Ayanna Pressley Quotes

I don't consider myself a survivor; that's someone who has gone through something terrible.

Sometimes to go forward you've got to go to the depths of your own personal despair and claw yourself back. From that point, no matter what happens, you know you can do it.

I fancied I had some constancy of mind because I could bear my own sufferings, but found through the sufferings of others I could be weakened like a child.

I'm often drawn to characters that are more obviously one thing. They're passionate, and there is always an element of strength because I think every person possesses that in some way, even if they've experienced hardship in their lives.

All of the characters I've had the chance to create are survivors. But we live in a world where surviving makes up most of what we do.

Being knee-deep in sadness or suffering and refusing to look down - to me, that represents something more powerful than someone who's never gone through difficulty.

When our TV screens are filled with heartbreaking images of suffering, we have to dig deep inside ourselves in order to keep going.

Life is hard. It is. And it's like, I don't want anybody feeling any pain.

The more I speak and travel, I realize I don't have it that bad. There are so many people that have it so much worse than I do.

I may not unnerve myself while I can struggle against evil.

I once cried because I had no shoes to play soccer, but one day, I met a man who had no feet.

Weave me a rope from this dark despair, from this dull-eyed pain... Weave me a rope from this endless night, from this distant shore... Weave me a rope that will pull me through these impossible times.

In the face of suffering, one has no right to turn away, not to see.

Love one another, Jesus said. Sometimes it took a lifetime to learn how. Sometimes it took someone to hit rock bottom to make someone reach up and grasp hold and be lifted from the mire to stand on a firm foundation.

I cannot worry much about your sins and miseries when I have so many of my own. I can only love you all, poor fellow travellers, fellow sufferers. I do not want to add one least straw to the burden you already carry.

Nobody cares how tough your upbringing was. Nobody cares if you suffered some discrimination.

There is a strength, a power even, in understanding brokenness, because embracing our brokenness creates a need and desire for mercy, and perhaps a corresponding need to show mercy. When you experience mercy, you learn things that are hard to learn otherwise. You see things you can't otherwise see; you hear things you can't otherwise hear. You begin to recognize the humanity that resides in each of us.

He that is down needs fear no fall.

Courage! Suffering, when it climbs highest, lasts not long.

Who can judge another man's suffering?

Be happy for those who are happy, have compassion towards the unhappy, and maintain equanimity towards the wicked.

when pain is to be born, a little courage helps more than much knowledge, a little human sympathy more than much courage, and the least tincture of the love of God more than all.

It's incredibly touching when someone who seems so hopeless finds a few inches of light to stand in and makes everything work as well as possible. All of us lurch and fall, sit in the dirt, are helped to our feet, keep moving, feel like idiots, lose our balance, gain it, help others get back on their feet, and keep going.

We should practice by showing one another love and helping one another. It is a mistake to pursue happiness and to seek to the avoid suffering by deceiving and humiliating other people. We must try to achieve happiness and eliminate suffering by being good-hearted and well-behaved.

It is only out of ignorance that people are cruel, because they really don't think it will come back.