Quotes About Adversity

From 1936 on, I have taken more falls than any other 20 comedians put together. From the time I was 21, I've taken them on everything from clay courts to cement to wood floors, coming off pianos, going out a two-story window, landing on Dean, falling into the rough. You do that and you're gonna have problems.

I think that the mere fact that I'm doing it ought to inspire someone. In junior high school the counselor suggested that I focus on wood shop and metal shop.

There's a lot of worse things going on in the world than me hitting a bad five wood.

When things get complicated, you have to bring out your character and put more wood on the fire.

Nobody could like Donald Trump, surely, except his mother. No one really likes The Donald. But how can you not have respect for a guy who's been down on the floor and just keeps coming back? Nothing will keep Donald Trump down until they drive a wooden stake in his heart and a silver bullet in his brain.

We will not rest until the wooden stake is punched through the heart of the Enron lawsuit against us.

My parents were brutal to each other, so I slept in the basement by an old coal-fired furnace. I became a street kid. Occasionally, I'd live with aunts or uncles, then I'd run away to live in the woods, trapping and hunting game to survive. The wilderness pulled at me; still does.

Well it's not easy being Tiger Woods on the course. It's not easy being Tiger Woods off the course. In his defense, it's not easy being Tiger Woods.

It may seem strange, but the most grateful I've ever felt was when I was held up at gunpoint. After I handed over my wallet and the mugger ran off into the woods, I thought, 'Thank you for not shooting me.' I was overwhelmingly glad to be alive and unharmed.

I'm really not good at anything else, so if I don't make it as a musician, I'll probably just end up living in the woods with a bunch of dogs.

We didn't have cable TV. We just couldn't afford it. But you don't need cable to watch the Masters. In 1997, at the exact moment I started out, I watched Tiger Woods win the Masters.

My mom had me at 16 and took me every place she went. I remember going on peace marches. She tried to take me to Woodstock - it was pouring rain. It was on my birthday, and I was crying so much in the car they turned the car around and dumped me at my grandmother's house... I had a little attitude.

Life is never all one thing. It bounces around. Certainly, my own life has. Look at Woody Allen's funny movies - all the humor comes out of sad stuff. Sometimes you have to laugh, no matter what life deals you.

When things are going bad, don't get all bummed out. Don't get startled; don't get frustrated. If you can say the word 'good,' guess what? It means you're still alive. It means you're still breathing.

I grew up in a tough neighborhood and we used to say you can get further with a kind word and a gun than just a kind word.

I have been made redundant before and it is a terrible blow; redundant is a rotten word because it makes you think you are useless.

For the longest time, I was horrified to hear the word 'failure,' but I've come to realize that we all fail. It's just a part of life. We all fall. It's how you rebound that shows the type of person you are.

I was rejected a lot in the early days - I think I heard the word 'no' nine times - and I began to think that maybe I wasn't going to make it as a professional, let alone play for the national team.

I miss singing every day. I can't sing anymore. My voice doesn't work. I have Parkinson's disease, and it sometimes takes my words away from me.

No one goes unscathed, we all go through things. We just can't let people's nasty words become our beliefs about ourselves, you know?

Turning feelings into words can help us process and overcome adversity.

You can't control injuries, but you can control how hard you work to come back.

Turning pro is a mindset. If we are struggling with fear, self-sabotage, procrastination, self-doubt, etc., the problem is, we're thinking like amateurs. Amateurs don't show up. Amateurs crap out. Amateurs let adversity defeat them. The pro thinks differently. He shows up, he does his work, he keeps on truckin', no matter what.

The demons are innumerable, appear at the most inconvenient times, and create panic and terror. But I have learnt that if I can master the negative forces and harness them to my chariot, then they can work to my advantage.