Donna Strickland Quotes

I have degrees in social science, math and physics. Everything but business.

If I had made it in cheerleading, I would have never been an actress.

A big part of life is realizing what you're good at.

I never had the chance to consider what or how I wanted to be.

Whether you want to go into music, whether you want to be a lawyer, whether you want to be President of the United States, the bottom line for all of you is that you have got to get your education.

In high school, I was very good in math and physics. I wasn't good at much of anything else. Some people are good at a lot of things. I don't know how they choose what to do.

I'm finding myself. I'm finding things I'm good at, things I need to work at.

We are born into a particular place and time with a particular set of gifts and limitations. The challenge isn't to pluck the best career out of the air, but to learn yourself from the inside out: to know your gifts and accept your limitations and shape your life accordingly.

By nature we have no defect that could not become a strength, no strength that could not become a defect.

You might have one thing in your head, but the things you're doing don't really lead down the right road, necessarily. When you're young, you don't want to hear that. You think you can do everything, be all things.

Understand your limitations and capitalize on them.

I try to perfect my strong points and make my weaknesses adequate.

Every day is a good day to examine our prime-time priorities.

Every little thing you do adds up, and before you know it, you've created your life. And how you create your life ripples out and affects everyone and everything that crosses your path, known or unknown to you.

You've just got to give yourself time - that's good advice I think. Give yourself time to figure out what you're good at and what you're not good at.

Most people think they know what they are good at. They are usually wrong... And yet, a person can perform only from strength.

Losing strengthens you. It reveals your weaknesses so you can fix them

One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes. In stopping to think through the meaning of what I have learned, there is much that I believe intensely, much I am unsure of. In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And, the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.

Every moment is an invitation to live out of your weakness or to live out of your strength.

I think my parents wanted me to do something very normal, have a normal person job and not be confronted by the instability of an artistic pursuit, but there wasn't really a lot they could do to stop me. I was, at one point, going to go to law school when I finished high school, but the next day I got accepted into acting school and there was no real question in my mind of what I was going to do.

If you want to live within the definition of your own truth, you have to choose to go through the initially painful and ultimately comforting process of finding it.

It's not interesting enough if you don't know who you are, what you want. You need to make educated decisions about your moves and talk to people who care about you. And you need to have people who will have your back.

Not to discover weakness is The Artifice of strength.

My sophomore English teacher encouraged me to write for the school paper, and that's what got me started. Suddenly it struck me that being a writer could be a romantic and adventurous position. Previously, I had thought I would be a tennis pro, giving lessons at a local club. I thought that would be a good life, and it might have been.

I don’t regret any of the decisions I’ve made in my life. Because with every choice I’ve made, I’ve learned something new.