How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?

Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.

I don’t believe in the school of hard knocks, although I’ve had them. All that stuff about whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger is so not true. Do you know what makes you stronger? When people treat you and your art with dignity.

No one is so brave that he is not disturbed by something unexpected.

The greater the difficulty, the greater the glory.

Respond intelligently even to unintelligent treatment.

Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.

We all gonna die eventually from something or other, but don’t be a wimp. Put up a good fight.

It is any day better to stand erect with a broken and bandaged head then to crawl on one’s belly, in order to be able to save one’s head.

If you’re going through hell, keep going.

I’m no longer just a candidate. I’m the President. I know what it means to send young Americans into battle, for I have held in my arms the mothers and fathers of those who didn’t return. I’ve shared the pain of families who’ve lost their homes, and the frustration of workers who’ve lost their jobs.

I’ve had two cancer bouts in my years on the Court, and the first one, Justice O’Connor told me, ‚Now, you do the chemotherapy on Friday because you’ll get over it during the weekend and you can be back in court on Monday.‘

No great thing is created suddenly.

Any experience that touches you, in any particular way, is good. It can be a horrible experience.

You can’t have it all, all at once. Who – man or woman – has it all, all at once? Over my lifespan, I think I have had it all. But in different periods of time, things were rough. And if you have a caring life partner, you help the other person when that person needs it.

People say you have to hit rock bottom, and, I can tell you, almost dying is as rock bottom as it gets.

All ballplayers should quit when it starts to feel as if all the baselines run uphill.

The left paw has done me well over the years. I’m not a scientist, I’m a martial artist.

Live as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts.

If at first you don’t succeed, then skydiving definitely isn’t for you.

I think a big test we all face in life on a regular basis is that discouragement test. Life’s not always fair, but I believe if you keep doing the right thing, God will get you to where you are.

I was hit by a car once on my bike, but I still rode home.

Keep a good attitude and do the right thing even when it’s hard. When you do that you are passing the test. And God promises you your marked moments are on their way.

I’m not looking for sympathy at all.

I don’t think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains.

Trouble has no necessary connection with discouragement. Discouragement has a germ of its own, as different from trouble as arthritis is different from a stiff joint.

Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.

I have always been pushed by the negative. The apparent failure of a play sends me back to my typewriter that very night, before the reviews are out. I am more compelled to get back to work than if I had a success.

The British soldier can stand up to anything except the British War Office.

Alcohol is the anesthesia by which we endure the operation of life.

A man watches his pear tree day after day, impatient for the ripening of the fruit. Let him attempt to force the process, and he may spoil both fruit and tree. But let him patiently wait, and the ripe pear at length falls into his lap.

How you think when you lose determines how long it will be until you win.

I think it all comes down to motivation. If you really want to do something, you will work hard for it.

Let the people on both sides keep their self-possession, and just as other clouds have cleared away in due time, so will this, and this great nation shall continue to prosper as before.

Women, like men, should try to do the impossible. And when they fail, their failure should be a challenge to others.

If you keep proving stuff that others have done, getting confidence, increasing the complexities of your solutions – for the fun of it – then one day you’ll turn around and discover that nobody actually did that one!

He that lives upon hope will die fasting.

Take things as they are. Punch when you have to punch. Kick when you have to kick.

Whatever you want to do, do with full passion and work really hard towards it. Don’t look anywhere else. There will be a few distractions, but if you can be true to yourself, you will be successful for sure.

Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.

Failure means a stripping away of the inessential.

I wonder how many times people give up just before a breakthrough – when they are on the very brink of success.

I’m not resigned, but I’m realistic too. The statistics in my case are very poor. Not many people come through esophageal cancer and live to talk about it, or not for long. And the other wager is, the part of the wager, it’s a certainty you’ll have a terrible time and you may wish you were dying because it’s an awful process.

Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.

The final proof of greatness lies in being able to endure criticism without resentment.

I love having my hands in the dirt. It is never a science and always an art. There are no rules. And if it comes down to me versus that weed I’m trying to pull out of the ground that doesn’t want to come out? I know I’ll win.

No man can succeed in a line of endeavor which he does not like.

I worked my way up from nothing to a state of extreme poverty.

Things do not always happen the way I would like them to happen, and I had better get used to that.

Beware of endeavoring to become a great man in a hurry. One such attempt in ten thousand may succeed. These are fearful odds.

If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.

Predicting rain doesn’t count. Building arks does.

I need music. It’s like my heartbeat, so to speak. It keeps me going no matter what’s going on – bad games, press, whatever!

It is no good getting furious if you get stuck. What I do is keep thinking about the problem but work on something else. Sometimes it is years before I see the way forward. In the case of information loss and black holes, it was 29 years.

There are alway going to be bad things. But you can write it down and make a song out of it.

Begin – to begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this, and thou wilt have finished.

There are a lot of ‚chicken Christians.‘ Chickens are generally afraid of life, and they seldom fly or reach their potential in life. And when a storm comes, all they seem to do is flap around the chicken yard, stirring up dirt and running to the chicken house.

As a professional athlete a lot is going to be said about you – but I just try to move forward and try to achieve my goals.

He who has faith has… an inward reservoir of courage, hope, confidence, calmness, and assuring trust that all will come out well – even though to the world it may appear to come out most badly.

There will be days when I walk in an arena and people will cheer and then there might be days when I walk in an arena and people might boo, but it all sounds the same to me because it’s all just noise that lets me know that I’m relevant.

With ideas it is like with dizzy heights you climb: At first they cause you discomfort and you are anxious to get down, distrustful of your own powers; but soon the remoteness of the turmoil of life and the inspiring influence of the altitude calm your blood; your step gets firm and sure and you begin to look – for dizzier heights.