Rihanna Wins Harvard Humanitarian Award: 20 Quotes Where The Barbados Singer Proved She Was Better Than Everyone Else

Singer Rihanna was named Harvard University’s Humanitarian of the Year 2017 on Wednesday, joining the likes of former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Taliban attack survivor Malala Yousafzai and Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

According to the Harvard Foundation, the award is presented each year “to an individual whose works and deeds have served to improve the quality of our lives and have inspired us to greater heights.”

Rihanna is being recognized for having done incredible humanitarian work in Barbados, her country of origin, by building a “state-of-the-art center for oncology and nuclear medicine to diagnose and treat breast cancer” and funding the Clara Lionel Foundation Scholarships Program, which helps students from Caribbean countries to attend college in the U.S., among other things, Harvard Foundation Director S. Allen Counter said.

The award will be presented to Rihanna at a ceremony Tuesday at Harvard’s Sanders Theatre.

Here are some inspiring and uplifting things the singer has said in the past:

“I don’t do things for the response or for the controversy. I just live my life.”

“I always keep my guard up with guys and I guess that can get in the way sometimes. I can make them go through hell.”

“I’m crazy and I don’t pretend to be anything else.”

“You have to just accept your body. You may not love it all the way, but you just have to be comfortable with it, comfortable with knowing that that’s your body.”

“The bottom line is that everyone thinks differently.”

“Keep your eyes on the finish line and not on the turmoil around you.”

“People hesitate to follow their desires because they don’t know how to divide their soul from their spirit.”

“Let go of the things that make you feel dead. Life is worth living!”

“It’s tougher to be vulnerable than to actually be tough.”

“I think a lot of people are afraid of being happy because of what others might think of it.”

“When a door closes you have two choices: give up, or keep going.”

“It’s all about honesty. This is not failure, it’s lessons. It’s not the end. If you learn from mistakes it’s not failure. If you go and do the exact same f------ thing then that’s the stupidest thing ever and it probably won’t work the second time.”

“I don’t go out of my way to be a rebel or to have that perception, but a lot of the decisions I make, a lot of the direction I want to move, is against the grain, or against society’s tight lane.”

“When I was young and I would watch television and I would see all the children suffering, I always said: when I grow up, I want to help.”

“I think women want freedom, they want to be empowered, they want hope, they want love, they want all the things that I want and I’m not afraid to say those things and act on them, and I think that’s why they identify with me.”

“There are people in the world who will love you, and people in the world who will hurt you, and there are people in the world who will do both.”

“I want to make music that’s hopeful, uplifting. Nothing corny or super-sentimental, I want it to have the feeling that brings you out of whatever you’re going through. I want it to spark that fire. I want it to be real, authentic, raw.”

“Success for me isn’t a destination. It’s a journey. Everybody’s working to get to the top but where is the top? It’s all about working harder and getting better and moving up and up.”

“No one can understand what you’re feeling unless they burned the way you burned.”

“I’m really looking forward to seeing what life brings to me.”