Loida Nicolas Lewis

"Art is the expression of the divine in us, an expression of the human spirit."

"In the eyes of God, we are all equal. So for those who are in a multicultural society like New York, accept people as they are because we are all the same. We belong to the one race, all members of the human race."

"I have this theory that if you go about looking for discrimination and bigotry against you, then you will surely find it."

"I want to make memories visible, while the storytellers are still with us."

"Let's live, love, laugh, and learn together."

"Begin with integrity."

"You are not here by accident. We are here to claim our space and to share our truths."

"No, that was very personal decision between my husband and me, and God. I already asked forgiveness for it."

"In the US, abortion is unconstitutional, for me it’s wrong, it should be the decision of the woman"

"Follow the golden rules, the 10 commandments. Follow the right path because if you say, no one knows and you will break the law, it will come back to you."

"Be determined, you will get there, it may take time, but you will get there."

"For us men and women, we are able to exist, succeed and flourish wherever we are. If you have an opportunity, take it, even if it’s not there, take it because Pilipino tayo, kaya natin.(If you have an opportunity, take it, even if it's not there, take it because we are Filipinos, we can make it.)"

"I can’t believe we are already on our 25th! We started with a population of 314, now, it’s 2,500!"

"I was born in Sorsogon. I am a Filipina. I am a Christian Catholic. That forms the core of who I am."

"Don’t say you love God when you are unkind, when you are cruel, when you look down on people—minamata mo ang mga tao (-you look down on people). You need to love your neighbor, which is the other side of the coin of loving God. All of that is part of my being."

"I believe that if I work hard towards my goal, with tenacity and integrity, I would get there."

"It wasn’t about preserving power. It was about preserving purpose."

"Stand on what you’ve survived."

"Goal setting. Obedience to the code of ethics. Determination. One mistake doesn’t make a failure. You will eventually get there."

"I am overjoyed to finally get a chance to share my memoir to my countrymen and in my homeland, the Philippines, where it all began."

"I always use my mind, but in the end I follow my heart."

"Women can be effective leaders without emulating the negative behaviors often exhibited by powerful men."

"Second, when setting goals in life, be flexible. I was supposed to be either a nun or a public servant, which would include becoming a member of the Philippine Senate. Falling in love was the farthest thing in my mind. Then came along Reginald F. Lewis."

"I learned a lot from my husband"

"I held on to his guiding principle in business as to what is more important: Create wealth for the stakeholders, rather than keep on building a bigger empire."

"Type As have a hard time shutting off their competitive instincts. I can vouch for this, having been a valedictorian, cum laude graduate and student council leader."

"I wanted to improve my management skills. But the other reason is that my husband, daughters, and two sons-in-law all have Harvard diplomas. The years have not dulled my competitive streak, in the least, and I wanted to have a Harvard certificate, too."

"As voters, Filipinos are generally informed through social media. And unfortunately, social media do not necessarily respect the principles of journalism. We see how often they could be posting distorted facts and readers who are dependent on social media for news could easily take their word for the truth."

"We are a capitalist nation — but majority of our people are in so much poverty. And so here, Money is King, the media, the journalism press have to balance their reporting — they have the duty to report the truth."

"There will be hope when Filipinos as a people choose to stand for what they know is the truth. They must vote for leaders who truly care for this country, people with integrity, not corrupt but have the interest of the Filipino at heart."

"It is important for people like us not to have a sense of empowerment, to have a sense that whatever challenges we have, we can do it."

"I am very relieved that our work has not been in vain"

"Many women are afraid to take on challenges that comes their way and this will book will tell them, you can do it guys, you can do it gals. In other words, don't be afraid of taking on challenges. We can do many things that men can't do."

"Use common sense, stick to core values."

"Whatever I did [in the business], I did because it had to be done. All I am saying is that we are all heroes in the sense that we are able to overcome whatever it is."

"So my message to anyone: When an opportunity comes, tell your children, ‘Take it!’. You don’t say, ‘I’m not ready,’ because you will learn the job as you go along."

"‘New year, new you’ as they say. I believe it’s never too late to develop good habits."

"I and my sister Mely were given a sense of empowerment—Papa wanted us to excel."

"Why not write my own memoir?"

"Why don’t I share my age-defying beauty ‘secrets’ so that women, and men, too, could look and feel younger than their chronological age, without undergoing Botox, fillers, surgeries, and other expensive cosmetic procedures?"

"My morning routine includes my Zen practice."

"Just counting your breaths, meditating, reflecting, just being quiet. It’s that quiet time when you straighten your life, when you’re quiet and God can talk to you, and you can talk to God."

"If you eat beef, and you’re about to go to sleep, it’s like a ton of bricks on your stomach."

"We can only focus on one thing, which is create graduates who have the values, the values of working hard, the values of being determined to do the best they can, the values of ethics. So we concentrate on the student, then it’s up to them to do all of those things"

"My passion is always for the Filipino."

"We are all equal in the eyes of God. What is important is what we do as stewards and manage what we have to do. I think that’s the most important"

"Yes, it’s possible for a woman to be a good leader"

"The first key of leadership is knowing and setting your objective"

"Do not let your ego be involved in making major decisions."

"I maximized my strengths as a woman, focused on teamwork and developed a consensus-builder attitude."