredible Tina Turner quotes. She’s lived an incredible life and has so many achievements to show for it. She will always be an inspiring figure and I hope you take her words of wisdom to heart.
If you enjoyed these amazing quotes from Tina Turner, why not hear from another legend, Betty White. The late TV star has shared some amazingly funny and incredibly poignant thoughts and we think you’d enjoy hearing them. Look back fondly on White’s life with us by celebrating the lasting quotes she shared with the world.
Betty White Quotes About Humor
- “If one has no sense of humor, one is in trouble.”
- “Laughter keeps everyone feeling wonderful.”
- “I just laugh. Have I got them fooled.”
Betty White Quotes About Her Brand of Humor
- “I know it sounds corny, but I try to see the funny side and the upside, not the downside. I get bored with people who complain about this or that. It’s such a waste of time.”
- “Well, I mean, if a joke or humor is bawdy, it’s got to be funny enough to warrant it. You can’t just have it bawdy or dirty just for the sake of being that – it’s got to be funny.”
- “Humor is like music. It’s a rhythm, and you just kind of get the rhythm of it, and you have to know not to let the beat go too long, but to leave a beat in there for it to gel, you know.”
Betty White Quotes About Life
- “I just make it my business to get along with people so I can have fun. It’s that simple.”
- “I think everybody needs a passion. Whether it’s one passion or a hundred, that’s what keeps life interesting.
- “You can lie to anyone in the world and even get away with it, perhaps, but when you are alone and look into your own eyes in the mirror, you can’t sidestep the truth. Always be sure you can meet those eyes directly. Otherwise, it’s big trouble, my girl.”
Betty White Quotes on Living Right
- “It’s your outlook on life that counts. If you take yourself lightly and don’t take yourself too seriously, pretty soon you can find the humor in our everyday lives. And sometimes it can be a lifesaver.”
- “I know unless I’m true to myself I couldn’t be happy. Too much emphasis is placed today on externals and too little on character.”
- “I was blessed with a mother and father who said taste the good stuff now and realize how fortunate and how wonderful things are this minute because enough minutes are not wonderful that you have to save up all the good ones to make it balance out.”
Betty White Quotes About Living Your Best Life
- “You know people who are already saying, ‘I’m going to be 30 – oh, what am I going to do?’ Well, use that decade! Use them all!”
- “Friendship takes time and energy if it’s going to work. You can luck into something great, but it doesn’t last if you don’t give it proper appreciation.”
- “There’s no formula. Keep busy with your work and your life. Keep the person in your heart all the time. Replay the good times. Be grateful for the years you had.”
Learn to Live Like the GOAT with These Betty White Quotes
- “I just care what kind of a decent human being you are.”
- “Keep the other person’s well-being in mind when you feel an attack of soul-purging truth coming on.”
- “If you’re walking with your lady on the sidewalk, I still like to see a man walking street-side, to protect the lady from traffic … I still like to see that a man opens the door. I like those touches of chivalry that are fast disappearing.”
Betty White Quotes to Live By
- “You don’t luck into integrity. You work at it.”
- “It is important that you not believe your own publicity. Be grateful for whatever praise you receive, but take it with a grain of salt.”
- “I have no regrets at all. None. I consider myself to be the luckiest old broad on two feet.”
Words of Wisdom In These Betty White Quotes
- “Keep busy and don’t focus everything on you, that wears off pretty fast. It’s not hard to find things you’re interested in, but enjoy them and indulge them.”
- “I don’t know how people can get so anti-something. Mind your own business, take care of your affairs, and don’t worry about other people so much.”
- “Kindness and consideration of somebody besides yourself. I think that keeps you feeling young. I really do.”
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Betty White Quotes About Her Career
- “The audience today has heard every joke. They know every plot … It’s much more competitive now because the audience is so much more … I want to say ‘sophisticated.’”
- “It’s fun once in a while to do a serious part but I really enjoy doing comedy because I love to laugh.”
- “Doing drama is, in a sense, easier. In doing comedy, if you don’t get that laugh, there’s something wrong.”
- “Retirement is not in my vocabulary. They aren’t going to get rid of me that way.”
Betty White Quotes About Her Illustrious Career
- “I didn’t choose to have children because I’m focused on my career. And I just don’t think, as compulsive as I am, that I could manage both.”
- “I think I’ve been spoiled enough, don’t you think? Might as well quit while I’m ahead! But I’m not going to quit, that’s for sure.”
- “It’s been phenomenal, but everybody keeps congratulating me on my resurgence and my big comeback. I haven’t been away, guys. I’ve been working steadily for the last 63 years.”
- “I’m in the acting business. That’s the ego business. When you get offers, the way things are going now you’ve gotta enjoy it. You’ve gotta take time to taste it, and appreciate it and make the most of it.”
Betty White Quotes About Aging
- “You’re never too old for anything.”
- “I had no idea that I would still be around at this point for one thing, but that I’d still be privileged enough to still be in this business.”
- People have told me ‘Betty, Facebook is a great way to keep in touch with old friends…’ At my age, if I wanted to keep in touch with old friends, I’d need a Ouija board.”
- “My philosophy for staying young is [to] act bubbly every day, drink bubbly every birthday!”
Betty White Quotes About Getting Older
- “I do mental exercises. I don’t have any trouble memorizing lines because of the crossword puzzles I do every day to keep my mind a little limber.”
- “My mother always used to say, ‘The older you get, the better you get. Unless you’re a banana.’”
- “I don’t seem to require a lot of sleep… If I get four, five good hours, I’m fine. But sleeping is sort of dull. There’s a lot of other good stuff that you can do without just lying down and closing your eyes.”
- “I think older women still have a full life.”
Betty White Quotes That Prove She Never Let Age Stop Her
- “I may be a senior, but so what? I’m still hot.”
- “One thing they don’t tell you about growing old – you don’t feel old, you just feel like yourself. And it’s true. I don’t feel eighty-nine years old. I simply am eighty-nine years old.”
- “However, if one is lucky enough to be blessed with good health, growing older shouldn’t be something to complain about. It’s not a surprise, we knew it was coming—make the most of it. So you may not be as fast on your feet, and the image in your mirror may be a little disappointing, but if you are still functioning and not in pain, gratitude should be the name of the game.”
- “Best thing about being in your 90s is you’re spoiled rotten. Everybody spoils you like mad, and they treat you with such respect because you’re old. Little do they know, you haven’t changed. You haven’t changed in [the brain]. You’re just 90 everyplace else.”
Even More, Betty White Quotes About Age Being Just a Number
- “Why retire from something if you’re loving it so much and enjoying it so much … What would I do with myself?”
- “Don’t try to be young. Just open your mind. Stay interested in stuff. There are so many things I won’t live long enough to find out about, but I’m still curious about them.”
- “Does desire melt away with age? I’m waiting for that day to come.”
- “Now that I’m 91, as opposed to being 90, I’m much wiser. I’m much more aware and I’m much sexier.”
Betty White Quotes About Animals
- “I stayed in show business to pay for my animal business.”
- “When I’m around animals, I don’t pay attention to people.”
- “Animals don’t lie. Animals don’t criticize. If animals have moody days, they handle them better than humans do.”
- “You can always tell about somebody by the way they put their hands on an animal.”
- “Animal lover that I am, a cougar I am not.”
Funny Betty White Quotes
- “I’m a health nut. My favorite food is hot dogs with French fries. And my exercise: I have a two-story house and a very bad memory, so I’m up and down those stairs.”
- “I’ve always liked older men. They’re just more attractive to me. Of course, at my age, there aren’t that many left!”
- “Why do people say ‘grow some balls?’ Balls are weak and sensitive. If you wanna be tough, grow a vagina. Those things can take a pounding.”
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More Funny and Potent Betty White Quotes
- “Butterflies are like women – we may look pretty and delicate, but baby, we can fly through a hurricane.”
- “Still here, b*****s.”
- “I’m a teenager trapped in an old body.”
There you go! We hope these Betty White quotes filled you with a sense of her totality. They are revealing morsels and insights into her comedic genius as well as her wisdom for a long life and career. There will never be another Betty White but we can remember her, in part, by the words she shared.