Quotes About Adversity

I had to be very unrealistic about my situation. If I was so realistic I would never have made it this far. So, you just sometimes have to be hopeful for no reason.

People always go on about me being an inspiration, which is nice. But it's an unrealistic pedestal to be put on. There are other people out there who have had things happen to them, not just me.

Toward the end of the '90s, it got pretty rough for me - a lot of emotional unrest and problems with my relationships. That affected my career.

Around 10, I got chubby. I knew I'd crossed a line when the only pants that fit were from the 'Junior Plenty' line at JC Penny. My parents had split up, my mom was going through a dark time, and my brother and I were getting bullied in our new neighborhood. Life was big and unsafe.

Deep in the human nature, there is an almost irresistible tendency to concentrate physical and mental energy on attempts at solving problems that seem to be unsolvable. Indeed, for some kinds of active people, only the seemingly unsolvable problems can arouse their interest.

My first couple of years in the league left me very unstable. I had some times where I played well, and I had some times were I really did not get the opportunity. After Rick Pitino gave up on me my first year, people were like, 'He can't play.' So I had to get over that hump.

They tried to humiliate and cow her down in every way possible, but Jayalalithaaji was unstoppable. With every attack, she became stronger.

A lot of people over the last couple of seasons have fallen prey to the unstoppable force Usain Bolt brings to the table. And they just become subdued. That's not who I am. I'm not going to allow myself to become a subdued character.

If you are being criticised, and you are unsuccessful, then that can be a low for you. But if you are doing good and still being slammed, then it is good.

I think the periods of being unsuccessful have made me a better actor.

A man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame somebody else.

Everybody's got plans... until they get hit.

Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell, no!

A man can get discouraged many times but he is not a failure until he begins to blame somebody else and stops trying.

We lived, until I was 12 or so, in communal apartment with five different families and the same kitchen, in two little - my brother and me and my parents. It was hell, but it was a common thing. My father was not general or admiral, but he was colonel. He was teaching in military academy military topography.

The world was not supportive. They look at me as a joke for 13 to 14 years until I could prove feasibility; then I had competitors. Those that laughed at me became my competitors.

Everybody likes each other until things get tough. Then you will find out what kind of team you have, and I understand that as much as anyone.

It's like, if you're on a ship, and you're sailing towards your destination, but the ship sinks: that doesn't mean that you have to sink. Just because the ship sinks doesn't mean you have to sink. You just figure it out until a raft comes along, and God will send you a raft. Or He'll send you another boat to get you to your destination.

You don't know a ladder has splinters until you slide down it.

I didn't play in indoor gyms until I was 12... Hitting the floor on concrete - it ain't easy bouncing up from that. It makes you tougher.

If you're hit with a lawsuit that's untrue and the reasons you're hit with it aren't clear to you, there's a very big inclination on people's part to want to take responsibility for it - that this must be happening because I'm a terrible person, I did something, and I'm getting repaid for it.

I'm not going to sit here and tell anybody I haven't had difficulties in my life, haven't made any bad decisions. But to sit back and consider myself a bad person or not doing something positive, it's so untrue.

Problems are the outward signs of unused inner possibilities.

I have led an unusual life. I have buried a father killed at age 50 and two brothers killed in the prime of their lives. I raised my children as a single mother when my husband was arrested and held for eight years without a conviction - a hostage to my political career.