David Shields Quotes

Intelligent people should learn from their experiences. With people on the street, the bad experience has beaten them.

If it were not for the bad things that've happened to me, I wouldn't be the person I am today.

I'd spent my childhood thinking bad things, bad things every day. It had made me sick, but it had made me determined.

I had to do so much self-searching and self-work and learning how to navigate in a world that seemed very mean.

I've overcome a lot - sexual abuse, death of a loved one, bad parents and experienced life. My nature is such I not only survived all this but I have thrived. I've always been psychologically ambitious in that I've never been willing to settle emotionally for anything less then what's needed. I've wanted more then that from life.

Life is challenging. I wish I could tell you that you’ll always be on top of the mountain, but the reality is that there are days when nothing will go right, when not only will you not be on top, you may not even be able to figure out which way is up. Do yourself a favor, and don’t make it any harder than it has to be. In those moments, be careful how you speak to yourself; be careful how you think of yourself; be careful how you conduct yourself; be careful how you develop yourself.

The hard things in life, the things you really learn from, happen with a clear mind.

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

Victory in physical battles requires strength, muscles, and skill; but the fight is never tougher and victory is never sweeter than in the battles over self.

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.

You only mature when you face problems you can't deal with.

We acquire the strength we have overcome.

I've had great success and I've had catastrophic failure. It's really how you handle the rough stuff that defines you, I think.

The biggest breakthroughs in consciousness occur when things are difficult; when we have a choice to fall to the worst of ourselves or rise to the best of ourselves.

You know, I've had my ups and downs.

The art of living lies not in eliminating but in growing with troubles.

Conventional wisdom tells us to avoid taking unalterable action while at a low point in life. I have never been conventional.

You learn who you really are in a fight - what you're really made of. You have to face yourself and rise above your own fears and failings.

I love failure. It's stuff that I'm thinking about all the time in my life, so it would make sense to me anyway to write about it.

It makes one a better person to have had hardships and to have overcome hardships and not to blame anybody else for your mistakes.

Acceptance of one's life has nothing to do with resignation; it does not mean running away from the struggle. On the contrary, it means accepting it as it comes, with all the handicaps of heredity, of suffering, of psychological complexes and injustices.

Scientists have demonstrated that dramatic, positive changes can occur in our lives as a direct result of facing an extreme challenge - whether it's coping with a serious illness, daring to quit smoking, or dealing with depression. Researchers call this 'post-traumatic growth.'

I learned that you go through things, you deal with them and that's what empowers you and ultimately makes you a happy person.

I didn't wish those tragedies upon the people who played them out. It was certainly tragic for them, but not for me. All of those things brought me to where I am. Without those things, I couldn't be who I am, I wouldn't be here.

I have learned that a bitter experience can make you stronger.