Get up, stand up, Stand up for your rights. Get up, stand up, Don’t give up the fight.

The reason we want to go on and on is because we live in an impoverished present.

I’ve had big record label presidents look me in the face and say, ‚Your music sucks, you don’t know who you are, your music is all over the place, and we don’t know how to market this stuff. Pick a lane and come back to us.‘

But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.

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.

I was a housewife, so I learned to write in times off, and I don’t think I ever gave it up, though there were times when I was very discouraged because I began to see that the stories I was writing were not very good, that I had a lot to learn, and that it was a much, much harder job than I had expected.

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.

I get up every morning and say, ‚Father, give me strength today, not strength so I can lift 500 pounds, but give me strength, Lord, so when I speak, my words might motivate, might inspire somebody, Lord, when they see me, let them see you. When they hear me, Lord, let them hear you. In your holy name I pray.‘

You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.

I’m just a kid that defied the odds. I’m just a kid that ignored the doubt. I’m just a kid from a little place in Dublin, Ireland, that went all the way, and I’m going to continue to go all the way.

A person will sometimes devote all his life to the development of one part of his body – the wishbone.

The bird is powered by its own life and by its motivation.

It’s rare for anyone to value the opinions of a teenage girl.

I’d rather be a victor than a victim.

The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow. This area of pain divides the champion from someone else who is not a champion. That’s what most people lack, having the guts to go on and just say they’ll go through the pain no matter what happens.

In my videos, I always want to be a powerful woman. That’s my mission.

Energy, like the biblical grain of the mustard-seed, will remove mountains.

My job is to bring out in people what they wouldn’t dare do themselves.

If you deserve it, go get it.

I’m committed to the fight game.

No fundamental social change occurs merely because government acts. It’s because civil society, the conscience of a country, begins to rise up and demand – demand – demand change.

You must capture and keep the heart of the original and supremely able man before his brain can do its best.

There has never yet been a man in our history who led a life of ease whose name is worth remembering.

I was in a queer mood, thinking myself very old: but now I am a woman again – as I always am when I write.

If you’re white and you’re wrong, then you’re wrong; if you’re black and you’re wrong, you’re wrong. People are people. Black, blue, pink, green – God make no rules about color; only society make rules where my people suffer, and that why we must have redemption and redemption now.

‚Tis not enough to help the feeble up, but to support them after.

My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth.

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.

I’m never gonna step away from stand-up. I can’t. That’s what got me where I am, and that’s also my muse. That’s how I stay level-headed. That’s what keeps me going.

For me, the essence of the great American Dream is spiritual. I believe that our Constitution is inspired and that it is based on principles that are timeless and universal. This is the reason why 95% of all written constitutions throughout the world are modeled after our Constitution.

Don’t be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves.

What is a fear of living? It’s being preeminently afraid of dying. It is not doing what you came here to do, out of timidity and spinelessness. The antidote is to take full responsibility for yourself – for the time you take up and the space you occupy. If you don’t know what you’re here to do, then just do some good.

I have never started a poem yet whose end I knew. Writing a poem is discovering.

You simply have to put one foot in front of the other and keep going. Put blinders on and plow right ahead.

My dear friend, clear your mind of cant.

Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.

No man is free who is not master of himself.

I’m telling you there is hope. I have seen it, but it does not come from the governments or corporations. It comes from the people.

Every reform movement has a lunatic fringe.

If an injustice requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the government machine.

The moral arc of the universe bends at the elbow of justice.

I’m not focused on the gay and lesbian movement.

On a given day, a given circumstance, you think you have a limit.

Anyone who proposes to do good must not expect people to roll stones out of his way, but must accept his lot calmly, even if they roll a few stones upon it.

A pint of sweat, saves a gallon of blood.

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.

Dreams are the touchstones of our character.

The people who tend to raise antiwar slogans will do so generally when it’s American or British interests involved.

I believe that one person can make a difference.

I have a great respect for incremental improvement, and I’ve done that sort of thing in my life, but I’ve always been attracted to the more revolutionary changes. I don’t know why. Because they’re harder. They’re much more stressful emotionally. And you usually go through a period where everybody tells you that you’ve completely failed.

You do things when the opportunities come along. I’ve had periods in my life when I’ve had a bundle of ideas come along, and I’ve had long dry spells. If I get an idea next week, I’ll do something. If not, I won’t do a damn thing.

Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power.

I do not expect the white media to create positive black male images.

Independence is a heady draught, and if you drink it in your youth, it can have the same effect on the brain as young wine does. It does not matter that its taste is not always appealing. It is addictive and with each drink you want more.

Most people already know what they’re doing wrong. When I get them to church I want to tell them that you can change.

I know the blessing of having a dad who played 16 years in the league. That experience, and seeing him as an example, let me know that it’s possible. It’s not easy, but it’s possible.

Sometimes I write about my own life. And sometimes I write about situations I see my friends going through. Sometimes I write about a scene I saw in a movie. I take inspiration from all different places.

We clearly see in God’s Word that anything He tells us to do, He will give us the ability to do it. But do we really believe it? Do we want to believe it? It’s easier to come up with excuses for why we can’t do things that are hard or that we really don’t want to do.

One of the problems of organizing in the North, in the rich countries, is that people tend to think – even the activists – that instant gratification is required. You constantly hear: ‚Look I went to a demonstration, and we didn’t stop the war so what’s the use of doing it again?‘

First and last, what is demanded of genius is love of truth.

What is past is prologue.