William Kamkwamba Quotes

I'm very very happy for my hardships and misfortunes: they build character and make you a better person. Even if I think it's something you have to carry with you, it's definitely something that makes you more empathic towards other people, makes you understand people and relationships so much better.

Anybody who has gone through a life-changing experience will tell you there is a different understanding of what is real and what is important, and when you are going through different moments, you can reflect and go, 'I have been through worse.'

As years passed away I have formed the habit of looking back upon that former self as upon another person, the remembrance of whose emotions has been a solace in adversity and added zest to the enjoyment of prosperity.

But one of the best things away from playing was a visit to a Mumbai slum. You see people in their conditions, getting stuck into their way of life and not moaning, and realise how lucky you are to be doing what you are doing. It put things into perspective.

Please remember, no matter what you go through in life, somebody else might have it harder.

You live your life day by day and find ways to get through it. You grow up through things that are challenging and you find the joy. You realize there are so many people that have it much worse and remind yourself. I have been very blessed.

I thank God for my failures. Maybe not at the time but after some reflection. I never feel like a failure just because something I tried has failed.

Look back, and smile on perils past.

No graduation speaker will ever tell you that the future is anything but uncertain. It never is. But graduations need not only be obsessed with looking ahead; a graduation can be a day on which we turn back and trace our steps to see how we ended up where we are.

You have perspective when little people come into your life. You take the best things you have and let them overshadow your disappointment.

I am very fortunate. I am a glass-half-full eternal optimist type to the point of being a moron. But I would never presume to know how hard it goes for others. How, for some people, just getting though the day is an incredible effort that can hardly be borne.

Misery is, by her own nature, a passing phase of sorrow, one that does not linger uninvited. Her sojourns seem to be part of life's required curriculum, perhaps because Misery endows us with compassion and empathy.

A lot of people are in much tougher situations than me and I am very fortunate to be where I am, so I try to remember that and stay humble whenever things feel tough.

I can't help but be thankful, and really appreciate everything I have been through, good and bad, because it got me here!

Nothing in my life has necessarily been easy, but eventually I see where it's gotten me to, and I say, 'Okay, it's been worth it.'

I learned that my upbringing was rough, but there's other people out there where their upbringing is even worse than mine. It just gives you even more of a reason to want to help.

I'm always thankful for the stuff I went through and thankful for the people I've met, and I'm thankful even for some of the bad times because all of it helps get you to wherever you are in your life.

Obviously, I have to enjoy all I have. People depend on you, and now I can look back at everything I've gone through to get here with a different perspective.

I think about my mom and the things she went through, and things could always be a lot worse.

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

I think you only see experiences as defining moments with distance.

A good thing to remember is somebody's got it a lot worse than we do.

Cancer has given me a dose of humility. I'm much more empathetic. It's a club I would rather not have joined, but it is a club.

Every year, I appreciate life more because of the deeper understanding of what it took to get this far.

I've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. Lived it and I'm still here to talk about it and help someone else if I can.