"Never, never listen to anybody that try to discourage you"
About this Quote
The intent is straightforward: keep moving. The subtext is sharper: discouragement rarely arrives as cartoon villainy. It shows up as “concern,” as “realism,” as the polite industry language that tries to manage your ambition down to something marketable. Carey’s career is practically a case study in how a young woman’s talent gets treated like a bet to be hedged. In that context, “listen” is the key verb. She’s not pretending you can avoid critics, gatekeepers, or family doubt; she’s telling you to refuse them access to the control panel.
There’s also a quiet recalibration of authority here. “Anybody” democratizes the threat: discouragement can come from executives and strangers, but also friends, lovers, even your own internal narrator repeating someone else’s script. Coming from Carey, whose public story has included both spectacular acclaim and relentless scrutiny, the line reads less like generic hustle culture and more like survival technique: protect the signal, especially when the world keeps trying to remix you into someone easier to consume.
Quote Details
| Topic | Never Give Up |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite | Cite this Quote |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Carey, Mariah. (n.d.). Never, never listen to anybody that try to discourage you. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/never-never-listen-to-anybody-that-try-to-162421/
Chicago Style
Carey, Mariah. "Never, never listen to anybody that try to discourage you." FixQuotes. Accessed February 1, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/never-never-listen-to-anybody-that-try-to-162421/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Never, never listen to anybody that try to discourage you." FixQuotes, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/never-never-listen-to-anybody-that-try-to-162421/. Accessed 1 Feb. 2026.










