Tavis Smiley Quotes

Success is never so interesting as struggle

You cannot understand a man’s work by what he has accomplished but by what he has overcome in accomplishing it.

It's a lot easier to lose than it is to win. It's easier, but it's not more comfortable.

Who would attain to summits still and fair,Must nerve himself through valleys of despair.

No one wants to quit when he's losing and no one wants to quit when he's winning.

Man needs his difficulties because they are necessary to enjoy success.

I like struggle.

The thrill, believe me, is as much in the battle as in the victory.

You either lose your way or you break through the hardships and play well. There is a massive difference.

For me, football is a quest. Quests entail overcoming hardship, trials of adversity in the pursuit of true joy.

Scars are the price you pay for success.

Now understand me well. It is provided in the essence of things that from any fruition of success, no matter what, shall come forth something to make a greater struggle necessary.

I haven't met anybody who hasn't been able to describe years and years and years of very, very difficult struggle through the whole process of achieving anything whatsoever. And there's no way to sort of get around that.

We always want to see people strive and see the human spirit triumph against adversity. That's what it's all about because that's what we're doing. We're trying to triumph in our lives.

They never said winning was easy.

Take It From Me: Life's a Struggle but You Can Win

Before the gates of excellence the high gods have placed sweat; long is the road thereto and rough and steep at first; but when the heights are reached, then there is ease, though grievously hard in the winning.

The bigger the challenge, the bigger the sense of accomplishment when you get to the end of it.

The depth of your struggle determines the height of your success.

Keep trying. It's only from the valley that the mountain seems high.

No path of flowers leads to glory.

Out of struggle very often comes victory.

Some of my greatest pleasures have come from finding ways to overcome obstacles.

Adversity is something that makes reaching your goals so much more rewarding than if it didn't exist.

I wish to preach not the doctrine of ignoble ease but the doctrine of the strenuous life; the life of toil and effort; of labour and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes not to the man who desires mere easy peace but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph. A life of ignoble ease, a life of that peace which springs merely from lack either of desire or of power to strive after great things, is as little worthy of a nation as of an individual.