These 110 Nas quotes will give you the determination you need to power through life’s obstacles and reach your dreams!
Like other rappers, Nas won the hearts of the youth by opening their eyes and allowing them to express their feelings. The lyrics and messages of his rap are very relatable, and so many people become fans and are always looking forward to his next best piece.
Nas’ music career began in 1991, and he released his greatest hip hop album of all time, Illmatic, in 1994. We’re sure you’ll learn a lot from his wise words!
Check out the complete list below to learn more about his journey and how he achieved his life goals.
Start reading here.
And don’t miss out these Jay-Z quotes and Tupac quotes.
Best Nas Quotes
1. “Working with great people makes you great; you learn a lot and it also gives you the experience and confidence to move on with your own career.”
2. “Your look reflects what’s happening in your mind.”
3. “No idea is original, there’s nothing new under the sun, it’s never what you do, but how it’s done.”
4. “You have to keep your vision clear, ‘cause only a coward lives in fear.”
5. “If you are scared to take chances, you’ll never have the answers. I could tell the future of a dude by how his stance is.”
6. “People fear what they don’t understand, hate what they can’t conquer. Guess it’s just the theory of man.”
7. “There was nothing more important to me than having a voice. I wanted to make a big impact on this art form, I wanted to kick everybody out. I wanted to open up a doorway for another generation.”
8. “Don’t ever give up on yourself. Keep pushing because the change of guards is what life’s all about.”
9. “Everything will eventually come to an end, so try to savor the moment, ‘cause time flies, don’t it? The beauty of life, you gotta make it last for the better, ‘cause nothin’ lasts forever.”
10. “I want to have fun. It’s a beautiful life. You learn, you win, you lose, but you get up.”
11. “Failure is not an option, and I always felt like I’m a man who doesn’t have regrets, and I don’t live with excuses. I can’t take excuses.”
12. “The whole thing is, do as much as you can, when you possibly can, and don’t stress.”
13. “You can’t please everybody. You’d be crazy if you’re trying to. So take some time out to do some things for yourself.”
14. “Anybody can be a rapper, but not anybody can be a classical artist.”
15. “I want to hear the artist. I want to hear them give me something that I can relate to, other than the fact that everything’s about bragging.”
Famous Nas Quotes
16. “My weapon of choice is my voice.”
17. “The greatest sin is fear and giving up.”
18. “Let the music diffuse all the tension.”
19. “Trust your own judgment, live with it, and love it.”
20. “The flaws, the mistakes I make—that’s the real me.”
21. “I’m never gonna die, never heard of death, energy can never be destroyed only the flesh.”
22. “I never sleep, ‘cause sleep is the cousin of death.”
23. “Don’t speak to fools, they scorn the wisdom of your words.”
24. “If the truth is told, the youth can grow.”
25. “You only have one first chance to make one first impression that lasts a lifetime.”
26. “I love the art world, I love art galleries, I love what it means—I love art.”
27. “Some seek fame ‘cause they need validation, some say hating is confused admiration.”
28. “Whenever I received too much praise, It just didn’t feel right to me.”
29. “I can’t control what people think. They know who I am.”
30. “Act your age don’t pretend to be older than you are give yourself time to grow.”
Also read: Eminem Quotes
Inspirational Nas Quotes to Help You Reach Your Goals
31. “I promise you, if you have a plan, you can accomplish everything you ever wanted.”
32. “No matter where you’re from—you can be Native American, Italian, Jewish, Latino, African-American—whatever you are, we’re all distant relatives.”
33. “Speak what I want, I don’t care what y’all feel. ‘Cause I’m my own master, my pop told me to be your own boss. Keep integrity at every cost.”
34. “I know I can be what I wanna be, if I work hard at it, I’ll be where I wanna be.”
35. “I’m capable of anything, my imagination can give me wings.”
36. “If you’re given an opportunity and you’re lucky enough to have the freedom to do what you want to do in your career, why trap yourself, why do something that’s not you.”
37. “Every time I get in the studio, I feel like I wanna have some fun. My fun is not doing the easy work. My fun is doing what’s me.”
38. “Some people say I’m conscious, some say I’m a gangsta rapper—it’s just me doing me. I’m stomping in my own lane. I’m doing what I do.”
39. “Do your body right and it loves you back. You only get one life, and yo because of that I’m still blazin’, goin’ out for the cause.”
40. “Look way deep inside yourself. Discover the diamond inside, find ya wealth. Once you get it, you gotta live it to the limit.”
41. “My success symbolizes loyalty, great friends, dedication, hard work, and routine builds character in a world full of snakes, rats, and scavengers.”
42. “I’ll always love rap, no matter what’s going on.”
Also read: Drake Quotes, Lil Wayne Quotes
Nas Quotes About Love and Relationships
43. “A thug changes, and love changes, And best friends become strangers.”
44. “Divorce can be crazy. Man, if you’re happy, love is a beast, man. Hold on. Be prepared for any way it may go, and be honest.”
45. “So many affluent men are faced with finding love problems. I’m sure beautiful, affluent women are faced with the same things sometimes.”
Insightful Nas Quotes That’ll Teach You About Life
46. “Life’s a b*tch and then you die. That’s why we get high—‘cause you never know when you’re gonna go.”
47. “Beyond the walls of intelligence, life is defined.”
48. “I know you think my life is good ’cause my diamond piece. But my life has been good since I started finding peace.”
49. “Life is short is what some n*ggas said, ‘Not if you measure life by how one lives and what he did.’”
50. “I just enjoy life now. I just enjoy every morning I get to wake up.”
51. “I’m sure we’re gonna meet some bumps in the road, but if it’s meant to be it will happen.”
52. “Life Is Good’ represents the most beautiful, dramatic, and heavy moments in my life.”
53. “People afraid of criticism but I always put myself in a sacrificial position, they been know I ain’t just rappin’ for fame.”
54. “Born alone, die alone, no crew to keep my crown or throne.”
55. “I never brag, how I keep it, ‘cause that’s the best secret.”
56. “The hardest thing is to forgive, but God does, even if you murdered or robbed—yeah, it’s wrong, but God loves, take one step toward him he’ll take two toward you, even when all else fails, God’ll support you.”
Also read: J. Cole Quotes
Short but Meaningful Nas Quotes
57. “I learn from failures.”
58. “Mistakes make masterful teachers.”
59. “With age comes common sense and wisdom.”
60. “The further I get, the further I want to go.”
61. “How can you lose when you’re doing you?”
62. “Who’s world is this? The world is yours.”
63. “I do what I can do when I can do it.”
64. “Respect all fear none my pride is everything.”
65. “Feel how I feel when I feel what I’m feeling.”
66. “My duration is infinite—money-wise or physiology.”
Interesting Nas Quotes About Women
67. “You lose money chasing women, never lose women chasing money.”
68. “When you’re a teenager, you want to meet a lot of girls—you want to get the most girls. You don’t know anything about respect; you don’t know anything about being faithful and loyal to your girlfriend.”
69. “All fatherhood is very important because single mothers shouldn’t have to raise sons or daughters; they need that help.”
70. “I got the opportunity to meet people all over the world. Brilliant women, tall women, short women, slim women, thick women, you name it. But, I don’t meet them. I have the opportunities to and it’s a little bit—I’m a little shy, so I don’t meet them and I don’t know who’s right for me.”
Motivational Nas Quotes to Help You Succeed Despite Life’s Obstacles
71. “You’ve always got to stick with whatever you’re into because your day is going to come. Your day is destined. If you walk away from that, whether it be from fear or whether you’re just giving up.”
72. “No one’s promised anything. You could have the biggest record on the radio and sell no records.”
73. “Live how I live, it’s only ‘cause I been through it.”
74. “No temporary chaos is worth your sanity.”
75. “Once you make it to your point of making it, you’ll appreciate the struggle.”
76. “Turnin’ nothin’ into somethin’ is God work, and you get nothin’ without struggle and hard work.”
77. “I’m inspired by people like Nelson Mandela. Can you imagine—you know how racist America was back then—imagine how racism was in South Africa when he had to stand up and say what he had to say. That’s bravery beyond comprehension. Then to survive in prison and to come home and be so resilient, he’s a role model in many ways. His eyes tell a story of glory.”
78. “I don’t have any regrets. The things that I have said when I was young and curious about whatever the subject matter was, I respect those—those are growing pains. Even if you make mistakes, I go back to those things, my not-so-great moments because those are my truest moments; those are my human moments. I’m not even mad at the things I said that were a little dicey.”
Nas Quotes on the Hustle and Bustle of His Daily Life
79. “For my hustlers, here’s some motivation: he who has begun is half done.”
80. “I push my own limits every day, every moment—in the studio, on the stage, and beyond so it’s truly a genuine fit.”
81. “I think a lot of us know when it’s our time. No matter what profession you’re in, you get a feeling. If you worked on it long enough, you know when it’s ready.”
82. “A lot of times it seems like, you ain’t gon’ make it where you wanna be in life. But, yo if you got a plan, believe me, you gon’ get there. You gon’ get everything you ever wanted.”
83. “My advice for the younger dudes would push you all the way, don’t obsess over what anybody else is doing.”
Nas Quotes That Highlight Importance of Education
84. “Every great person educates themselves.”
85. “Read more, learn more, change the globe.”
86. “The greatest lesson ever learned has yet to be taught.”
87. “I fell in love with words and I think that made my mom smile. I think that was cool for her.”
88. “I used to keep a dictionary and work with it and then I realized there are more words that exist in the English language than there are in this dictionary.”
89. “Reading is everything, and although you already know some things, you need to read to get those things out of you.”
Eye-Opening Nas Quotes About Music and His Career
90. “You’re supposed to be who you are. You’re supposed to make music that is true to you.”
91. “Hip hop is making a lot of noise. It should get some more spotlight.”
92. “I want to sound like an instrument. I want my voice and my words to marry the beat.”
93. “There’s really nothing better than music to bring people together and to have amazing music being not just created inside walls but then decimating and activating is going to be special.”
94. “If you really believe in yourself and your music that much, you’re gonna do your thing, regardless of what people say.”
95. “I think more people want to be rappers than anything else.”
96. “Me and hip hop have a relationship that has nothing to do with no other rapper, no matter where you are from or nothing. Every n*gga got his own personal relationship with hip hop and this is mine.”
97. “I like the way hip hop is now. It’s grown up enough so that it can get involved with politics if it feels like it.”
98. “I wish the music business was a much easier thing, but you know what? Nothing easy is worth anything.”
99. “I think hip hop could help rebuild America, once hip-hoppers own hip hop. We are our own politicians, our own government, we have something to say. We’re warriors. Soldiers.”
100. “Hip hop is the streets. Hip hop is a couple of elements that it comes from back in the days—that feel of music with an urgency that speaks to you. It speaks to your livelihood and it’s not compromised. It’s blunt. It’s raw, straight off the street—from the beat to the voice to the words.”
101. “Hip hop artists, especially the older ones, are the ones who knew hip hop was a worldwide phenomenon before the mainstream caught on, so hip hop artists are forward thinkers. We want to stay with the new.”
102. “My first record—it was 1991. I was 16 years old. My first album came out when I was 20. So, I’ve been here that long and I still have the passion to do it.”
103. “When I made Illmatic, I was trying to make the perfect album. It comes from the days of Wild Style. I was trying to make you experience my life. I wanted you to look at hip hop differently. I wanted you to feel that hip hop was changing and becoming something more real.”
104. “Hip hop started in New York so it’s important that New Yorkers realize that to talk about NY music and its sound should not be a small-minded conversation. Music is supposed to evolve. It’s supposed to be going through changes, it’s not supposed to sound exactly the same as what it did when it started. New York hip hop has to be allowed to move on and grow and expand.”
Funny and Witty Nas Quotes
105. “Life’s a b*tch, but God forbid the b*tch divorce me.”
106. “I’m an addict for sneakers, the 20s of buddha, and b*tches with beepers.”
107. “Much success to you, even if you wish me the opposite.”
108. “They say money rule the world, you can’t pay God with it.”
109. “It’s foul what this money could do, cash corrupts the loyal.”
110. “I don’t go out unless I’m working. My quality time is when I’m doing nothing.”
What Did Nas Teach You About Life and Everything in Between?
After eighth grade, Nas dropped out of school and decided to pursue a music career when he was 16 years old. Even though he started young, his talent and dedication earned him many awards in the music industry.
Beyond music, he’s also a successful businessman. But, more than his entrepreneurial mindset, he also strives to give back to the community in every way he can. In fact, he serves as a mentor for P’Tones Records, a non-profit after-school music program for urban youth.
We hope that these Nas quotes were able to inspire you to be a better version of yourself while pursuing your life goals. Remember that we all have different paths to take, but every one of us will be successful if we put our heart and soul into everything we do. So go out there, be yourself, and once you succeed, try giving back to the people who supported you all the way!
Which of these Nas quotes resonated with you the most? Are there any other quotes you’d like us to include? Join the discussion below!
