Lucille Clifton Quotes

Bottom line is, even if you see 'em coming, you're not ready for the big moments. No one asks for their life to change, not really. But it does. So what are we, helpless? Puppets? No. The big moments are gonna come. You can't help that. It's what you do afterwards that counts. That's when you find out who you are.

The ability to grow is directly related to the amount of insecurity you can take in your life.

If you learn life's lessons, you will do well. If not, life will just continue to push you around. People do two things. Some just let life push them around. Others get angry and push back. But they push back against their boss, or their job, or their husband or wife. They do not know it's life that's pushing.

In a funny way, when things went wrong in my life - and it is my fault that they went wrong, it is not anyone else's fault - and all the glittering outside things were taken away, I was left with the things of most value.

It's a shallow life that doesn't give a person a few scars.

Sometimes you surprise yourself with what you can handle, and if you come out the other end with some wisdom, then it's not such a bad thing.

Someone said adversity builds character, but someone else said adversity reveals character. I'm pleasantly surprised with my resilience. I persevere, and not just blindly. I take the best, get rid of the rest, and move on, realizing that you can make a choice to take the good.

Possibly because I've lived so much of my life in difficult circumstances, I think I have a more profound understanding of life.

I am a woman in process. I'm just trying like everybody else. I try to take every conflict, every experience, and learn from it. Life is never dull.

I have a fairly pragmatic view on all those bullies that came before, because everybody makes you who you are now.

I think that if you live long enough, you realize that so much of what happens in life is out of your control, but how you respond to it is in your control. That's what I try to remember.

I've learned never to say never.

We all have our baggage, and I think the trick is not resisting it but accepting it, understanding that the worst experience has a valuable gift wrapped inside if you're willing to receive it.

Experiences don't make us damaged goods; it's what we do with those experiences that matters.

I discovered I'm a lot more patient than I thought I'd be. It takes a lot to shake me.

Adversity teaches a man a lot about himself.

Being in the public eye, going through so much in life personal and my work, all of that put together it's either it will destroy you or make you a better person.

You cannot build up a character in a solitude; you need a formed character to stand a solitude.

As the most generous vine, if it is not pruned, runs out into many superfluous stems, and grows at last weak and fruitless; so dote the best man, if he be not cut short of his desires and pruned with afflictions. If it be painful to bleed, it is worse to wither. Let me be pruned, that I may grow, rather than be cut up to burn.

No matter what, I need to maintain my sense of self and always be true to who I am. And that while there are always going to be roadblocks along the way, you're going to be just fine, as long as you learn from each setback.

My greatest talent is calmness and being positive. I concentrate on what you can do even in the worst of times. You don't judge by last week's errors or lost opportunity.

Life doesn't actually knock you down. It does, however, provide you with many opportunities to evaluate your standing in life: what you stand on, what you stand for, how you stand within yourself and for yourself.

Maturity is the art of living in peace with that which cannot be changed, the courage to change that which should be changed, no matter what it takes, and the wisdom to know the difference.

When things don't go your way, never forget who you are, and always remember the bigger picture.

... a warrior knows that he cannot change, and yet he makes it his business to try to change, even though he knows that he won't be able to. That's the only advantage a warrior has over the average man. The warrior is never disappointed when he fails to change.