You can’t stop everything from happening. But we’ve gotten to a point where we’re certainly trying. If a car doesn’t have four hundred air bags in it, then it’s no good.

Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.

Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.

Do something everyday for no other reason than you would rather not do it, so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the test.

The greatest gift that you can give to others is the gift of unconditional love and acceptance.

I don’t have a problem with Hulk Hogan. People say things and do things, and who am I to judge?

Even if you have a terminal disease, you don’t have to sit down and mope. Enjoy life and challenge the illness that you have.

Remember that life’s big changes rarely give advance warning.

‚Suffering should not make us bitter people,‘ my mother once said, ‚it should make us better comforters.‘ Young people need to hear this from those who have walked before them, because someday they’ll be walking those same steps, but there may not be anyone following behind.

It doesn’t matter who likes you or doesn’t like you, all that matters is that God likes you. He accepts you, he approves of you.

Any experience that touches you, in any particular way, is good. It can be a horrible experience.

If you try to fight the course, it will beat you.

Regrets are the natural property of grey hairs.

It is true that we are weak and sick and ugly and quarrelsome but if that is all we ever were, we would millenniums ago have disappeared from the face of the earth.

Reality has a way of intruding. Reality eventually intrudes on everything.

I came up from a difficult background.

Your life is like a play with several acts. Some of the characters who enter have short roles to play, others, much larger. Some are villains and others are good guys. But all of them are necessary; otherwise, they wouldn’t be in the play. Embrace them all, and move on to the next act.

If you look at my life, generally, I’ve been put in situations which were difficult and which I conquered.

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.

The pressure of adversity does not affect the mind of the brave man… It is more powerful than external circumstances.

One ought never to turn one’s back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!

Failed plans should not be interpreted as a failed vision. Visions don’t change, they are only refined. Plans rarely stay the same, and are scrapped or adjusted as needed. Be stubborn about the vision, but flexible with your plan.

Truth lives, in fact, for the most part on a credit system. Our thoughts and beliefs pass, so long as nothing challenges them, just as bank-notes pass so long as nobody refuses them.

You should never view your challenges as a disadvantage. Instead, it’s important for you to understand that your experience facing and overcoming adversity is actually one of your biggest advantages.

I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. No matter what the injury – unless it’s completely debilitating – I’m going to be the same player I’ve always been. I’ll figure it out. I’ll make some tweaks, some changes, but I’m still coming.

Arrange whatever pieces come your way.

The worst days are when you feel foggy in the head – chemo-brain they call it. It’s awful because you feel boring. As well as bored. And stupid. And resigned.

Even after a bad harvest there must be sowing.

Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?… It is necessary to accompany them with mercy.

Gays are some of the nicest, kindest, most loving people in the world.

I am sometimes sad when I hear the personal stories of Tibetan refugees who have been tortured or beaten. Some irritation, some anger comes. But it never lasts long. I always try to think at a deeper level, to find ways to console.

People will try to bring you down, but you gotta go up.

I don’t suffer of anything that I’ve lost.

Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand.

Feeling sorry for ourselves is the most useless waste of energy on the planet. It does absolutely no good. We can’t let our circumstances or what others do or don’t do control us. We can decide to be happy regardless.

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.

There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot.

There is nothing in the world so much admired as a man who knows how to bear unhappiness with courage.

Trials teach us what we are; they dig up the soil, and let us see what we are made of.

Do not seek to bring things to pass in accordance with your wishes, but wish for them as they are, and you will find them.

People always fear change. People feared electricity when it was invented, didn’t they? People feared coal, they feared gas-powered engines… There will always be ignorance, and ignorance leads to fear. But with time, people will come to accept their silicon masters.

Millions of people die every day. Everyone’s got to go sometime.

Every man in his lifetime needs to thank his faults.

I’d go to, like, six different schools in one year. We were on welfare, and my mom never ever worked.

There are a lot of groups that feel a little bit strange around me, because I am inclusive.

Let’s embrace being not normal!

A Scout is never taken by surprise; he knows exactly what to do when anything unexpected happens.

We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses.

I am not made for politics because I am incapable of wanting or accepting the death of the adversary.

When times are bad is when the real entrepreneurs emerge.

Remorse sleeps during prosperity but awakes bitter consciousness during adversity.

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.

Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.

When you can’t make them see the light, make them feel the heat.

I went through every emotion with tryna pursue what I’m doing, you know what I mean? And I think what’s gon‘ separate whoever’s gon go for something, that you ain’t gon‘ quit.

Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.

One mustn’t close one’s eyes to difficulty and to shortcomings; the more one recognizes them, the less they upset one.

The poetry you read has been written for you, each of you – black, white, Hispanic, man, woman, gay, straight.

The first decade of the twentieth century was not a great time to be born black and poor and female in St. Louis, Missouri, but Vivian Baxter was born black and poor, to black and poor parents. Later she would grow up and be called beautiful. As a grown woman she would be known as the butter-colored lady with the blowback hair.

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.‘

All religions must be tolerated… for every man must get to heaven in his own way.