Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.

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

The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.

I’ve always said the one advantage an actor has of converting to a director is that he’s been in front of the camera. He doesn’t have to get in front of the camera again, subliminally or otherwise.

A lost battle is a battle one thinks one has lost.

When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic.

I don’t really get nervous that much, or if I do, only I know. It’s all inside me. I am good at hiding everything.

Rather be dead than cool.

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.

It is hard to contend against one’s heart’s desire; for whatever it wishes to have it buys at the cost of soul.

There will always be something to ruin our lives, it all depends on what or which finds us first. We are always ripe and ready to be taken.

The experience of life consists of the experience which the spirit has of itself in matter and as matter, in mind and as mind, in emotion, as emotion, etc.

Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragements, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak.

The only way you gain mental toughness is to do things you’re not happy doing. If you continue doing things that you’re satisfied and make you happy, you’re not getting stronger. You’re staying where you’re at. Either you’re getting better, or you’re getting worse. You’re not staying the same.

If one oversteps the bounds of moderation, the greatest pleasures cease to please.

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 always tried to turn every disaster into an opportunity.

Because, you know, resilience – if you think of it in terms of the Gold Rush, then you’d be pretty depressed right now because the last nugget of gold would be gone. But the good thing is, with innovation, there isn’t a last nugget. Every new thing creates two new questions and two new opportunities.

I got the stern end of the stick. It was kind of that iron fist. I am who I am today because of my mother.

I grew up in the east side of Detroit in an area where there was very little, except for a lot of scarcity, poverty and hunger. I never woke up saying, ‚I’m an orphan again today, isn’t this terrible? Poor me.‘

The best leaders are readers of people. They have the intuitive ability to understand others by discerning how they feel and recognizing what they sense.

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

We have the tendency to run away from suffering and to look for happiness. But, in fact, if you have not suffered, you have no chance to experience real happiness.

I have thought there was some advantage even in death, by which we mingle with the herd of common men.

You get to a point where it’s like you can’t really do anything right, and people will pick on you for whatever decisions you make, so I just try and take no notice and get on with my music.

A hustler has to deal with danger and risk. It’s part of the game. You cannot control it all, nor would you want to. Chaos, unknown factors are not something to be anxious about.

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.

People haven’t always been there for me, but music always has.

I probably wouldn’t have made it this far if I were a refugee.

Respond intelligently even to unintelligent treatment.

I’ll never, ever be full. I’ll always be hungry. Obviously, I’m not talking about food. Growing up, I had nothing for such a long time. Someone told me a long time ago, and I’ve never forgotten it, ‚Once you’ve ever been hungry, really, really hungry, then you’ll never, ever be full.‘

When you’re in hell, you forget how great you really are because you’re suffering and you forget the great things you’ve done.

I was brought up as an only child, and we were very close. But when I was 14, we got evicted. We came home to a padlock, and I looked up at my mom and she was crying, and there was nothing to do.

Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else – means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.

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

To enjoy freedom we have to control ourselves.

It was really hard for them to intimidate me. They felt I was intimidating. One of the growers had a name for me: I think it was ‚dragon lady‘ or something like it.

In crises the most daring course is often safest.

Oh, you weak, beautiful people who give up with such grace. What you need is someone to take hold of you – gently, with love, and hand your life back to you.

A cat is only itself, representative of the strong forces of life that won’t let go.

Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.

There comes a time when people get tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life’s July and left standing amid the piercing chill of an alpine November.

Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.

Virtue consists, not in abstaining from vice, but in not desiring it.

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.

You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best that you have to give.

Sometimes you must suffer through something to defeat your fear of it.

If pleasures are greatest in anticipation, just remember that this is also true of trouble.

Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over.

Logically, harmony must come from the heart… Harmony very much based on trust. As soon as use force, creates fear. Fear and trust cannot go together.

The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love colour the most.

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.

I’ve had two cancer bouts in my years on the Court, and the first one, Justice O’Connor told me, ‚Now, you do the chemotherapy on Friday because you’ll get over it during the weekend and you can be back in court on Monday.‘

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

Marines don’t know how to spell the word ‚defeat‘.

Life is just one damned thing after another.

That’s when you know you’re the greatest: when you’re the greatest, and people still put odds against you.

Nothing can resist the person who smiles at life – I don’t mean the ironic and disillusioned smile of my grandfather, but the triumphant smile of the person who knows that he will survive, or that at least he will be saved by what seems to be destroying him.

Failure at some point in your life is inevitable, but giving up is unforgivable.

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