Tupac Shakur might have been gone for 20 years, but his legend ultimately lives on. Commonly known as 2pac, he was not only a legendary rap and hip-hop artist but shared plenty of wisdom to inspire the coming generation.
With more than 75 million album sales, it’s clear he was well-loved by many. He remained fixed until the day of his death on creating communities and delivering his message of impact and individuality through his lyrics.
Here is the biggest list of Tupac quotes ever created:
1. No one knows my struggle, they only see the trouble. Not knowing how hard it is to carry on when no one loves you.
2. You gotta make a change. Its time for us as a people to start making some changes, let’s change the way we eat, let’s change the way we live, and let’s change the way we treat each other. You see the old way wasn’t working so it’s on us, to do what we gotta do to survive.
3. Things will never be the same, that’s just the way it is.
4. I want to grow. I want to be better. You Grow. We all grow. We’re made to grow.You either evolve or you disappear.
5. Adults complicate things and children don’t.
6. You can never “just be friends” with someone you fall in love with.
7. I don’t want to be a role model. I just want to be someone who says, this is who I am, this is what I do, I say what’s on my mind.
8. Behind every sweet smile, there is a bitter sadness that no one can ever see and feel.
9. I set goals, take control, drink out my own bottle. I make mistakes but learn from every one. And when it’s said and done. I bet this brother be a better one. If I upset you don’t stress. Never forget, that God isn’t finished with me yet.
10. Follow your heart, but take your brain with you.
11. Reality is wrong. Dreams are for real.
12. Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.
13. I don’t see myself being special; I just see myself having more responsibilities than the next man. People look to me to do things for them to have answers.
14. I worked hard all my life as far as this music business. I dreamed of the day when I could go to New York and feel comfortable and they could come out here and be comfortable.
15. I don’t have no fear of death. My only fear is coming back reincarnated.
16. Always falling too deep in a relationship, always end up being the one that’s hurt the most.
17. There’s no way I could pay you back but my plan is to show you that I understand, you are appreciated.
18. Whatever it takes to switch places with the bustas on top.
19. I feel like role models today are not meant to be put on a pedestal. But more like angels with broken wings.
20. Don’t get confused between my personality and my attitude. My personality is who I am, my attitude depends on who you are.
21. You can spend minutes, hours, days, weeks, or even months over-analyzing a situation; trying to put the pieces together, justifying what could’ve, would’ve happened… or you can just leave the pieces on the floor and move the fuck on.
22. We can never go nowhere unless we share with each other.
23. Some say the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice I say the darker the flesh then the deeper the roots.
24. You just can’t be calling us fakers and pretenders and non-creative and say we can’t freestyle.
25. It’s the game of life. Do I win or do I lose? One day they’re gonna shut the game down. I gotta have as much fun and go around the board as many times as I can before it’s my turn to leave.
26. The same crime element that white people are scared of black people are scared of. While they waiting for legislation to pass, we next door to the killer. All them killers they let out, they’re in that building. Just because we black, we get along with the killers? What is that?
27. Don’t change on me. Don’t extort me unless you intend to do it forever.
28. Never surrender, it’s all about the faith you got; don’t ever stop, just push it ‘till you hit the top and if you drop, at least you know you gave your all to be true to you, that way you can never fail.
29. I am a society’s child. This is how they made me and now I’m sayin’ what’s on my mind and they don’t want that. This is what you made me, America.
30. I heard a rumor I died Murdered in cold blood dramatized Pictures of me in my final state You know mama cried But that was fiction Some coward got the story twisted Like I no longer existed Mysteriously missin’ I’m known worldwide baby I ain’t hard to find.
31. Learn to see me as a brother instead of two distant strangers.
32. No matter who committed the crime, they all yell at me. And the media is greedier than most. You could sell ‘em your soul and they’ll be on ya till a nigga’s a ghost.
33. Forgive but don’t forget, girl keep your head up. And when he tells you you ain’t nothing, don’t believe him. And if he can’t learn to love you, you should leave him.
34. They got money for the war but can’t feed the poor.
35. When I was alone, and had nothing I asked for a friend to help me bear the pain No one came, except God When I needed a breath to rise, from my sleep No one could help me.. except God When all I saw was sadness, and I needed answers No one heard me, except God So when I’m asked.. who I give my unconditional love to? I look for no other name, except God.
36. It takes skill to be real, time to heal each other.
37. Out of anger comes controversy, out of controversy comes conversation, out of conversation comes action.
38. Our future is our confidence and self-esteem.
39. Where there is a will, there is a will to search and discover a better day. Where a positive heart is all you need to rise beyond and succeed. Where young minds grow and respect each other based on their deeds and not their color. When times are dim, say as I say, “Where there’s a will there’s a way!
40. I’m doing this for the kid who truly leads a ‘thug life’ and thinks it’s HOPELESS.
41. I came to California to escape the violence, to escape New York.
42. I know it seems hard sometimes but remember one thing. Through every dark night, there’s a bright day after that. So no matter how hard it get, stick your chest out, keep ya head up…. and handle it.
43. It’s a struggle for every young Black man. You know how it is, only God can judge us.
44. Sometimes I sit and look at life from a different angle.
45. I feel like Black Jesus got his hands on me and guides me through life to put me where I’m supposed to be.
46. I believe that everything that you do bad comes back to you. So everything that I do that’s bad, I’m going to suffer from it. But in my mind, I believe what I’m doing is right. So I feel like I’m going to heaven.
47. I started seeing my situation and what got me here. Even though I’m innocent of the charge they gave me, I’m not innocent in terms of the way I was acting.
48. For a woman it ain’t easy tryin’ to raise a man.
49. just don’t know how to deal with so many people giving me that much affection. I never had that in my life.
50. Everybody’s at war with different things. I’m at war with my own heart sometimes.
51. Start making changes. Let’s change the way we eat, let’s change the way we live, and let’s change the way we treat each other.
52. Sometimes life can be a heavy load.
53. Hip Hop was supposed to be this new thing that had no boundaries and was so different to everyday music. As long as it has soul to it, hip hop can live on.
54. In my mind, I’ll be thinking is this true, will I fail? Am I supposed to fail? Should I just stop trying and give up? But then, that’s exactly what they’re waiting for me to do.
55. If somebody else blows up and I fade out that’s just how it’s supposed to be, that’s fate.
56. My life was lived through falling rain, so call on me if there be pain.
57. There’s gonna be some stuff you gonna see that’s gonna make it hard to smile in the future, but through whatever you see, through all the rain and the pain you gotta keep your sense of humor. You gotta be able to smile through all this bullshit…remember that.
58. If we really are saying that rap is an art form, then we got to be more responsible for our lyrics. If you see everybody dying because of what you are saying, it don’t matter that you didn’t make them die. It just matters that you didn’t save them.
59. If you can make it through the night, there’s a brighter day.
60. I’m not perfect. But I’ll always be real.
61. If we’re all saying that rap is an art form then we gotta be more responsible for our lyrics. If you see everybody dying because of what you’re saying, it don’t matter that you didn’t make them die, it just matters that you didn’t save them.
62. I shall not fear man but God, though I walk through the valley of death.
63. In my death, people will understand what I was talking about.
64. I want to learn from my mistakes.
65. Always do your best, don’t let the pressure make you panic.
66. America wants its respect.
67. There’s no way I can pay you back, but the plan Is to show you that I understand: you are appreciated.
68. If you let a person talk long enough, you’ll hear their true intentions.
69. To me, I am the hardest Nigga out there cause I am real I cry when I need to but I am real.
70. I got a big mouth, I can’t help it. I talk from my heart, I’m real.
71. To all the seeds that follow me protect your essence, Born with less, but you still precious.
72. I’m dealing with a more military type of philosophy – to mix the street life with respected, known and proven military philosophy.
73. Be grateful for blessings.
74. I didn’t choose the thug life, the thug life chose me.
75. I have no fear. I have no mothafuckin fear. I have only ambition. I want mine, and I will do anything to feed and protect my family.
76. Don’t live to fight, fight to live.
77. During your life, never stop dreaming. No one can take away your dreams.
78. Then, going to trial, I started seeing the black women that were helping me. Now I’ve got a brand-new vision of them because in here, it’s mostly black female guards. They don’t give me no extra favors, but they treat me with human respect.
79. Stop killing each other – let’s just smoke a blunt.
80. In life there are going to be some things that make it hard to smile. Through all the rain and pain you got to keep your sense of humor and smile for me now. Remember that.
81. Can’t close my eyes cause all I see is terror. I hate the man in the mirror cause his reflection makes the pain turn realer.
82. On a whole, I don’t have any friends. Friends come and go; I’ve lost my trust factor.
83. I think being humble is sexy.
84. Everybody that said I wasn’t nothing… my whole goal is to just make them ashamed that they wrote me off like that.
85. There’s nobody in the business strong enough to scare me.
86. In my mind I’m a blind man doin’ time.
87. The seed must grow regardless of the fact that it’s planted in stone.
88. What we really want to do is get the pride back in the black community. I feel like if you can’t respect yourself, then you can’t respect to race, and then you can’t respect another’s race.
89. The realest people don’t have a lot of friends.
90. Everything wasn’t meant to be analyzed.
91. I’m just as guilty for not doing nothing as I am for doing things. Not with this case, but just in my life. I had a job to do and I never showed up. I was so scared of this responsibility that I was running away from it.
92. Behind every sweet smile, there is a bitter sadness that no one can see and feel.
93. If you saying you going to be real, that’s how you be real-be physically fit, be mentally fit.
94. I’m going to show people my true intentions, and my true heart. I’m going to show them the man that my mother raised. I’m going to make them all proud.
95. I’m not a gangsta rapper. I rap about things that happen to me.
96. I was the total opposite of what I am now. I was quiet, withdrawn, I read a lot, I wrote poetry.
97. If there was no money and our wealth was based on our morals and how we treated people, we’d all be millionaires.
98. The only thing that can kill me is death, that’s the only thing that can ever stop me, is death, and even then my music will live forever.
99. They will let you go as far as you want, but as soon as you’re starting to ask too many questions and you’re ready to change, the block will come.
100. Did you ever stop to think that I’m old enough to go to war but I ain’t old enough to drink?
101. Look at civilization, look at how we grew. We need to learn from our mistakes.
102. I think that rich people should live like poor people and poor people should live like rich people. And they should change every week. And we will have the best round of people.
103. My mother had a really bad childhood, and my father had a bad childhood, and I had a bad childhood, but I love my childhood, even though it was bad, I love it. I feel like it’s taught me so much. And I feel like nothing can faze me, you know nothing in this world, nothing can surprise me, it might set me back, but only momentarily, only to spring back.
104. This is supposed to be a melting pot but no one this learning from the others’ mistakes. And that’s weird. If we were all open, we would learn.
105. When you do rap albums, you got to train yourself. You got to constantly be in character.
106. Just because you lost me as a friend doesn’t mean you gained me as an enemy. I’m bigger than that , I still wanna see you eat , just not at my table.
107. I live in hell. I have no friends. I never sleep. I can never close my eyes. Can you imagine what it’s like to be who I am?
108. Is it a crime to fight for what is mine?
109. No matter what these people say about me, my music does not glorify any image, my music is spiritual if you listen to it. It’s all about emotion, it’s all about life.
110. America is the biggest gang in the world.
111. We was young and we was dumb, but we had heart.
112. Hate to sound sleazy, but tease me, I don’t want it if that easy.
113. A woman brought you into this world, so you have no right to disrespect one.
114. I know it seems hard sometimes but remember one thing. Through every dark night, there’s a bright day after that. So no matter how hard it gets, stick your chest out, keep ya head up… and handle it.
115. Even warriors put their spears down on Sundays.
116. I would rather have been shot straight-up in cold blood-but to be set up? By people who you trusted? That’s bad.
117. Don’t leave this world without giving it your all.
118. Somebody help me, tell me where to go from here cause even thugs cry, but do the Lord care?
119. Do everything you can to make it around the system, over the system, or out the system.
120. The only thing that comes to a sleeping man is dreams.
121. Life is a wheel of fortune and it’s my turn to spin it.
122. No one knows my struggle they only see the trouble.
123. Everything in life is not all beautiful, not all fun. There is lots of killing and drugs. To me, a perfect album talks about the hard stuff and the fun and caring stuff.
124. You’re right. I am crazy. But you know what else? I don’t give a fuck.
125. All I’m trying to do is survive and make good out of the dirty, nasty, unbelievable lifestyle that they gave me.
126. I’ll probably be punished for hard living.
127. A coward dies a thousand times, a soldier dies but once.
128. If God wanted me to be quiet he would’ve never showed me what he does.
129. The fake get in where they fit in, the real stand strong where they belong.
130. My mama always used to tell me: ‘If you can’t find somethin’ to live for, you best find somethin’ to die for.'
131. It don’t stop ’til the casket drop.
132. Whatever you see you gotta keep a sense of humor; you gotta be able to smile through all the bullshit.
133. We was young and we was dumb but we had heart.
134. Cause I think we can make it, in fact, I’m sure. And if you fall, stand tall and come back for more.
135. So no matter how hard it gets, stick your chest out, keep ya head up…. and handle it.
136. He was so polite and nice. He was counter to his persona.
137. I am not a perfectionist, but still I seek perfection. I am not a great romantic, but yet I yearn for affection.
138. We all gonna die, we bleed from similar veins.
139. Every day, I’m standing outside trying to sing my way in: We are hungry, please let us in, we are hungry, please let us in. After about a week that song is gonna change to: We hungry, we need some food. After two, three weeks, it’s like: Give me the food or I’m breaking down the door. After a year you’re just like: I’m picking the lock. Coming through the door blasting.
140. They have money for war but can’t feed the poor.
141. That which does not kill me can only make me stronger. I don’t see why everybody feel as though that they gotta tell me how to live my life.
142. Forgive but don’t forget, girl keep your head up and when he tells you You ain’t nothing, don’t believe him.
143. Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside while still alive. Never surrender.
144. Long live the rose that grew from concrete when no one else even cared.
145. Many dreams are what we had and plenty wishes.
146. Tupac was a revolutionary, and being a revolutionary takes more than shooting pistols and getting tattoos.
147. Every time I speak I want the truth to come out. Every time I speak I want a shiver. I don’t want them to be like they know what I’m gonna say because it’s polite.
148. Is it a crime, to fight, for what is mine?
149. I did not wanted to become the victim, so became the bully.
150. Unconditional love. Talking ‘bout the stuff that don’t wear off, it don’t fade. It’ll last for all these crazy days, these crazy nights. Whether you wrong or you right, I’ma still love you, still feel you, still there for you. No matter what, you will always be in my heart with unconditional love.
151. I’m not saying I’m gonna change the world, but I guarantee that I will spark the brain that will change the world.
152. Every time I fall in love with a woman, I don’t fall in love with the woman she is, I fall in love with the woman she could be.
153. You see you wouldn’t ask why the rose that grew from the concrete had damaged petals. On the contrary, we would all celebrate its tenacity. We would all love it’s will to reach the sun. Well, we are the rose – this is the concrete – and these are my damaged petals. Don’t ask me why, thank God n*, ask me how!
154. You never know how strong you can be until being strong is the only choice you have left.
155. This fast life soon shatters, cause after all the lights and screams, nothing but my dreams matter.
156. I know what good morals are, but you’re supposed to disregard good morals when you’re living in a crazy, bad world. If you’re in hell, how can you live like an angel? You’re surrounded by devils,trying to be an angel? That’s like suicide.
157. Everytime I speak, I want the truth to come out. Everytime I speak I want a shiver.
158. Ain’t a woman alive that could take my mama’s place.
159. I’m not trying to make people think I’m in here faking it, but my whole life is going to be about saving somebody.
160. I just spent 11 and a half months in a maximum-security jail, got shot five times, and was wrongly convicted of a crime I didn’t commit.
161. If you are lost in your worldliness and you have a guide, then it’s not like being lost, it’s like learning new things as you go through.
162. One thing we all adore, something worth dying for, nothing but pain, stuck in this game, searchin’ for fortune and fame.
163. The excuse maker in Tupac is dead. The vengeful Tupac is dead. The Tupac that would stand by and let dishonorable things happen is dead. God let me live for me to do something extremely extraordinary, and that’s what I have to do.
164. I am a hard person to love but when I love, I love really hard.
165. The evil forces are going to be at me. They’re going to come 100 percent, so if I don’t be 100 percent pure-hearted, I’m going to lose.
166. That’s how knowledge works, it’s contagious.
167. As long as the music has the true to the heart soul it can be hip hop. As long it has soul to it, hip hop can live on.
168. What I want to do is form a society in which we can raise ourselves; so we can become our own father figures and the big homies can become their father figures and then you grow up then it’s your turn to be a father figure to another young brother. That’s where I want to start.
169. I feel like role models today are not meant to be put on a pedestal. But more like angels with broken wings.
170. We probably in hell already, our dumb asses not knowin’, everybody kissin’ ass to go to heaven ain’t goin’
171. Tomorrow I wake with second wind and strong because of pride. I know I fought with all my heart to keep the dream alive.
172. If they take half the buildings that they use to praise God and give it to the motherfuckers who need God we’d be ‘aight.
173. The only time I have problems is when I sleep.
174. I was given the responsibility before I wanted it. And now, I can’t really differentiate what great responsibility is, because I’ve had it for so long.
175. And I want n* to be educated. You know, I was steering people away from school. You gotta be in school, because through school you can get a job. And if you got a job, then that’s how they can’t do us like this.
176. For every dark night, there’s a brighter day.
177. Watch for phonies, keep your enemies close, watch your homies.
178. I love my childhood but I hated growing up poor. It made me very bitter.
179. Since my mother had a bad childhood, she knows the importance of being honest, and the importance of facing each situation as it comes, and not dealing in a fairy tale land, be realistic about the problem, and analyzing it and solve it, see what you can do to solve it.
180. Just cause you live in the ghetto doesn’t mean you can’t grow.
181. Since we all came from a woman, got our name from a woman, and our game from a woman. I wonder why we take from women, why we rape our women, do we hate our women? I think its time we killed for our women, be real to our women, try to heal our women, cus if we don’t we’ll have a race of babies that will hate the ladies, who make the babies. And since a man can’t make one he has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one.
182. Imperfection is inherited, therefore we all sin, but fighting the war of sin is the greatest war of all because we all die in the end, no matter how hard we fight.
183. know death follows me, but I murder him first.
184. I believe that everything you do bad comes back to you. So everything that I do that’s bad, I’m gonna suffer for it. But in my heart, I believe what I’m doing is right. So I feel like I’m going to heaven.
185. That’s what I’m going to do as an artist, as a rapper. I’m gonna show the most graphic details of what I see in my community and hopefully, they’ll stop it quick.
186. Don’t believe everything you hear: Real eyes, Realize, Real lies.
187. My legacy will leave a mark on the world and I shall never be forgotten for my good, bad, and ugly deeds.
188. When I was a little baby, I remember that one moment of calm-peace, and 3 minutes after that, it was on.
189. At the time I made ‘Keep ya head up,’ nobody had no songs about black women.
190. Until it happened, I really did believe that no Black person would ever shoot me. I believed that I didn’t have to fear my own community, You know, I was like I represent them. I’m their ambassador to the world, they will never do me wrong.
191. Birds and bees and everything wasn’t meant to be analyzed. And that’s where problems came, I think, and that’s where I think kids are happier, kids are definitely happier and more relaxed than adults.
192. Imperfection is inherited, therefore we all sin, but fighting the war of sin is the greatest war of all because we all die in the end, no matter how hard we fight.
193. If you have a happy childhood, you tend to – want your child to have a happy childhood, so you tend to want to keep the bad things out, and I don’t think that’s good, because you don’t prepare for the world.
194. I think the youth should raise themselves since they got lofty ideas about what’s theirs and their rights, what they should deserve.
195. I’m not saying girls are perfect cause we all know that’s not true. But why be unfaithful to her if she was true to you?
196. I don’t understand how people can stand next to you one year, and next year, they cannot. They’re going crazy, screaming. They can’t take it that you’re there. But last year I was in the same club, walking around, lonely like a motherfucker. Couldn’t get a date or a dance. I was too skinny, too something, and now, ‘He’s just adorable. He’s just, oh!
197. Don’t believe everything you hear: Real eyes, Realize, Real lies.
198. Let the Lord judge the criminals.
199. If I was white, I would be like John Wayne. I feel like a tragic hero in a Shakespeare play. Somebody who pulled himself up by his bootstraps, from poverty.
200. I hate the man in the mirror ’cause his reflection makes the pain turn realer.
201. Adults should go to school again.
202. I think I’m a natural-born leader. I know how to bow down to authority if it’s authority that I respect.
203. I’m done talking since you’re not listening, continue to hang out with them nothing ass bitches, then!
204. What people do for the struggle of power is madness.
205. I’m 23 years old. I might just be my mother’s child, but in all reality, I’m everybody’s child. Nobody raised me; I was raised in this society.
206. Pay no mind to those who talk behind your back, it simply means that you are 2 steps ahead.
207. My change is going to make a change through the community. And through that, they gonna see what type of person I truly was. Where my heart was. This Thug Life stuff, it was just ignorance. My intention was always in the right place.
208. I said, I’m gonna write a song about the women like my mom, women like my sister, who I think represent the strong black women, and I did that. Now I’mma write about the women I see everyday and that was ‘[I] Get Around.’ If I just write songs like ‘Keep Ya Head Up’ it would make me seem more than what I am, but I’m just a normal man.
209. The world moves fast and it would rather pass by than to stop and see what makes you cry.
210. No matter what these people say about me, my music doesn’t glorify any image. My music is spiritual when you listen to it. It’s all about emotion, I tell my innermost, darkest secrets.
211. One day I’m gonna bust, blow up on this society. Why did you lie to me? I couldn’t find a trace of equality.
212. If we really are saying rap is an art form, then we got to be more responsible for our lyrics. If you see everybody dying because of what you saying, it don’t matter that you didn’t make them die, it just matters that you didn’t save them.
213. I would rather be stricken blind, than to live without expression of mind.
214. I have not brought violence to you. I have not brought ‘thug life’ to America. I didn’t create ‘thug life;’ I diagnosed it.
215. Fear is stronger than love, remember that. Fear is stronger than love. All that love I gave didn’t mean nothing when it came to fear.
216. Of course I’m going to say “I’m a thug,” that’s because I came from the gutter and I’m still here!
217. You know nothing can stop me but loss of breath and I’m still breathing so it’s still on.
218. Hip Hop when it started it was supposed to be this new thing that had no boundaries and was so different to everyday music. Now it seems like I was starting to get caught up in the mode of what made hip hop come about. As long as the music has the true to the heart soul it can be hip hop. As long it has soul to it, hip hop can live on.
219. As wars come and go, my soldier stays eternal.
220. What I learned in jail is that I can’t change. I can’t live a different lifestyle – this is it. This is the life that they gave and this is the life that I made.
221. I’ve been shot five times but I’m still breathing, living proof there a God if you need a reason.
222. People die but legends live forever.
223. With all my fans I got a family again.
224. I mean why have 52 rooms and you know there’s somebody with no room? It just don’t make sense to me.
225. It seems like every time you come up something happens to bring you back down.
226. I’m a reflection of the community
227. I’d rather die like a man, than live like a coward.