It seems to be the fate of idealists to obtain what they have struggled for in a form which destroys their ideals.

I came in with Halley’s Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don’t go out with Halley’s Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: ‚Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.‘

All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened.

You are doomed to make choices. This is life’s greatest paradox.

Mickey Rourke’s character in ‚The Wrestler‘ – that was my dad, that was my uncles, that was so many members of my family. It was the only thing they knew. And then they would end up wrestling for a hundred bucks, go to autograph signings for two hundred bucks.

I decided, very early on, just to accept life unconditionally; I never expected it to do anything special for me, yet I seemed to accomplish far more than I had ever hoped. Most of the time it just happened to me without my ever seeking it.

We all have wings, but they have not been of any avail to us and if we could tear them off, we would do so.

Why am I here? I’m not lucky. That’s God.

Though men determine, the gods doo dispose: and oft times many things fall out betweene the cup and the lip.

Fighting for one’s freedom, struggling towards being free, is like struggling to be a poet or a good Christian or a good Jew or a good Muslim or good Zen Buddhist. You work all day long and achieve some kind of level of success by nightfall, go to sleep and wake up the next morning with the job still to be done. So you start all over again.

Life is essentially a cheat and its conditions are those of defeat; the redeeming things are not happiness and pleasure but the deeper satisfactions that come out of struggle.

There’s always a bittersweet kind of thing, but I feel like everything had to work out the way it is. Everything that had to happen, happened.

In order to exist just once in the world, it is necessary never again to exist.

In my country of South Africa, we struggled for years against the evil system of apartheid that divided human beings, children of the same God, by racial classification and then denied many of them fundamental human rights.

When the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers.

Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.

No untroubled day has ever dawned for me.

The fact is, when men carry the same ideals in their hearts, nothing can isolate them – neither prison walls nor the sod of cemeteries. For a single memory, a single spirit, a single idea, a single conscience, a single dignity will sustain them all.

When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate.

All truth is simple… is that not doubly a lie?

Concern for man and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations.

I think in defeat you grope for things that are happy, and it’s hard.

I’ve written some great things. That’s a gift, but there’s consequences. Yeah, you get this great work, but you suffer. You really, really suffer.

I struggled with being a broke college graduate, and while all my friends were getting career jobs, I was working horrible part-time jobs. That’s why now, even when I get tired, I think, ‚This is what I asked for.‘

I read to my kid, but I can’t stand reading.

There is in me an anarchy and frightful disorder. Creating makes me die a thousand deaths, because it means making order, and my entire being rebels against order. But without it I would die, scattered to the winds.

I try to make it look easy, but the behind-the-scenes stuff is the challenge.

Man does not control his own fate. The women in his life do that for him.

Man never legislates, but destinies and accidents, happening in all sorts of ways, legislate in all sorts of ways.

Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.

With patient and firm determination, I am going to press on for jobs. I’m going to press on for equality. I’m going to press on for the sake of our children. I’m going to press on for the sake of all those families who are struggling right now. I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself. I don’t have time to complain. I am going to press on.

I know what it feels like to struggle to get the education that you need.

I was born on a full moon. Both my children were born on full moons, too. Some people say that’s scary. It is what it is, man, I don’t be trippin‘. I couldn’t tell God when I wanted to be born.

I did suffer a lot since karting, with my size and everything, not really having a clue what to do when I started karting. So I suffered in every category: F4, F3, F2. Not so much F2 but I’ve had to kind of play catch-up quite a bit and in some ways, F1 was a bit nicer with power steering.

Education comes from within; you get it by struggle and effort and thought.

In the grip of a neurological disorder, I am fast losing control of words even as my relationship with the world has been reduced to them.

All difficult things have their origin in that which is easy, and great things in that which is small.

There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.

To die for an idea; it is unquestionably noble. But how much nobler it would be if men died for ideas that were true!

The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.

In this possibly terminal phase of human existence, democracy and freedom are more than just ideals to be valued – they may be essential to survival.

Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the fates.

We combat obstacles in order to get repose, and when got, the repose is insupportable.

The struggle alone pleases us, not the victory.

A revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past.

Life is warfare.

I can control my destiny, but not my fate. Destiny means there are opportunities to turn right or left, but fate is a one-way street. I believe we all have the choice as to whether we fulfil our destiny, but our fate is sealed.

I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we’ve struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We’ve made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.

Everything I read about hitting a midlife crisis was true. I had such a struggle letting go of youthful things and learning how to exist and have enthusiasm while settling into the comfort of an older age.

Man is supposed to be the maker of his destiny. It is only partly true. He can make his destiny, only in so far as he is allowed by the Great Power.

Whatever fortune has raised to a height, she has raised only to cast it down.

Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.

It all went wrong with football, the thing I loved most of all, and from there, my life slowly fell apart.

Some men can live up to their loftiest ideals without ever going higher than a basement.

Destiny grants us our wishes, but in its own way, in order to give us something beyond our wishes.

My life is a struggle.

Normally, when someone we love is turning away from a struggle, we self-protect by also turning away. That’s definitely my first response. I think change is more likely to happen if both partners have common language and a shared lens to see problems.

The difficulty is to try and teach the multitude that something can be true and untrue at the same time.

God wants to help us… He loves us… we are His children. But He will not force His help on us at any time. He sees us when we struggle and fight and complain our way through things. And I believe it breaks His heart, when all we have to do is ask Him for help.

You either get tired fighting for peace, or you die.

It is the fight alone that pleases us, not the victory.