Shakira Quotes

In this life, to earn your place you have to fight for it.

You can't achieve anything in life without a small amount of sacrifice.

I prefer an ugly truth to a pretty lie. If someone is telling me the truth that is when I will give my heart.

There's no better makeup than self-confidence.

Scars remind me of just how far that I've come.

I am trying to make my accent so it won't bother anyone, but I am not going to drive myself crazy trying to pretend I am an American girl when I am from Colombia.

It doesn't matter if you are a musician, a business leader, a president or a student. We all have a responsibility to give back.

I can be like a lioness when defending my people.

The schools play an important role when it comes down to protecting children against violence.Violence is one of the principal reasons why children don't go to school. It's also one of the causes of the alarming school dropout rates.

Education affects every major challenge we face in society. It creates economic growth, paves the way for peace and stability and helps erase the legacy of marginalization.

Live your life to the fullest.

I always had the intuition, even as a little child, that I was called for a big project.

I feel a real sense of duty to use the voice and the platform I've been afforded by my fame to speak out for those whose voices don't get a chance to be heard.

Our leaders are lacking love, and love is lacking leaders.

The music teacher thought I sang like a goat. It was kind of devastating. A few months after that, I participated in a music contest and won. I took my little trophy to school and rubbed it in his nose. I said to him, "What do you say now?"

Breastfeeding has been one of the best experiences of my life. I love it! I can't stop! I think I'm going to breastfeed him until he goes to college! I'm hooked!

In the full light of day, I don't want to think about the sunset.

I've always thought of myself as a woman who works hard, believes in herself, and wants to accomplish as much as possible.

Writing in English was a major challenge. I didn't want other songwriters to write for me. I wanted to preserve the spirit of my songs in Spanish. I am the same Shakira in English as I am in Spanish.

Music has given a voice to many generations, and I think we, as artists, can be a part of creating a better world.

I love reading about history. Sometimes, I feel I was born in the wrong era. There was more creativity in the air when people were still discovering new worlds.

I started the Pies Descalzos foundation in Colombia when I was 18, and since then I have been very involved in the crusade for education.

I believe education is the key. As an activist and a child of the developing world, I witnessed education's power to transform lives.

I'm more afraid of marriage than death.

I think it's my energy and love of life that has been the real key to my fame and success.

You have to be very strong and tough-minded if you want to survive.

I want some day to be able to love with the same intensity and unselfishness that parents love their children with.

You collect impressions from people, from life, from your own daydreams.

It's not easy to work with me, I recognize that. It's not easy if those people aren't as perfectionistic as I am.

I'm a firm believer that education is the most efficient tool we have to make people aware and make our children aware, and to protect them from the scourge of the century, which is AIDS

I think a fragrance is all about sensations and imagery, and can evoke visions, feelings and thoughts.

I thank God that I'm a product of my parents, that they infected me with their intelligence and energy for life, with their thirst for knowledge and their love. I'm grateful that I know where I come from.

My team and I have reunited two elements that coexist with difficulty: respect and affection, because when they love you they don't respect you and when they respect you they don't love you.

The goal of my philanthropic work has always been to make sure that every child has a chance to live up to his or her potential. That means our work won't be done until every child has access to quality education from early childhood to adulthood.

My songs are the reflection of how I think and how I feel in that moment. But I'm conscious of the fact that artists have a responsibility before the masses and they have to take care with their words.

We know that many boys and girls leave school because of poverty, because they have to work. However, there are an important number of children who abandon their studies because of the abuses they're subject to by teachers and their own parents.

Walking gets too boring, when you learn how to fly.

My brain, I believe, is the most beautiful part of my body.

We have to promote human solidarity, avoid indifference, and play a part with society in the solution of the problem of violence.

I grew up in Barranquila, Colombia, and I spent most of my childhood dreaming about becoming a singer.

Europe is a very different place from my native country of Colombia and my children are growing up in a very urban setting which is nothing like when I was growing up and would be able to play barefoot in the street. But we have a very good life.

Nationalism is cured by traveling.

The worst mistake of a woman is to go to the kitchen, because then she never gets out of there.

For several years I worried a lot about protecting an image, but today, I have understood that the image cannot be preconceived.

I consider myself a laborer, building my career brick over brick under the sun.

A poor child who receives high-quality early childhood development is 40 percent less likely to need special education, twice as likely to attend college and dramatically more likely to survive childhood.

Obviously, our business leaders yield enormous influence on our political leaders, and they have a duty to use that influence for the greater good. But beyond that, the private sector depends on having healthy, educated and productive workers.

It doesn't bother me to talk about my private life, it doesn't bother me to talk about anything. My life is like a glass of water, transparent.

I'm not a trained dancer, but I grew up in a culture that revolves around dance.

I admire Madonna because she always did whatever she felt like doing. She went through some controversial periods when people rejected her, but she kept on reinventing herself.