Quotes About Adversity

My grandfather was a really, really tough no-nonsense factory worker who emigrated from Ireland in about 1900 to Bridgeport, Conn. He had a big effect on me. Those guys who took a great leap out into what they knew not were the ones who were the real stars, the real heroes.

I thought I would be laying hardwood floors in Colorado - a construction worker. Middle class or working class, that's where I was! I just fought because I loved it. It was so fun! Being able to go in there and outthink your opponents.

Over the years, I have been a house painter, farm worker, paste-up artist, Easter Bunny, pizza delivery person, homeless shelter staff member, and counselor for adults and kids with mental illness - I quit my last real job in 2000 to work on writing full-time.

If you go two years without playing with confidence, when your whole life, you've been extremely confident and a hard worker... I got punched in the mouth, and it took me a while to adjust. I kind of had my confidence - I don't want to say taken away, because no one should ever be able to take your confidence away.

I never had a childhood. I started working when I was 7 years old. I got $1 a day getting water for the workers at the sugar cane plant.

In prosperous times, the marginal workers get by. But in tough times, they get the shaft.

I didn't really have an interest in politics when I first entered the workforce. What I wanted to do was help people who grew up like me. When I was a kid growing up in Tucson, my father lost his job and we lost everything - including our home. We lived in an abandoned gas station for two years until we were able to get back on our feet.

It hasn't always been easy. There's a lot of hard moments. Sometimes you learn from the end of the bench. Sometimes you learn from injuries. Sometimes you learn the most through the hard things. If you can keep a good attitude and keep on working, eventually situations change, and you can put those things to use.

I was 17 and out of school, living with my mom, starving, not eating, getting locked up, no focus, no guidance. When you ain't got no guidance, you can't do too much. But then I had my first son and started working. I got the right people around me.

There is one thing I can say about working in a steel mill. If it does not kill you, it will make a man out of you.

I should thank Mussolini for having declared me to be of an inferior race. This led me to the joy of working, not any more, unfortunately, in university institutes but in a bedroom.

Throughout my 20s I spent a lot of time just playing and not really working, but fortunately for me I continued to get just enough work, and have a reason to wake up in the morning. I really empathize with some of my peers who had success in the early years then it dries up, and so there's no reason to get up in the morning.

I did all sorts of jobs after drama school - working in a bar, as a teaching assistant. I probably learned as much from them as I did at drama school.

When I got emancipated from the foster care program and I became homeless, it was a struggle. I was working at an airline, and then I stopped to pursue comedy 110%.

It's just racing. Sometimes you have difficult moments, and then you try to work hard, and you keep working hard, and you overcome the situation. It's as simple as that.

It is just the start of your professional career and you have to handle it properly and realise that it is not always like that. There will be ups and downs. It is important that you keep humble, keep working hard and see it as the first step on a long journey.

When we lose, we don't have to change everything but correct things by working hard.

Sometimes, you have tough times when you don't score goals, but the most important thing is to keep working hard.

When I think about somebody like Keira Knightley, whom I don't particularly know, I see somebody who is working hard, really trying to challenge herself and make smart choices in spite of people criticising her size and performances.

The way football is, sometimes, everything that could go wrong goes wrong. You have to dig yourselves out of that by simply working hard and sticking together.

I have an amazing fan base. I also have an amazing amount of haters: believe who don't believe, people who don't want me to succeed. I don't really mind having those people around. If anything it's actually a good thing for me because it keeps me in the gym, keeps me working hard - knowing there are people out there who don't want me to succeed.

In 'Love Story,' Oliver Barrett IV comes from generations of wealth and privilege, but when he meets working-class Jennifer Cavilleri, he can't resist. When they marry, his father disowns him, but they struggle on in love, until she's diagnosed with cancer and they can't afford the costly treatments.

It wasn't a pleasant experience to be confined to my hotel room for five days even though I had my Xbox and workout stuff with me so I could make the most of a bad situation.

I do a workout every morning in which I purposefully try to make myself uncomfortable. It sets me up for the rest of the day by reminding me that I can choose to be OK in the midst of tough challenges.