Quotes & Sayings About Role Models

Emulation admires and strives to imitate great actions; envy is only moved to malice. — Honore De Balzac

The absence of models, in literature as in life, to say nothing of painting, is an occupational hazard for the artist, simply because models in art, in behavior, in growth of spirit and intellect
even if rejected
enrich and enlarge one's view of existence. Deadlier still, to the artist who lacks models, is the curse of ridicule, the bringing to bear on an artist's best work, especially his or her most original, most strikingly deviant, only a fund of ignorance and the presumption that as an artist's critic one's judgement is free of the restrictions imposed by prejudice, and is well informed, indeed, about all the art in the world that really matters. — Alice Walker

Anybody can be a role model, anybody can. — Selena

Sachin is the greatest role model I've ever met. — Gary Kirsten

My role models are Bettie Page and Mia Kirshner. Every day when Mia comes to work she raises the bar for us all. — Jennifer Beals

If you feel dirty, insignificant or unloved, then rats are a good role model. They exist without permission, they have no respect for the hierarchy of society, and they have sex 50 times a day. — Banksy

We rappers are role models. — Kanye West

The Blood She Betrayed is unique, and Shahkara, the character, is one of the most engaging strong female role models I've seen in a long time. This girl can handle herself! The plot is full of ingenious twists, turns and surprises, and I look forward to reading the next book in the series. — L.J.Smith

At least the more modern princesses had the guts to do something aside from clean and wait to be rescued. They armed themselves and tried to provide good role models to impressionable girl tykes. It riled some innate feminist ... that the princesses were strongest when they were acting like the men ... — Thomm Quackenbush

The best way to raise positive children in a negative world is to have positive parents who love them unconditionally and serve as excellent role models. — Zig Ziglar

My role models were childless: Virginia Woolf, Jane Austen, George Eliot, the Brontes. — Joyce Carol Oates

Then we talked a lot about our parents and how we didn't want to become them, but we had no other role models
or "maps," Alex kept saying. "My father is a terrible map, mostly because he doesn't ever lead me anywhere." And I thought about my parents being maps that led to places I didn't want to go
and it made a shocking amount of sense, using the word maps to describe parents. If almost made you feel like you could fold Mom and Dad up and lock them away in the glove compartment of your car and just joyride for the rest of your life maybe. — Matthew Quick

We are all role models to someone in this world, and we can all have an impact - for good. — Tony Dungy

Scientists and engineers ought to stand side by side with athletes and entertainers as role models. — Barack Obama

THE LIGHT DOES THE WORK. It makes you look good. How do we begin to change the world standard? I have no idea. I suppose it would start with a few good role models. People who would say, "I'm going to be myself" and let this be enough. It starts with me. To demonstrate that I am good enough. Not later, but now. I am whole and perfect as God created me. — Lisa Natoli

-When I was growing up, Lieutenant Uhura was a major role model for me, a strong black woman on the bridge of a starship ...
-In a miniskirt, answering the interplanetary telephone? — Suzanne Brockmann

I think in an ideal world celebrities do have a responsibility in many different areas to be role models. — John Amaechi

There's no shortage of female role models. They're everywhere - in history, in literature, in the news. Just look around. — Keri Russell

It's funny - more people talk about my 'babe-dom' now than they did before I had a child. Whatever. I guess I'm a role model in hot pants now. That's cool! — Lauryn Hill

Inspiration, in its rich variety, must be present in any discussion about Africa. We need role models - they are essential to the advancement of our society. — Richard Attias

Americans have gotten to know Sarah Palin. They know that she's a role model to women and other - and reformers all over America. She's a reformer. — John McCain

It is natural that the appearance of pollution should have taken by surprise an economic science which has delighted in playing around with all kinds of mechanistic models. Curiously, even after the event economics gives no signs of acknowledging the role of natural resources in the economic process. Economists still do not seem to realize that, since the product of the economic process is waste, waste is an inevitable result of that process and ceteris paribus increases in greater proportion than the intensity of economic activity. — Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen

Ordinary women of grace are, in a sense, my real role models. — Marian Wright Edelman

[from an entry by her daughter Camille] American culture doesn't allow much room for slow reflection. I watch the working people who are supposed to be my role models getting pushed to go, go, go and take as little vacation time as possible. And then, often, vacations are full of endless activity too, so you might come back from your "break" feeling exhausted ... Whether you prefer to sit on a rock in a peaceful place, or take a wooden spoon to a simmering pot, it does the body good to quiet down and tune in. — Barbara Kingsolver

The Christian-Judaic God does not exist, and if He did exist as described in the Bible, He would certainly not be a good role model. — Robert Sherrill

The American people don't believe politicians. They don't believe business leaders or Hollywood celebrities or athletes or other supposed role models. And they certainly don't believe the news media. — John Yarmuth

I am a person of faith, so I come from a community that's involved in 360,000 churches across the country, that is an institution that could, in a relatively short period of time, provide hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of positive male role models. — Donald Miller

I'm only thirteen, so I have role-models! But I've sort of experienced ... my sister has always been my role-model because I've always seen her. She's been acting my whole life and she's grown up on film, so it's neat for me to get to travel around and do interviews, because I've always seen her doing it. — Elle Fanning

I didn't have parents, so I lived in people's homes ... And because I grew up with no parental role models, I learned to become my own friend, eventually my own father and my own mother. — John Lone

I found myself surrounded by people
starting with my mom, grandparents, uncles, and aunts, and leading to a string of wonderful role models and mentors
who kept pushing me to see more than what was directly in front of me, to see the boundless possibilities of the wider world and the unexplored possibilities within myself. People who taught me that no accident of birth
not being black or relatively poor, being from Baltimore or the Bronx or fatherless
would ever define or limit me. — Wes Moore

Be a role model not a critic. Don't tell your children, your peers, or your subordinates what to do - show them. And when the lesson is over, keep showing them by demonstrating that your actions are part of your character, not part of their curriculum. — Denis Waitley

I think that not only do saints make poor role models, they are incapable in one sense of identifying radically with those of us who are mere mortals. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s mortality says to us that here's a figure who got up every day of his life facing tremendous odds and yet overcame them. — Michael Eric Dyson

I looked up to my parents because they were very successful in what they wanted to do. I was lucky; I didn't have to look far for role models. — Derek Jeter

Role models can inspire. Campaigns can motivate. But if we want all girls everywhere to rise up, then we must find them, befriend them and support them. — Queen Rania Of Jordan

Emulation is a noble and just passion, full of appreciation. — Friedrich Schiller

I think on some level, role models are overrated If you require a role model who looks just like you to be something you wanna be and you can't find one, is that a reason to not be what you wanna be? No! — Neil DeGrasse Tyson

I think Jennifer Lawrence is a brilliant role model for young girls, not some of the models that I see on the runway. — Karen Elson

Our players are role models; there's no question about it. Whether they want to be or not. They are. So they're in the spotlight. So if they do something that's wrong, that's in the spotlight, too. — Bob McNair

There are those who believe that the value of a children's book can be measured only in terms of the moral lessons it tries to impose or the perfect role models it offers. Personally, I happen to think that a book is of extraordinary value if it gives the reader nothing more than a smile or two. In fact, I happen to think that's huge. — Barbara Park

Who's to blame when your kid goes nuts? Is it a blessing to not have children? 'We Need to Talk About Kevin' became a hit cult book for women without offspring who were finally able to admit they didn't want to give birth. They felt complete, thank you very much, and lived in silent resentment for years at other women's pious, unwanted sympathy toward them for not having babies. With even gay couples having children these days, aren't happy heterosexual women who don't want to have kids the most ostracized of us all? To me they are beautiful feminists. If you're not sure you could love your children, please don't have them, because they might grow up and kill us. — John Waters

I wouldn't say there's a need for the Spice Girls, but I'd say there's a place for the Spice Girls. There's certainly a place for them, but you don't promote the Spice Girls at the expense of promoting what I think are good role models for girls. You need to create some kind of equality. — Greg Graffin

It was said of him that he did not say much, but that when he did everyone stopped to listen. — Benjamin Franklin

Even if you have a brain predisposed to liberalism, you might end up with some conservative friends or find inspiring conservative role models who could be very influential on you, and that could send you down a different track in life. — Jonathan Haidt

I love the fact that they [girls ]are into Superman and Green Lantern and Batman and everything, and they really do have all those toys as well, but I don't want all their role models to be men. — Mark Millar

I may not be a role model, but I most definitely could be motivation for a lot of people in the hoods. — Rick Ross

When you have lived your individual life in your own adventurous way and then look back upon its course, you will find that you have lived a model human life, after all. — Joseph Campbell

Of all the rocks upon which we build our lives, we are reminded today that family is the most important. And we are called to recognize and honor how critical every father is to that foundation. They are teachers and coaches. They are mentors and role models. They are examples of success and the men who constantly push us toward it. — Barack Obama

I first felt successful when I was 13 and in a show called Seesaw. I came offstage and heard the applause of the theater audience and felt a sense of accomplishment. Around that time my role model for success was Burt Lancaster. He was one of the first ac. — Giancarlo Esposito

I take my role as an ambassador for the sport, and as a role model for boys, girls, mommies, daddies - whoever it is - very, very seriously. I know the impact my role models have had in my life, and I'm in a really beautiful position to be able to be that for others. — Kerri Walsh

When you speak of role models, when we talk to our kids, everybody is a role model, everyone, just as you look at a Michael Jordan to be the terrific athlete he is. — Walter Payton

The feminists took me as a role model, as a mother. It bothers me. I am not interested in being a mother. I am still a girl trying to understand myself. — Louise Bourgeois

We need more drag king role models for all those interested in the art — BeBe Zahara Benet

I never really thought about being a role model. I started really young, so at 10 years old, I was still very much the person who needed role models. I wasn't really prepared to be one, but it's always something that I've taken very seriously. — Jennifer Love Hewitt

Apartment stacked to the ceiling with newspapers, we call him crazy. If a woman has a trailer house full of cats, we call her nuts. But when people pathologically hoard so much cash that they impoverish the entire nation, we put them on the cover of Fortune magazine and pretend that they are role models. — Lester B. Pearson

1. Define and articulate the role and functions of social work in end-of-life care in a consistent manner across all settings. 2. Address negative public and professional perceptions of social work internally and externally. 3. Identify and articulate specific and unique contributions of the social work profession in end-of-life care. 4. Facilitate and promote end-of-life social work research that demonstrates the utility and efficiency of social work in hospice. 5. Facilitate collaborative advocacy at the macro level to ensure access to quality interdisciplinary end-of-life care for all people. 6. Actively challenge shortsighted cost-saving initiatives that minimize the psychosocial and spiritual components of care for patients and families. 7. Develop standards for effective models of practice in end-of-life care. — Joan N. Berzoff

I am not interested in being a role model, or in fulfilling the expectations of others. I know I am of most use to others and to myself by being this unique self: Nature, I have noticed, is not particularly devoted to copies, and human beings needn't be either. — Alice Walker

A lot of the kinship that people notice is not coincidental. I was very impressionable and trying to find my role models when I was twelve or thirteen. — Adrian Tomine

The best way to teach is how you live your life. — Gina Greenlee

I always get role models, people from real life who've lived the lives of the characters, and talk it through together, me, them and the actor, a lot. That helps. We certainly have our disagreements. But in the end we trust each other. — Tony Scott

Dad thanks for leaning in by helping me become a role model for young girls. — Serena Williams

I think the best role models for women are people who are fruitfully and confidently themselves, who bring light into the world. — Meryl Streep

Many times people will say, you know, you're such a great role model. Well, that's great, but at the end of the day, you have to learn to be your own best role model and learn what makes you happy, not necessarily what society thinks you're supposed to be or women that you look up to, what they're doing. I look at that as being a symbol in a blueprint, but never forget that who you are is what's most important. — Jada Pinkett Smith

I know I touch a lot of people. I don't call myself a role model. But I am a leader. Leaders are always watched by team members & outsiders — Spoken Reasons

They offered me that film before I did Frida and I said, no, I'm not capable of directing. Then after seeing Julie direct, I was inspired by it. She motivated me to do it, because we don't have role models as woman for directors. — Salma Hayek

There are many mediocre entertainers who don't aspire to much more than fame and glory. It's very easy to have them as your role models because there aren't as many greats. Go back, discover the greats, and take it from there. — Carmen Ejogo

I did not have any role model. I could not learn anything from the female voice that male poets used, a voice which is more "feminine" than female. Nor could I learn anything from ancient female poetry that only sang about love, the feeling of farewell and longing for others. — Kim Hyesoon

It was Jesus who gave me peace when the shark severed my arm. I trust in Jesus whenever I'm going through a hard time. I see all the beautiful things that have come out of my situation. I'm able to share my story with young girls who have few role models, and I can help others cope with what they have been through. — Bethany Hamilton

I realised there were no good role models for kids. Popeye eats spinach, but also smokes and hits people. — Magnus Scheving

My gender has never been an issue or a limitation. I was fortunate enough to be surrounded by strong women growing up, and with them as my role models, I was never limited by the traditional roles women find themselves in. — Brenda Brathwaite

I had the vision of creating my own camp to make sure I was teaching the campers what I wanted. Plus I picked other players that were good on the field and off so we could be great role models for these girls to look up to. I hope to inspire others and encourage them to go after their dreams. — Jennie Finch

Submission has nothing to do with equality. Men and women are equal, but we have been assigned different roles. Neither role is superior. The Trinity models this concept. The Persons in the Godhead are equal in power and in substance, but each as a different function. Submission is a position we willingly assume in obedience to Jesus and after His pattern. Submission is an attitude of humilty. Submission is being concerned about the interests of another rather than looking after our own interests. The world tells women that submission is foolish and renders us powerless. Scripture tells us that submission gives access to the power and protection of God. — Susan Hunt

It's good to have female or minority role models. But the important thing is to have mentors who care about you, and they come in all colors. — Condoleezza Rice

It's not just that," Chief Porter said. "A guy who once would have raped and killed a woman, now a lot of times he also has to cut off her lips and mail them to us or take her eyes for a souvenir and keep them in his freezer at home. There's more flamboyant craziness these days." Giving the buttered cinnamon roll a reprieve, Ozzie said, "Maybe it's all these superhero movies with all their supervillains. Some psychopath who used to be satisfied raping and murdering, these days he thinks that he should be in a Batman movie, he wants to be the Joker or the Penguin." "No real-life bad guy wants to be the Penguin," I assured him. "Norman Bates was happy just dressing up like his mother and stabbing people," Chief Porter said, "but Hannibal Lecter has to cut off their faces and eat their livers with fava beans. The role models have become more intense. — Dean Koontz

In our generation, the role models were Gandhi and Nehru. We revered them. They were venerated personalities. I read almost every speech of Nehru. — Pranab Mukherjee

Athletes as role models and heroes is a hoax, a sick hoax. The men and women who are fighting in Iraq, they are the true heroes. — Gale Sayers

I believe very firmly that gay people of every stripe and age should be role models for all children, and that means interacting with them. — Armistead Maupin

Women share with men the need for personal success, even the taste for power, and no longer are we willing to satisfy those needs through the achievements of surrogates, whether husbands, children, or merely role models. — Elizabeth Dole

I had great femme mentors, I had good role models of gentle men, I found ways to be a butch that did not require being an ass in public, ways of masculinity that were not misogyny - which is what I see more often than I used to these days, this way of butches distancing themselves from any and all things feminine by embodying the worst excesses of men, from relatively harmless ones like spitting on the street and wearing too much cheap cologne to behaving as though women were an entirely separate species of second-class citizen, the objects of jokes and derision. — S. Bear Bergman

I like strong female characters. I try to write them as role models for young girls. — L.J.Smith

I think that in the Christian community, we're lacking a lot of things, and I don't know that it's just children's role models. — Willie Aames

The expectation was I would get married and become a mother and settle down. We didn't have any role models. We saw teachers and doctors and nurses, but I'm not a teacher, and there was no possibility of being a doctor or a nurse. I had to work and find my own way. — Alexis Wright

A well-dressed, self-assured business executive steps into a quiet corner of the conference room, crowded with people. Everyone there is aware of her presence. She's dark-haired, petite, and alluring. She is quick to smile, and when she does, her whole face lights up. Her enthusiasm is infectious. Young men and women nod as they pass by, briefly breaking off their conversations with colleagues. The executive looks down at her compact electronic device and quickly texts: "Smile. Talk into the mic. Good luck. — Jill Bryant

One-third of all professional baseball players come from Latin America, and Sosa is following role models such as the late Roberto Clemente, a Puerto Rican, from whom he adopted the No. 21. Now he is a model for others. — Bill Dedman

I'm a role model. I have overcome the negativity, and I'm playing. — Lamar Odom

I don't care to be famous. But at the same time, you look at all the role models these little girls have, and they don't have anyone to look up to. I mean, it's weird, but if I just hid out and didn't let myself be known, who would they look up to instead, you know? — Bethany Hamilton

I want to be an example, the person who when they look at, they say, "That guy is a Christian, there's no doubt about it." I want to be blameless. I want to be an encouragement. I want to be a role model for the believer. — Christian Hosoi

There are not many female role models to guide voters, and the tradition that a Southern woman's place is in the home still lingers in some quarters. — Madeleine M. Kunin

When a young person, even a gifted one, grows up without proximate living examples of what she may aspire to become
whether lawyer, scientist, artist, or leader in any realm
her goal remains abstract. Such models as appear in books or on the news, however inspiring or revered, are ultimately too remote to be real, let alone influential. But a role model in the flesh provides more than inspiration; his or her very existence is confirmation of possibilities one may have every reason to doubt, saying, 'Yes, someone like me can do this. — Sonia Sotomayor

We blacks look for leadership in men and women of such youth and inexperience, as well as poverty of education and character, that it is no wonder that we sometimes seem rudderless ... We see basketball players and pop singers as possible role models, when nothing could be further, in most cases, from their capacities. — Arthur Ashe

Always do your best in whatever you do;
set goals and seek challenges;
become a role model for those coming behind you; and
always have God in your heart. — Charles F. Bolden

I think I've always wanted to be a role model, and I think ... everyone should try to live their life like they'd like to be a role model. I think it's like the thing keeping me out of jail. — Mindy Kaling

At first, being a female role model really terrified me. But it hasn't turned out to be an awful burden. I get a lot of letters from women who tell me that, after watching Xena, they have bought the Harley-Davidson they always wanted or left an abusive relationship. — Lucy Lawless

Whether we like it or not, we are high-profile athletes. We're role models. Kids come up to me all the time to talk and it makes me remember when I was a kid and I got to meet Jerry Rice and how much that meant to me. And how we've got to set a good example. — Jonathan Vilma

It was all here for me, just as it has all been here for you, the best and the worst of Western Civilization, if you cared to pay attention: music, finance, government, architecture, law and sculpture and painting, history and medicine and athletics and every sort of science, and books, books, books, and teachers and role models.
People so smart you can't believe it, and people so dumb you can't believe it. People so nice you can't believe it, and people so mean you can't believe it. — Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

The most important role models should and could be parents and teachers. But that said, once you're a teenager you've probably gotten as much of an example from your parents as you're going to. — Andrew Shue

From the time we're born, our brothers and sisters are our collaborators and coconspirators, our role models and our cautionary tales, — Jeffrey Kluger

I don't think kids should have role models. They're disastrous. — Rupert Everett

I had role models in my community, guys that were older than me and played at university or on the national team. Eli Pasquale was always around UVic when I was a young player, and the national team was around Victoria a little bit, so I got to watch those guys and learn from them. — Steve Nash

People focus on role models; it is more effective to find antimodels - people you don't want to resemble when you grow up — Nassim Nicholas Taleb

SpongeBob is a good role model as far as imaginary creatures go. He works hard and his emotional highs are very high, he's either giddy or utterly devastating and crying like a lawnsprinkler ... SpongeBob is bipolar. — Tom Kenny