If you are always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be.
I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn.
You will face many defeats in life, but never let yourself be defeated.
Among other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.
Courage is the most important of all virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.
My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.
You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off you.
Whatever you want to do, if you want to be great at it, you have to love it and be able to make sacrifices for it.
If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.
You may not control the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.
To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.
The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.
Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.
There are a terrible lot of lies going about the world, and the worst of it is that half of them are true.
All the greatest things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom; justice; honor; duty; mercy; hope.
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.
Broadly speaking, short words are best and the old words when short, are best of all.
Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak, it’s also what it takes to sit down and listen.
We shall not fail or falter. We shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden shock of battle nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down. Give us the tools and we will finish the job.
Our only adjustments are figuring out our schedules. Our deal is that we can’t be more than a week apart. So far that’s worked out pretty well.
I don’t think of us as a power couple, because I don’t know what that means. I would think a power couple is like… Bill and Hillary seem to be a power couple. I think we’re just a couple with a great interest in the human condition. I don’t think of that as particularly powerful; I just think of it as our responsibility as people on the planet.
She does very well with that [coping with Hollywood’s spotlight]. It’s hard to do, I think.
I think about three days in, you could tell. I mean, I knew when I met her that she was so extraordinary and special. And then I wondered if I’d ever get a chance to date her.
I very much enjoy the projects that she takes on because they have real consequence.
The only way we resolve anything is by arm wrestling. That is my only chance of winning anything with her because if it’s an intellectual battle, I would lose. She’s the smart one in the family.
Look, it’s good to surround yourself with anybody who is smarter than you, and for me, the bar’s pretty low anyway. But Amal is way up there. She’s brilliant.
I have someone who I can talk to about anything and someone who I care more about than I’ve cared about anybody.
I’ve always been involved in things other than this business long before I was successful at it, but she’s been doing it kind of quietly and unheralded for a long, long period of time.
I felt that I had met someone who I would absolutely, you know, trade my life for. I met someone who — her life meant more to me than my life.
Don’t let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use.
When you judge others, you do not define them, you define yourself.
Whenever we’re afraid, it’s because we don’t know enough. If we understood enough, we would never be afraid.
We will not receive not what we idly wish for but what we justly earn. Our rewards will always be in exact proportion to our service.
Whatever we plant in our subconscious mind and nourish with repetition and emotion will one day become reality.
Everything in the world we want to do or get done, we must do with and through people.
Our attitude towards life determines life’s attitude towards us.
We are all self-made, but only the successful will admit it.
All you need is the plan, the road map, and the courage to press on to your destination.
The mind moves in the direction of our currently dominant thoughts.
One of the things you can always depend on, this is one of the truths of the universe. And you heard it first from here, whatever we decide we want to do is what we do.
Let me be the first to tell you, drinking alcohol is the worst thing to do in cold weather. Hot soup is the best because the process of digesting food helps to warm you up.
I don’t want a Black History Month. Black history is American history.
People need to start to think about the messages that they send in the movies.
How are we going to get rid of racism? Stop talking about it!
Learning how to be still, to really be still and let life happen – that stillness becomes a radiance.
How do we change the world? One random act of kindness at a time.
When you have made your choice, it is providence that is your guide. Good, bad, or indifferent. Your fate lies in that.
Attacking people with disabilities is the lowest display of power I can think of.
The best way to confront, or deal with, technological innovation is to keep moving technologically.
Every one of us is different in some way, but for those of us who are more different, we have to put more effort into convincing the less different that we can do the same thing they can, just differently.
The handicap of deafness is not in the ear; it is in the mind.
Deaf people can do anything, except hear.
I’m a proud person who happens to be deaf. I don’t want to change it. I don’t want to wake up and suddenly say, ‘Oh my God, I can hear.’ That’s not my dream. It’s not my dream. I’ve been raised deaf. I’m used to the way I am. I don’t want to change it. Why would I ever want to change? Because I’m used to this, I’m happy.
I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, and in spite of what most people might have expected from a young girl growing up deaf, life for me was like one long episode of The Brady Bunch. Despite whatever barriers were in my way, I imagined myself as Marcia Brady skating down the street saying “hi” to everyone, whether they knew me or not.
It was ability that mattered, not disability, which is a word I’m not crazy about using.
You can do anything if you set your mind to it. Look out for kids, help them dream and be inspired. We teach calculus in schools, but I believe the most important formula is courage plus dreams equals success.
I hope I inspire people who hear. Hearing people have the ability to remove barriers that prevent deaf people from achieving their dreams.
Silence is the last thing the world will ever hear from me.
When I learned to sign and speak at the same time, the whole world opened up to me. That’s the beauty of encouraging kids who are deaf to use whatever it takes to communicate.
Be passionate and move forward with gusto every single hour of every single day until you reach your goal.
If your dream only includes you, it’s too small.
Time will tell … whether folks want to point and stare at the black woman filmmaker who made a certain kind of film, and pat her on the back, or if they want to actually roll up the sleeves and do a little bit of work so that there can be more of me coming through.
Figure out what you need to do to be the heroine of your own story.
I thing for female filmmakers a big issue is making their second and third films. You see the statistics, and the dropoff on the second and third [films] , are dire.
Filmmakers need to realize that their job isn’t done when they lock picture. We must see our films through.
You know, often films that are deemed positive, nobody wants to see them.
As long as you’re in an environment where the worth of the project isn’t based on the project but what its predecessors did, it’s not truly inclusive.
All the traditional models for doing things are collapsing; from music to publishing to film, and it’s a wide open door for people who are creative to do what they need to do without having institutions block their art.
I didn’t start out thinking that I could ever make films. I started out being a film lover, loving films, and wanting to have a job that put me close to them and close to filmmakers and close to film sets.
I wake up every day, and I’m a Puerto Rican girl from the Bronx. Every single day.
If they want to make an example out of me, I will gladly be one. Hopefully we can be an example of dedication, courage, and persistence under fire. I also hope to be an example of not tolerating nonsense, too.
We open doors so others can walk through them.
We must lean on others to strive on our own.
We can be whatever we have the courage to be.
I used to be much more cynical about how much was up against us,” she says. “I think I’ve changed my mind. Because I think that change is a lot closer than we think.
There is nothing radical about moral clarity.
We don’t have time to sit on our hands as our planet burns. For young people, climate change is bigger than election or re-election. It’s life or death.
Hope is not something that you have. Hope is something that you create, with your actions.
The biggest hurdle that our communities have is cynicism – saying it’s a done deal, who cares; there’s no point to voting. If we can get somebody to care, it’s a huge victory for the movement and the causes we’re trying to advance.
There is nothing more beautiful than someone who goes out of their way to make life beautiful for others.
Go against the grain, refuse to conform, take the road less traveled instead of the well-beaten path.
That’s the thing about fear. It can only hang around until faith enters the room, then it’s forced to flee.
Sometimes it takes a heartbreak to shake us awake and help us see we are worth so much more than we’re settling for.
Laugh in the face of adversity, and leap before you look. Dance as though EVERYBODY is watching. March to the beat of your own drummer. And stubbornly refuse to fit in.
In the midst of our struggle to find out who we are, there are infinite possibilities for beauty, and hope, and wonder, and love.
Our sparkle comes from somewhere deeper inside, somewhere so pure and authentic and REAL, it doesn’t need gloss or polish or glitter to shine.
One of the best times for figuring out who you are and what you really want out of life? Right after a breakup.
Being brave enough to be alone frees you up to invite people into your life because you want them and not because you need them.
Hope for love, pray for love, wish for love, dream for love… but don’t put your life on hold waiting for love.
