There are those who believe Black people possess the secret of joy and that it is this that will sustain them through any spiritual or moral or physical devastation.

My mom cleaned toilets for a long time, and she’d seen a lot of terrible things, but she was still the strength of our family. And there are women like that all across the country – all around the world – who show that type of fortitude.

We didn’t crumble after 9/11. We didn’t falter after the Boston Marathon. But we’re America. Americans will never, ever stand down. We endure. We overcome. We own the finish line.

I believe that of all the things I have done, exciting though many of them have been, there’s no doubt in my mind that the most worthwhile have been the establishing of schools and hospitals, and the rebuilding of monasteries in the mountains.

Knowledge and human power are synonymous.

A family shares hardships and a connected history.

I am my own sanctuary and I can be reborn as many times as I choose throughout my life.

Things do not always happen the way I would like them to happen, and I had better get used to that.

Life is a gamble. You can get hurt, but people die in plane crashes, lose their arms and legs in car accidents; people die every day. Same with fighters: some die, some get hurt, some go on. You just don’t let yourself believe it will happen to you.

We must open the doors of opportunity. But we must also equip our people to walk through those doors.

When life is too easy for us, we must beware or we may not be ready to meet the blows which sooner or later come to everyone, rich or poor.

I used to have a real problem with self-pity. Every time the devil would throw a pity party, I would attend.

Opportunity often comes disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat.

Sisters, do you realize the breadth and scope of your influence when you speak those things that come to your heart and mind as directed by the Spirit?

If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.

Adjusting to the passage of time, I think, is a key to success and to life: just being able to roll with the punches.

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

I’ve had a lot of success; I’ve had failures, so I learn from the failure.

There are people in the world who have skills and strength and talent that I will never have. Never. These notions that you can ‚be whatever you want to be as long as you want it bad enough‘ are not true. They are fairy tales.

I believe that if you show people the problems and you show them the solutions they will be moved to act.

No woman should ever be quite accurate about her age. It looks so calculating.

When you get to a place where you understand that love and belonging, your worthiness, is a birthright and not something you have to earn, anything is possible.

My dad always said, ‚Champ, the measure of a man is not how often he is knocked down, but how quickly he gets up.‘

Even when we have physical hardships, we can be very happy.

I’m not a supermodel. That’s not what I do. What I do is music. I want my fans to feel the way I do, to know what they have to offer is just as important, more important, than what’s happening on the outside.

I was raised to be an independent woman, not the victim of anything.

I can’t jump the highest. I’m obviously not the biggest, not the strongest.

There is no education like adversity.

What’s coming will come and we’ll just have to meet it when it does.

You have people come into your life shockingly and surprisingly. You have losses that you never thought you’d experience. You have rejection and you have learn how to deal with that and how to get up the next day and go on with it.

If it’s stress of things that we cannot control, what you have to do is you mitigate that stress as much as possible. You’ve planned, you’ve trained, you’ve done everything you can in your power to mitigate the stress that’s facing you. And then after that, there’s nothing you can do. So, you have to let that one go.

The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within.

What spectacle can be more edifying or more seasonable, than that of Liberty and Learning, each leaning on the other for their mutual and surest support?

If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business.

It’s true my father abused me and didn’t love and protect me the way he should have, and at times it seemed no one would ever help me and it would never end. But God always had a plan for my life, and He has redeemed me.

My faith was tested like Job. That’s the message I try to tell other people: just because you believe in God, serve God, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, people gotta realize, it don’t mean things not gonna happen to you.

What kind of people do they think we are? Is it possible they do not realize that we shall never cease to persevere against them until they have been taught a lesson which they and the world will never forget?

Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person.

A good leader can engage in a debate frankly and thoroughly, knowing that at the end he and the other side must be closer, and thus emerge stronger. You don’t have that idea when you are arrogant, superficial, and uninformed.

I’ve used my femininity and my sexuality as a weapon and a tool… but that’s just natural.

You pray for rain, you gotta deal with the mud too. That’s a part of it.

I always tried to turn every disaster into an opportunity.

Key is never be afraid of being yourself. Never!

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.

Once we have a war there is only one thing to do. It must be won. For defeat brings worse things than any that can ever happen in war.

I had my moments of being humiliated, and then I had moments of doing something humiliating. I’m glad I lived out both roles.

Didn’t get promoted? Good. More time to get better.

I believe that a man is the strongest soldier for daring to die unarmed.

I’m tough when I have to be, tender when I should be. When you find a really tough guy, he’s not a predator. He doesn’t have to prove himself. Guys who have to pretend to be tough, they ain’t. I’m tough.

Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength.

It is folly for an eminent man to think of escaping censure, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution.

I liked his ability to deal with a lot of the negativity that surrounded him. Even though he was in a world that he didn’t want to be in, he still saw the bigger picture.

With tech companies, whoever’s the leader is always questioned, you know. They say, ‚Is this the end of them?‘ And – there’s more – more times people think that’s the case than it really is the case.

My whole family have all been through a difficult time. My focus is my children, our children.

I was willing to accept what I couldn’t change.

I’m so tough and so bad, I can be humble and lift another guy up.

There is a tendency for things to right themselves.

‚Mean‘ is a song I wrote about somebody who wrote things that were so mean so many times that it would ruin my day. Then it would ruin the next day. And it would level me so many times, I just felt like I was being hit in the face every time this person would take to their computer.

Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.

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

No one has the right to be sorry for himself for a misfortune that strikes everyone.