Talib Quotes & Sayings

Be like the flower that gives its fragrance to even the hand that crushes it. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

If what you achieve today is equal to what you achieved yesterday, then you are at a loss. And if what you have achieved today is less than what you achieved yesterday, then you are deprived from the Almighty's blessings. Anyone who is not progressing, is in fact regressing, and if you are regressing, then you might as well be dead. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

The most important time in history is - NOW - the present,
So count your blessings cause time can't define the essence. — Talib Kweli

Why give you the cure when the disease makes money? — Talib Kweli

God works in mysterious ways. Sometimes he uses anonymous people. — Khaled Talib

Associate with people in such a manner that they weep for you when you die and long for you if you are alive — Hazrat Ali Ibn Abu-Talib

Recitation of the Qur'an without contemplation and thought is futile. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Before Eminem, the idea that there would be a white rapper that anybody would really check for was fantastic or amazing or impossible. — Talib Kweli

I think hip-hop is no more misogynistic than America is as a society. I just think hip-hop is a lot more brash, a lot more bold, a lot more loquacious. There are a lot more words that go into a hip-hop song than go into a regular song. — Talib Kweli

Courtesy costs nothing, but buys everything. — Hazrat Ali Ibn Abu-Talib A.S

Allah's Generosity is connected to gratitude, and gratitude is linked to increase in His generosity. The generosity of Allah will not stop increasing unless the gratitude of the servant ceases — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

I take certain steps to make sure I'm relevant artistically. I always have new music and a reason to be on the road. I'm not just playing 'Get By' over and over. I have 12 albums. — Talib Kweli

I might have been calm, but my dear father was near tears. 'Are you all right, jani?' he said. 'Aba,' I said, trying to reassure him. 'Everybody knows they will die someday. No one can stop death. It doesn't matter if it comes from a Talib or from cancer. — Malala Yousafzai

Know you that Allah has made Islam the most sublime path for attainment of His supreme pleasure and the highest standards of his worship and obedience. He has favoured it with noble precepts, exalted principles, undoubtable arguments, unchallengeable supremacy and undeniable wisdom. It is up to you to maintain the eminence and dignity granted to it by the Lord, to follow it sincerely, to do justice to its articles of faith and belief, to obey implicitly its tenets and orders and to give it the proper place in your lives. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

As far as my New York influence, one thing I'm proud of in my career is, I rep Brooklyn, New York all day. But people don't look at my music as New York music. People consider my music underground music. — Talib Kweli

Just because no one can understand how you speak,
Don't necessarily mean that what you be sayin is deep. — Talib Kweli

The nourishment of body is food, while the nourishment of the soul is feeding others. — Hazrat Ali Ibn Abu-Talib A.S

Often your utterances and expressions of your face leak out the secrets of your hidden thoughts. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

One who rushes madly after inordinate desire, runs the risk of encountering destruction and death. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Nothing hurts a good soul and a kind heart more than to live amongst people who cannot understand it. — Hazrat Ali Ibn Abu-Talib A.S

Hip-hop is a vehicle. — Talib Kweli

The highest person is he who is of most use to humankind. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Do the math: You never settle for less than the whole if you knew the half. — Talib Kweli

Understanding the knowledge and wisdom of the Qur'an is by far, higher than memorizing. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

And you know, art as commerce, doesn't really make too much sense, they don't go together. — Talib Kweli

There are so many highly esteemed ones who became miserable and humiliated just because of their bad temper and morals; and humble people who have attained eminence and the highest honors because of good temper and morals. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

They hope for the Apocalypse like a self-fulfilling prophecy
Tell me when do we stop it?
Do they ask you your religion before you rent an apartment?
Is the answer burning Korans so that we can defend Islamics? — Talib Kweli

Greed takes a person to the watering place but gets him back without letting him drink. It undertakes responsibility but does not fulfill it. Often the drinker gets choked before quenching his thirst. The greater the worth of a thing yearned for, the greater is the grief for its loss. Desires blind the eyes of understanding. The destined share would reach him who does not approach it. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

I remember looking back on a photo of me ... wearing a suit that was, like, two sizes too big for me. I think a lot of guys don't know what fits. — Talib Kweli

War is not civilized. — Talib Kweli

So I just had to step up how I was doing it and the moment that I stepped up and the moment I focused all my energy on that is when things started to happen. So there's a direct relationship between my inspiration and my output. — Talib Kweli

I gotta be dope first. I gotta be appealing to your senses, and to what you like first. Then the message happens. Then you relate to the message. — Talib Kweli

Kind words dispel clouds of fear like the moonlight's smile on water. — Khaled Talib

You make knowledge relevant to life and you make it important for children to learn things that will really relate to things going on in their lives, and not abstract. — Talib Kweli

If I focus on being an activist and my job is to be a rapper, I'm not going to be as good of a rapper. I need to focus on hip-hop and focus on making the music, so that when the activists come to me and they need my voice to create a platform, then I've got enough people listening to me. Not because I'm conscious, but because I'm dope. — Talib Kweli

Awaken your heart to kindness and mercy for the people and love and tenderness for them. Never, never act with them like a predatory beast which seeks to be satiated by devouring them, for the people fall into two categories: they are either your brethren in faith or your kindred in creation ... Do not ever say, 'I have been given authority' or 'My command should be obeyed.' Because it corrupts the heart, consumes one's faith, and invites calamities. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Love is blind, you just see bright light — Talib Kweli

When you get ill do not get nervous about it and try as much as possible to be hopeful. — Hazrat Ali Ibn Abu-Talib A.S

Hip hop is at its essence a folk music, because it speaks the language that people are still speaking at ground zero, it speaks the language that people speak on the streets. — Talib Kweli

Contentment is a wealth that is never exhausted — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

He who guards his secrets retains control in his own hands — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

As an artist, I have to be a leader of my fans, not, like, follow them. Because if I chose to follow them, you know, they could do it. You know, it's me who's doing it. — Talib Kweli

True friends are a single soul divided between different bodies. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Do not share the knowledge with which you have been blessed with everyone in general, as you do with some people in particular; and know that there are some men in whom Allah, may He he glorified, has placed hidden secrets, which they are forbidden to reveal. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

It seemed to me that everyone knows they will die one day. My feeling was nobody can stop death; it doesn't matter if it comes from a Talib or cancer. So I should do whatever I want to do. — Malala Yousafzai

Take Care Of Your Tongue Like The Way You Take Care Of Gold & Silver. — Hazrat Ali Ibn Abu-Talib A.S

God gave us music, so we play with our words. — Talib Kweli

The most precious wealth is wisdom, and the most miserable poverty is stupidity. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

I don't feel comfortable making empty music. — Talib Kweli

When Occupy Wall Street happened, I took my money out of Citibank. I already had problems with all the banks - Citibank, Bank of America - but I was kind of just too lazy to take my money out until I saw how Citibank responded to Occupy Wall Street. — Talib Kweli

Know thyself, and thou shalt know God. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

If one night you see someone committing a sin, tomorrow do not look at him as a sinner. He may have repented during the night and you did not know. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Woman is a delicate creature with strong emotions who has been created by the Almighty God to shoulder responsibility for educating society and moving toward perfection. God created woman as symbol of His own beauty and to give solace to her partner and her family. — Hazrat Ali Ibn Abu-Talib A.S

Do not be misled by appearances for these are apt to be deceptive. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

When I met you it was magic ...
We polar opposites, but attracted like we was magnets. — Talib Kweli

The real Muslim is the one who prefers speaking the truth even when it is ruinous to him over lying even when it benefits him, and who finds inner peace in doing so. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Dislike in yourself what you dislike in others. — Hazrat Ali Ibn Abu-Talib A.S

whoever prolongs his desire ruins his actions — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

I feel like your city - with hip hop in particular, because we're always beating our chest and shouting where we're from - your city is just as influential as your parents. Even the grimy, hardcore gangster rap from New York - KRS-One and Wu Tang, the stuff acknowledges it. — Talib Kweli

Please, this is no disrespect to whoever your man is though. This relationship is strictly musical like D'Angelo — Talib Kweli

We're in an illusion about what our role is in world politics and foreign affairs, and our policies are killing and destroying and doing a lot of things that we are not aware of. — Talib Kweli

Work for this world as if you will live forever and work for the here-after as if you will die tomorrow. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

If you go to a college campus and you do stop and frisk, you're going to find a lot of drugs there too. — Talib Kweli

To make one good action succeed another, is the perfection of goodness. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Not to have a thing is less humiliating than to beg it. — Hazrat Ali Ibn Abu-Talib A.S

Justice is putting everything in its proper place — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

The writer's silent mind is a period of intermission before orchestrating a symphony of words. — Khaled Talib

Fortunately, artists can live off their works, if you're creative at how you do it. If you just depend on the videos and the radio, you're at a loss. — Talib Kweli

Everyone who is taken by death asks for more time, while everyone who still has time makes excuses for procrastination. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

The wiser a man is, the less talkative will he be. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

A girl is a good deed and a boy is a bounty. Good deeds are rewarded while people are held accountable for bounties. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

A friend cannot be considered a friend until he is tested in three occasions: in timeof need, behind your back, and after your death. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

People are of two types, they are either your brothers in faith or your equals in humanity. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

The one who has no control over his desires has no control over his mind. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Had there not been five bad qualities, all the people would have been righteous. Contentment with ignorance; love for worldly life; miserliness inspite of much wealth; ostentation in (good) deeds; and pride in their own intelligence. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Wealth converts a strange land into homeland and poverty turns a native place into a
strange land. — Hazrat Ali Ibn Abu-Talib

So I think hip-hop is moving and is going to continue to move in the direction of rappers just being honest with themselves, whether you're talking about Common and Mos Def or Nas and 50 cent. — Talib Kweli

You are as much able as you know — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

When you shine bright, some won't enjoy the shadow you cast. — Talib Kweli

The most helpless person is the one who is helpless in reforming himself. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Put aside your pride,
Set down your arrogance,
And remember your grave. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Do not force your children to behave like you, for surely they have been created for a time which is different to your time — Ali Ibn-e-Abu Talib

My fans like to be romantic. I feel like I'm creating at least at the same level or even a higher level of creativity than I was at twenty-one. I've gotten better as an artist. — Talib Kweli

Hate no one, no matter how much they've wronged you. Live humbly, no matter how wealthy you become. Think positively, no matter how hard life is. Give much, even if you've been given little. Keep in touch with the ones who have forgotten you, and forgive who has wronged you, and do not stop praying for the best for those you love. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Every breath you take is a step forward toward death.
(Hazrat Ali-As) — Hazrat Ali Ibn Abu-Talib

Beware of the flight of Blessings,
For nothing that runs away is returned. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Half of wisdom is love and friendship with people.(the other half is to guard yourself against the evils of people) — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

This goes out to freedom fighters, graffiti writers, innocent lifers, grassroots organizers — Talib Kweli

If you find that somebody is not grateful for all that you have done for him, then do not get disappointed because often you will find that someone else feels under your obligation though you have done nothing for him and thus your good deeds will be compensated, and Allah will reward you for your goodness. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

The responsibility of an artist is to be honest with themselves. — Talib Kweli

The problem with our role is Americans live in a world of illusion. — Talib Kweli

How foolish is man! He ruins the present while worrying about the future, but weeps in the future by recalling his past! — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

I think hip hop is a dance music that's rebellious by nature. — Talib Kweli

Many a spoken word is more piercing than an attack. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

A fool's mind is at the mercy of his tongue and a wise man's tongue is under the control of
his mind. — Hazrat Ali Ibn Abu-Talib

The way I see it, if people truly love my music, they will support me in some way down the road. — Talib Kweli

Work for a Better Life as if you live forever,
And work for Better End as if you die tomorrow — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

A talib fires three shots at point-blank range at three girls in a van and doesn't kill any of them. This seems an unlikely story. — Malala Yousafzai

The emaan of a person cannot be true until he has more trust in that which is in Allah's Hands than that which is in his own hands. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib

Bear sorrows and calamities patiently, otherwise you will never be happy. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib