Even when we have physical hardships, we can be very happy.

Nothing’s ever easy as long as you go on living.

Ambition has become a dirty word, and I believe it is a great evolutionary force for the positive. If people fail or go astray in their ambition I can live with it but not with people lowering their expectations, wasting time, slacking off and glorifying failure and stupidity.

I never thought of losing, but now that it‘ s happened, the only thing is to do it right. That’s my obligation to all the people who believe in me. We all have to take defeats in life.

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.

As our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also.

Life isn’t meant to be easy. It’s hard to take being on the top – or on the bottom. I guess I’m something of a fatalist. You have to have a sense of history, I think, to survive some of these things… Life is one crisis after another.

Smiling is very important. If we are not able to smile, then the world will not have peace. It is not by going out for a demonstration against nuclear missiles that we can bring about peace. It is with our capacity of smiling, breathing, and being peace that we can make peace.

One of the best things that ever happened to me is that I’m a woman. That is the way all females should feel.

One mustn’t close one’s eyes to difficulty and to shortcomings; the more one recognizes them, the less they upset one.

What is normal? Normal was yesterday. If you lose a leg, one day you’re hopping around on one leg, so you know the difference.

I’m not anti-middle-class in the slightest. Look at me! I am very pro people putting time and money and effort into trying to improve the world.

Family and friendships are two of the greatest facilitators of happiness.

One of the wonderful things about Oprah: She teaches you to keep on stepping.

And I love that even in the toughest moments, when we’re all sweating it – when we’re worried that the bill won’t pass, and it seems like all is lost – Barack never lets himself get distracted by the chatter and the noise. Just like his grandmother, he just keeps getting up and moving forward… with patience and wisdom, and courage and grace.

I always tried to turn every disaster into an opportunity.

First ask yourself: What is the worst that can happen? Then prepare to accept it. Then proceed to improve on the worst.

I don’t have much positive to say about motor neurone disease. But it taught me not to pity myself because others were worse off, and to get on with what I could still do.

I think happiness is a goal all of us can agree on. Let’s face it – we all would like to be happy.

When life is too easy for us, we must beware or we may not be ready to meet the blows which sooner or later come to everyone, rich or poor.

This above all, to refuse to be a victim.

I am very happy playing and showing off my talent on the cricket field and have no plans to enter Bollywood.

I’m not the sort of person who gives up on things. The first time we crossed the Atlantic in the balloon, it crashed, and we went on and did the Pacific. First time we crossed the Atlantic in a boat, it sank, and we went on and got the record. So, generally speaking, we will pick ourselves up, brush ourselves down, and carry on.

Enjoyment is an incredible energizer to the human spirit.

Look at a book. A book is the right size to be a book. They’re solar-powered. If you drop them, they keep on being a book. You can find your place in microseconds. Books are really good at being books, and no matter what happens, books will survive.

We come bulletproof in Ireland. We’re reared tough, and we fight.

There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern.

In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing.

Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.

Great grief does not of itself put an end to itself.

To strive with difficulties, and to conquer them, is the highest human felicity.

It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.

If you have to stand and fight, you train yourself so that you’re able to do it.

You are victors, not victims!

There’s people that tried to celebrate when I lost that got nothing to do with it. That’s not the sign of a champion.

Remember that life’s big changes rarely give advance warning.

My whole family have all been through a difficult time. My focus is my children, our children.

When my ancestors came from Africa, they were shackled by our neck, our wrists, and our ankles in steel chains. I’ve turned those steel chains into gold to symbolize the fact that I’m still a slave, only my price tag is higher.

Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.

Whenever you give up something, you must replace it with something.

Life is better when people are working, happy, and spending money.

I’m not looking for sympathy at all.

Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss.

Of course, to have money is just great because you can do what you think is important to you. I always was a rich person because money’s not related to happiness.

Sometimes I feel my whole life has been one big rejection.

I’m living a dream I never want to wake up from.

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‚Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.

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.

The marvelous richness of human experience would lose something of rewarding joy if there were no limitations to overcome. The hilltop hour would not be half so wonderful if there were no dark valleys to traverse.

My mother was a public school teacher in Virginia, and we didn’t have any money, we just survived on happiness, on being a happy family.

We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.

The successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a different way.

In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don’t try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present.

Great acts are made up of small deeds.

Neither should a ship rely on one small anchor, nor should life rest on a single hope.

The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire.

Don’t let your ego get too close to your position, so that if your position gets shot down, your ego doesn’t go with it.

Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.

We only need so much to survive, but this world we live in tells us we need more stuff to be happy. We’re inundated with our televisions, the Internet and advertising that says in order to be happy you have to have these things. When you say, ‚Gimme, gimme, gimme,‘ you will always be in short supply.

Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.

Life in abundance comes only through great love.