Quotes About Determination

We are not going to surrender nor dishonor ourselves nor get on our knees whatever price we have to pay.

With The King Center as her base, my mother pressed on to fulfill a role that changed lives and legislation. She was a woman who refused to surrender the reigns of what she knew to be her assignment, even when male civil rights and business leaders tried to convince her that she should leave the work of building her husband's legacy to them.

People say I'm a pain in the rear, but we surrender to people who say we are pains the rear.

I haven't had an easy life, but at some point, you have to take responsibility for yourself and shape who it is that you want to be. I have no time for moaners. I like to chase my dreams and surround myself with other people who are chasing their dreams, too.

How far would you run with a piece of lead in your heart?

life was a stone cutting and grinding...

She kept talking. She told everyone. There was more to it, and she was trying to get it talked out. After a time, she quit trying.

I hung up. It was a good start, but it didn't go far enough. I ought to have locked the door and hidden under the desk.

After a little while I felt a little better, but very little. I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun. I put them on and went out of the room.

I certainly admire people who do things.

However hard I try to be nice I always end up with my nose in the dirt and my thumb feeling for somebody's eye.

I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun.

She had a lot of face and chin. She had pewter-colored hair set in a ruthless permanent, a hard beak and moist eyes with the sympathetic expression of wet stones.

I had been stalking the bluebottle fly for five minutes, waiting for him to sit down. He didn't want to sit down. He just wanted to do wing-overs and sing the prologue to Pagliacci. I had the fly swatter poised in midair and I was all set. There was a patch of bright sunlight on the corner of the desk and I knew that sooner or later that was where he was going to light. But when he did, I didn't even see him at first. The buzzing stopped and there he was. And then the phone rang.

Her whole body shivered and her face fell apart like a bride's pie crust. She put it together again slowly, as if lifting a great weight, by sheer will power. The smile came back, with a couple of corners badly bent.

That's the difference between a champ and a knife thrower. The champ may have lost his stuff temporarily or permanently, he can't be sure. But when he can no longer throw the high hard one, he throws his heart instead. He throws something. He doesn't just walk off the mound and weep.

But down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid.

Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid....He must be the best man in his world, and a good enough man for any world. from Raymond Chandler's, The Simple Act of Murder.

I got back on the runway and took all of it and some of the hedge and gave the front door the heavy shoulder. This was foolish. About the only part of a California house you can't put your foot through is the front door. All it did was hurt my shoulder and make me mad.

And most men can stand what they've got to stand, when it steps up and looks them straight in the eye. Like they're doing all over the world right now.

Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean.

She made a humph noise and played another card. She got the ace of diamonds up to the top line. "The ace of clubs is buried, darn it. I'm not going to get it out in time." "Kind of slide it out," I said, "when you're not looking

If I'm wrong, you can prove it on me and I'll eat my chair cushion.

He was tough, fast and he ate red meat. Nobody could push him around.