Living in America and, of course, just being women in general, we’ve got more strength than we think we do.

Nature is often hidden, sometimes overcome, seldom extinguished.

Those who create are rare; those who cannot are numerous. Therefore, the latter are stronger.

He who falls in love with himself will have no rivals.

Even when folks are hitting you over the head, you can’t stop marching. Even when they’re turning the hoses on you, you can’t stop.

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

Storms make trees take deeper roots.

Failure is nature’s plan to prepare you for great responsibilities.

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.

My mother was very strong. Once, she picked up a coconut and smashed it against my father’s head. It taught me about women defending themselves and not collapsing in a heap.

We may stumble and fall but shall rise again; it should be enough if we did not run away from the battle.

If I make a fool of myself, who cares? I’m not frightened by anyone’s perception of me.

As we advance in life it becomes more and more difficult, but in fighting the difficulties the inmost strength of the heart is developed.

Have you not learned that strength comes to an ordinary soul when given an extraordinary calling?

Most of my young years were spent under the boots of the military.

Tears shed for self are tears of weakness, but tears shed for others are a sign of strength.

Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.

The sun doesn’t always shine in West Virginia, but the people do.

You drown not by falling into a river, but by staying submerged in it.

You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lines. You may trod me in the very dirt, but still, like dust, I’ll rise.

You’re never as good as everyone tells you when you win, and you’re never as bad as they say when you lose.

I’m not going to stop having problems.

I have quite a decent constitution in spite of all my abuse of it and my advanced years. I’m still quite robust.

‚They‘ are the people that don’t believe in you, that say that you won’t succeed. We stay away from ‚They.‘

When a country has the skill and self-confidence to take action against its biggest problems, it makes outsiders eager to be a part of it.

I don’t know if I’ve ever cared much what others think.

How can any man be weak who dares to be at all?

Heaven gives us hope and makes our present burdens easier to bear.

The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.

If a whole bunch of people want to make your life a living hell, they’re gonna do it.

Sometimes you have to take two steps back to take ten forward.

Sure it’s a big job; but I don’t know anyone who can do it better than I can.

Mere bashfulness without merit is awkwardness.

History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.

Exercise is labor without weariness.

Now, you lose something in your life, or you come into a conflict, and there’s gonna come a time that you’re gonna know: There was a reason for that. And at the end of your life, all the things you thought were periods, they turn out to be commas. There was never a full stop in any of it.

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.

People who boast about their I.Q. are losers.

None but a coward dares to boast that he has never known fear.

Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.

When I was into my 30s, I became increasingly depressed by rejection letters. I had had the feeling that by the time I was 30, I would be established. But I was not at all. By the time of ‚Lives of Girls and Women,‘ I was into my 40s and I had become more thin-skinned.

The body is meant to be seen, not all covered up.

To excel at the highest level – or any level, really – you need to believe in yourself, and hands down, one of the biggest contributors to my self-confidence has been private coaching.

Everyone has his day and some days last longer than others.

Black people in America, people from the struggle, immigrants, it’s no generational wealth that we are attached to, so we are tasked to create – in one generation – closing the gap. That’s why we so Doomsday about getting to the check: ‚cause it’s life or death for real.

I advocate that every woman be a part of a circle, and a circle that meets at least once a month, or if you can’t do that, once every two months or every four months.

Even the securest financial plan and the finest health coverage aren’t enough to hold us steady when the challenges come… We need something more, something deeper and unshakeable, something that will see us through life’s hard times.

Courage is being scared to death… and saddling up anyway.

Carry the battle to them. Don’t let them bring it to you. Put them on the defensive and don’t ever apologize for anything.

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.

In difficult times, we’re not supposed to quit believing; we’re not supposed to quit growing.

Serious illness doesn’t bother me for long because I am too inhospitable a host.

I consider myself to have one of the greatest voices in the industry.

Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.

I see myself as the best footballer in the world. If you don’t believe you are the best, then you will never achieve all that you are capable of.

I had a period where I thought I might not be good enough to publish.

You can’t have it all all at once. Over my lifespan, I think I have had it all, but in given periods in time, things were rough. And if you have a caring life partner, you help the other person when that person needs it.

I’ve had no contact with my daughter for years. That’s her choice. Anyway, you move on. If people don’t want to bother with me, fine. You know, God bless them, and move on.

But for me to have the opportunity to stand in front of a bunch of executives and present myself, I had to hustle in my own way. I can’t tell you how frustrating it was that they didn’t get that. No joke – I’d leave meetings crying all the time.

Any of us can be happy and have a good attitude when everything is going our way. But I believe it’s the real test of your character and of your faith to say, ‚Things are not going our way, but I’m still being good to people; I’m still attending church; I still have a good attitude.‘

If you want to occupy the C-suite or the top one-tenth of 1% in any organization, you have to be obsessively devoted to your career at the expense of everything else. And women look at that, and they think, ‚No.‘