Although his name may be surrounded in controversy at any given moment, Kanye West continues to be one of the most respected and highest earning rapper-turned-entrepreneurs of the 21st century. Coming from The South Side of Chicago; Kanye has had to hustle and aim high to achieve his level of success. He’s sold over 160 million records, won 22 Grammy awards, and as of 2022, is one of the wealthiest musicians in the world. 

Despite his ego and public outbursts; Kayne has learned a lot from his journey to greatness.

Here are 68 of Kanye West‘s Most Memorable Quotes:

1. “We all self-conscious.  I’m just the first to admit it.” – Kanye West

2. “My greatest pain in life is that I will never be able to see myself perform life.” – Kanye West

3. “Nothing in life is promised except death.” – Kanye West

4. “I still think I am the greatest.” – Kanye West

5. “I’ll say things that are serious and put them in a joke form so people can enjoy them. We laugh to keep from crying.” – Kanye West

6. “Keep your nose out the sky, keep your heart to god, and keep your face to the rising sun.” – Kanye West

7. “I care. I care about everything. Sometimes not giving a f#%k is caring the most.” – Kanye West

8. “My greatest award is what I’m about to do.” – Kanye West

9. “Our work is never over.” – Kanye West

10. “Recognize and embrace your flaws so you can learn from them. Sometimes it takes a little polishing to truly shine.” – Kanye West

11. “Believe in your flyness…conquer your shyness.” – Kanye West

12. “I feel like I’m too busy writing history to read it.” – Kanye West

13. “If you have the opportunity to play this game of life you need to appreciate every moment.  A lot of people don’t appreciate the moment until it’s passed.” – Kanye West

14. “People always say that you can’t please everybody. I think that’s a cop-out. Why not attempt it? ‘Cause think of all the people that you will please if you try.” – Kanye West

15. “People say I have a bad reputation. I think I’ve got the best reputation in the building.” – Kanye West

16. “I’m on the pursuit of awesomeness, excellence is the bare minimum.” – Kanye West

17. “I feel that I’m very blessed. But with great blessings come great responsibility.” – Kanye West

18. “Living well eliminates the need for revenge.” – Kanye West

19. “If I don’t scream, if I don’t say something then no one’s going to say anything.” – Kanye West

20. “Why are people so afraid of creative ideas and so scared of truth? All I want to do is do good.” – Kanye West

21. “I’m not comfortable with comfort. I’m only comfortable when I’m in a place where I’m constantly learning and growing.” – Kanye West

22. “One of my biggest Achilles heels has been my ego. And if I, Kanye West, can remove my ego, I think there’s hope for everyone.” – Kanye West

23. “I always feel like I can do anything. That’s the main thing people are controlled by: thoughts and perceptions of yourself…If you’re taught you can’t do anything, you won’t do anything.” – Kanye West

24. “People always tell you ‘Be humble. Be humble.’ When was the last time someone told you to be amazing? Be great! Be awesome! Be awesome!” ” – Kanye West

25. “Justice could just be clearing a path for people to dream properly.” – Kanye West

26. “Creative output, you know, is just pain. I’m going to be cliche for a minute and say that great art comes from pain.” – Kanye West

27. “For me giving up is way harder than trying.” – Kanye West

28. “Most people are slowed down by the perception of themselves. If you’re taught you can’t do anything, you won’t do anything. I was taught I can do everything.” – Kanye West

29. “I want people to feel like it’s okay to create. It’s okay to not be boxed in. I want people to feel like awesome is possible.” – Kanye West

30. “I’m pretty calculating. I take stuff that I know appeals to people’s bad sides and match it up with stuff that appeals to their good sides.” – Kanye West

31. “I was never really good at anything except for the ability to learn.” – Kanye West

32. “I refuse to accept other people’s ideas of happiness for me. As if there’s a ‘one size fits all’ standard for happiness.” – Kanye West

33. “People will have a problem with whatever you do. At the end of the day, nobody can determine what you need to do in order to be successful and why would you listen to someone who is not successful tell you what you need to do?” – Kanye West

34. “When you’re the absolute best, you get hated on the most.” – Kanye West

35. “People never change. They just become better at hiding who they really are.” – Kanye West

36. “Nobody can tell me where I can and can’t go.” – Kanye West

37. “They say people in your life are seasons and anything that happens is for a reason.” – Kanye West

38. “Memories have to be our most painful blessing.” – Kanye West

39. “I think I do myself a disservice by comparing myself to Steve Jobs and Walt Disney and human beings that we’ve seen before. It should be more like Willy Wonka…and welcome to my chocolate factory.” – Kanye West

40. “You can’t look at a glass half full or empty if it’s overflowing.” – Kanye West

41. “I want the world to be better! All I want is positive! All I want is dopeness!” – Kanye West

42. “Know your worth! People always act like they’re doing more for you than you’re doing for them.” – Kanye West

43. “Would you believe in what you believe in if you were the only one who believed it?” – Kanye West

44. “You’ve got to be really dialled into exactly who you are to the one hundredth power of you’re just like everyone else.” – Kanye West

45. “Criticism can bother you, but you should be more bothered if there’s no criticism. That means you’re too safe.” – Kanye West

46. “If you have the opportunity to play this game called life, you have to appreciate every moment.” – Kanye West

47. “My goal, if I was going to do art, fine art, would have been to become Picasso or greater. That always sounds so funny to people, comparing yourself to someone in the past that has done so much, and in your life you’re not even allowed to think that you can do as much. That’s a mentality that suppresses humanity.”– Kanye West

48. “If you put your heart into something and you had a grasp of what was really good and you knew you delivered a good product, you have the right to defend your product after people criticize it.”– Kanye West

49. “For me, first of all, dopeness is what I like the most. Dopeness. People who want to make things as dope as possible, and, by default, make money from it.”– Kanye West

50. “I am God’s vessel. But my greatest pain in life is that I will never be able to see myself perform live.”– Kanye West

51. “I paid a million! It took a month to film! I stood on a mountain! I flew a helicopter over Vegas! I did it to be the king of all videos!”– Kanye West

52. “I hate when someone comes and works with me for a couple weeks or two months, and then they try to tell people they’ve worked with Kanye West. You haven’t worked with Kanye West unless you’ve had to redo a project 100 times, or had to word something in a specific, perfect way, to communicate it in the exact.”– Kanye West

53. “I’m way nicer to people in general…but when people start playing games, I stop… Any moment, I hit that ‘Ye button. Right back to day 1.”– Kanye West

54. “Similar to Tesla, I’m about lighting the world up.”– Kanye West

55. “The idea of Kanye and vanity are like, synonymous. But I’ve put myself in a lot of places where a vain person wouldn’t put themselves in. Like what’s vanity about wearing a kilt?”– Kanye West

56. “Everyone’s always telling you to be humble. When was the last time someone told you to be great?”– Kanye West

57. “‘Jesus Walks’ is a trick. They told me it would never be played on a radio, so the second verse is reverse psychology for program directors.”– Kanye West

58. “I don’t think people are going to talk in the future. They’re going to communicate through eye contact, body language, emojis, signs. Imagine that. If everyone was forced to learn sign language.”– Kanye West

59. “My doorman is more important to me than the head of any company…He keeps me safe…My driver keeps me safe…He’s more important than anyone who walks in that house and grabs a glass of champagne.”– Kanye West

60. “I think people think that I pander to fashion…But I believe that the world can only be saved through design…Art is to be free. Design is to fix.”– Kanye West

61. “It was heartbreaking for me to have to leave Nike, but they refused to allow me to get royalty on my shoe. And I knew I had the hottest shoe in the world. I knew Yeezy was the hottest brand in the world.”– Kanye West

62. “I refuse to negotiate. I do not negotiate. I can collaborate. But I’m an artist, so as soon as you negotiate, you’re being compromised.”– Kanye West

63. “That’s my skill. I’m not really specifically talented at anything except for the ability to learn. That’s what I do. That’s what I’m here for.”– Kanye West

64. “If you’re an artist and you’re signed to a major label, you want to be on the radio, especially if you’re popular, if you’re one of the most famous people on the planet and people love your music.”– Kanye West

65. “Sometimes I push the door close button on people running towards the elevator. I just need my own elevator sometimes, my 7 floor sanctuary.”– Kanye West

66. “It’s a tough world out there. You’re going to prepare yourself for politics, bad bosses, hating employees, and usually when you’re the absolute best, you get hated on the most.”– Kanye West

67. “I’ve been connected to the most culturally important albums of the past four years, the most influential artists of the past ten years.”– Kanye West

68. “My definition of genius is not being that person the actual human is a genius, but it’s a person that just allows God to work through them.”– Kanye West

What do you think of Kanye West? Which Kanye West quote resonated with you the most? Comment below!