I got my own back.

I was raised in a family where vulnerability was barely tolerated: no training wheels on our bicycles, no goggles in the pool, just get it done. And so I grew up not only with discomfort about my own vulnerability, I didn’t care for it in other people either.

And above all things, never think that you’re not good enough yourself. A man should never think that. My belief is that in life people will take you at your own reckoning.

It was weird to be married; you kind of lose your identity. You’re suddenly somebody’s wife. And you’re like, ‚Oh, I’m half of a couple now. I’ve lost me.‘

Responsibility is the price of freedom.

I think I mainly climb mountains because I get a great deal of enjoyment out of it. I never attempt to analyze these things too thoroughly, but I think that all mountaineers do get a great deal of satisfaction out of overcoming some challenge which they think is very difficult for them, or which perhaps may be a little dangerous.

I think I’ve developed, as many people do, this sense of, ‚Don’t say the wrong thing, or else people will point at you and laugh.‘

Acting helped me as I was growing up. It helped me learn about myself, helped me travel, helped me understand life, express myself, all those wonderful things. So I’m very, very grateful; it’s a fun job. It’s a luxury.

Really, the only thing that makes sense is to strive for greater collective enlightenment.

The superior man thinks always of virtue; the common man thinks of comfort.

What we face may look insurmountable. But I learned something from all those years of training and competing. I learned something from all those sets and reps when I didn’t think I could lift another ounce of weight. What I learned is that we are always stronger than we know.

Here’s the thing: every office I’ve run for I was the first to win. First person of color. First woman. First woman of color. Every time.

There is no coming to consciousness without pain.

The people know their rights, and they are never slow to assert and maintain them when they are invaded.

I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end… I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me.

I can no longer obey; I have tasted command, and I cannot give it up.

Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind.

Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.

Somewhere deep down there’s a decent man in me, he just can’t be found.

All ways of living can be sanctified, and for each individual, the ideal way is that to which our Lord leads him through the natural development of his tastes and the pressure of circumstances.

Create a ladder of values and priorities in your life, reminding yourself of what really matters to you.

I hated to be treated as a child. I thought it was the worst situation.

To penetrate and dissipate these clouds of darkness, the general mind must be strengthened by education.

I am being frank about myself in this book. I tell of my first mistake on page 850.

The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month.

The Bible tells us to be perfect. This is likely a scary thought for many people. It used to scare me. I didn’t think I could ever get there, no matter how hard I tried.

Women in particular need to keep an eye on their physical and mental health, because if we’re scurrying to and from appointments and errands, we don’t have a lot of time to take care of ourselves. We need to do a better job of putting ourselves higher on our own ‚to do‘ list.

I am a child but I have to think and act like a woman, this business forces you to.

I look at myself like a show dog. I’ve got to keep her clipped and trimmed and in good shape.

Only the educated are free.

Love always ends differently and it always begins differently – especially with me.

A woman can’t be alone. She needs a man. A man and a woman support and strengthen each other. She just can’t do it by herself.

I have the habit of attention to such excess, that my senses get no rest – but suffer from a constant strain.

Life opens up opportunities to you, and you either take them or you stay afraid of taking them.

The young think that failure is the Siberian end of the line, banishment from all the living, and tend to do what I then did – which was to hide.

There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.

I look upon every day to be lost, in which I do not make a new acquaintance.

We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.

Why regret anything? Where does it get you to regret anything you’ve ever done in your life? It gets you nowhere. It’s a pathetic emotion that you can wallow in.

There is a great deal of unmapped country within us which would have to be taken into account in an explanation of our gusts and storms.

The moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you.

If I wished to do something, even if I couldn’t find anyone who wanted to make the effort with me, I would go out solo climbing. I did find solo climbing very challenging and a little frightening. You knew that you were completely on your own, and you had to overcome all the problems and possible dangers.

I write for no other purpose than to add to the beauty that now belongs to me. I write a book for no other reason than to add three or four hundred acres to my magnificent estate.

I am confident that nobody… will accuse me of selfishness if I ask to spend time, while I am still in good health, with my family, my friends and also with myself.

I learned that very often the most intolerant and narrow-minded people are the ones who congratulate themselves on their tolerance and open-mindedness.

There are three methods to gaining wisdom. The first is reflection, which is the highest. The second is limitation, which is the easiest. The third is experience, which is the bitterest.

When the best leader’s work is done the people say, ‚We did it ourselves.‘

Right now I’m just delighted to be alive and to have had a nice long bath.

I was set free because my greatest fear had been realized, and I still had a daughter who I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became a solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

You don’t have to give way to careless speech or complaining. You don’t have to let your feelings get in the way of what God wants to do in your life.

Sometimes if you want to see a change for the better, you have to take things into your own hands.

‚They‘ is… stay away from them, please. There is so many different definitions of ‚they.‘ You might have a personal ‚they.‘ They against you; they want you broken and miserable. They don’t like winners; they don’t like people who’s blessed. So everybody’s got a different ‚they.‘

There’s a victory, and defeat; the first and best of victories, the lowest and worst of defeats which each man gains or sustains at the hands not of another, but of himself.

We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.

The longer I live, the more I feel that true repose consists in ‚renouncing‘ one’s own self, by which I mean making up one’s mind to admit that there is no importance whatever in being ‚happy‘ or ‚unhappy‘ in the usual meaning of the words.

If I feel good about my parenting, I have no interest in judging other people’s choices. If I feel good about my body, I don’t go around making fun of other people’s weight or appearance. We’re hard on each other because we’re using each other as a launching pad out of our own perceived deficiency.

We humans have lost the wisdom of genuinely resting and relaxing. We worry too much. We don’t allow our bodies to heal, and we don’t allow our minds and hearts to heal.

I believe that anyone can conquer fear by doing the things he fears to do, provided he keeps doing them until he gets a record of successful experience behind him.

These things bring you to reality as to how fragile you are; at the same moment you are doing something that nobody else is able to do. The same moment that you are seen as the best, the fastest and somebody that cannot be touched, you are enormously fragile.

The world is put back by the death of every one who has to sacrifice the development of his or her peculiar gifts to conventionality.

I used to stutter really badly. Everybody thinks it’s funny. And it’s not funny. It’s not.