Ray Lewis Quotes

If you are weak, dependent upon others, inclined to allow yourself to be dominated by opinion, to take root wherever you see a little soil, make for yourself a shield that will resist everything, for if you yield to your weaker nature you will not grow, you will dry up like a dead plant, and you will bear neither fruit nor flowers.

I know how to look after myself.

But to do this kind of work, you have to be very strong, otherwise you lose your personality, your identity.

Be able to live alone, even if you don't want to and think you will never find it necessary.

I'm not tough, and I never have been. I suppose over the years I've built up kind of a veneer to protect myself because I have functioned on my own for a long, long time, and I have never had a lot of flunkies preceding me to clear the way.

I don't belong to anyone.

In silence - and in self-defense - I figured things out in my own little way.

Since being quite young, I've had a very strong sense of independence and survival. As a child, I was on my own two feet emotionally.

We should be able to defend ourselves by ourselves.

I'm comfortable in any situation. I don't have fears about a lot of things. It's not a survival thing, but on a farm, you always look after yourself. You're very independent, but you're still very family-oriented.

I'm very realistic about who's coming to my defense. I am my defense.

I can take care of myself. You're probably never going to know if something bad is happening in my life. I think I was just made that way.

I grew up as a man because I was by myself.

The thing to do is to build a fortress within yourself.

I've paved this road myself, and no one else has walked it the same exact way that I have. There are people that helped kick the door in, but it's really satisfying to be in a place where you know who you are and you've figured yourself out.

I guard my treasures: my thoughts, my will, my freedom. And the greatest of these is freedom.

Be an individual, work hard, study, get your mind straight, and trust nobody.

You get tough like me and you don't get hurt. You look out for yourself and nothin' can touch you.

The great lesson that nature seems to teach us at all ages is self-dependence, self-protection, self-support. In the hours of our keenest sufferings all are thrown wholly on themselves for consolation.

I am not the we of anyone

You can get what you want. Never sell out. Don't break. Don't weaken. Don't let the kindness of strangers be your salvation, for it is no salvation at all. Unless you sleep alone, you sleep with the enemy. Never come out of the storm. On the other hand, maybe you should. You don't have what it takes to go the hard way. Come out of the cold and sit by the fire. Let them warm you with the smiles and promise of friendship's fortune. Lose your edge. A soft body and chained mind suit you. Chances are you don't have what it takes to walk the frozen trail. Stay home and relax.

Be your own place of safety, she told herself, straightening. No crossbar in the world could protect her from what lay ahead, and neither could a tiny knife ticked in her boot - though there her tiny knife would most certainly remain - and neither could a man, not even Akiva. She had to be her own strength, complete unto herself.

The Virgin (and I'm not speaking here of a sexual virgin) is the one whose search springs from her complete independence, and everything she learns is the fruit of her ability to face challenges alone.

You do your own thing and you see if you survive.

One thing I've learned in life is that I can speak for myself, that I can fight my own battles. I don't like anyone telling me how I'm supposed to feel or think or what I'm supposed to say.