There's no denying that Rihanna [1] loves speaking her mind, and while that may sometimes get her in trouble [2], other times she's simply just telling it like it is. Throughout her time in the spotlight, the "Kiss It Better" singer [3] has offered lots of words to live by about love, relationships, and being comfortable in your own — and let's face it, we all could use some encouragement every now and then. We've rounded up Rihanna's most empowering quotes — keep reading to see them, then check out these little-known facts about the star [4].
- "It's important for me to know who I am [5]. There's no way for people to know me."
- "You have to just accept your body. You may not love it all the way, but you just have to be comfortable with it [6]."
- "When you realize who you live for, and who's important to please, a lot of people will actually start living. I am never going to get caught up in that [7]. I'm gonna look back on my life and say that I enjoyed it — and I lived it for me."
- "I had to fake it till I made it [8]. That's what I had to do. I had to pretend that I was as comfortable. I really was not . . . I had to just go for it."
- "I don't do things for the response or for the controversy. I just live my life [9]."
- "I believe everybody's an individual [10]. You can't judge someone based on someone else's actions."
- "I'm just me [11]. I don't feel a reason to change."
- "When a door closes, you have two choices: give up or keep going. Let them shut you down, or prove them wrong. We all start somewhere; it's where you end up that counts [12]."
- "People hesitate to follow their desires [13] because they don't know how to divide their soul from their spirit."
- "I'm crazy, and I don't pretend to be anything else [14]."
- "You can't change who you are [15]. It's important for me to know who I am and work with that. They're gonna keep knocking away until all this comes crashing down, but I'm not gonna ever crash. I'm in control."
- "The bottom line is that everyone thinks differently [16]."
- "Tomorrow I'm still going to be the same person [17]. I'm still going to do what I want to do."
- "People want to shy away from the truth and keep sweeping it under the rug, but after a while, you pick up the rug and there's just way too much dirt, so you might as well just be upfront about it [18]. If you just face it today, then tomorrow you can move on to something else."
- "I want to set the right example and, at the same time, live my life [19]."
- "We live different lives [20], but we have a lot of the same life experiences."
- "Sometimes a person looks at me and sees dollars. They see numbers and they see a product. I look at me and see art [21]. If I didn't like what I was doing, then I would say I was committing slavery."
- "Love makes you go places [22] you probably wouldn't ever go, had it not been for love, but I think everybody still has their limits."