Patton Oswalt Quotes

I'm grateful that I had that uphill battle for 10 years of going onstage and having nobody know who I was, because you have to win them over.

I went further on less talent than anyone, but I was a damned good entertainer.

The point of my job is to entertain and make it look easy, so I guess it's the parts you don't often see which make me feel proud. All the behind the scenes work, the fears and insecurities I have to face and overcome to improve myself as a person and performer, all of the people who believe in me and encourage me.

Battles are won in the trenches, in the grit and grime of courageous determination; they are won day by day in the arena of life.

We must thoroughly clear away all ideas among our cadres of winning easy victories through good luck, without hard and bitter struggle, without sweat and blood.

Be persistent and just keep going to open mics no matter what, even if just to watch and not perform. You'll find that even at your worst keep your head up because you'll still be better than other people's best.

One of the reasons I still do stand-up is because it was so hard in the beginning that I feel like it would be such a shame not to redeem it that it's all fun.

If you practice hard, you can win every battle.

I wish to preach not the doctrine of ignoble ease but the doctrine of the strenuous life; the life of toil and effort; of labour and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes not to the man who desires mere easy peace but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph. A life of ignoble ease, a life of that peace which springs merely from lack either of desire or of power to strive after great things, is as little worthy of a nation as of an individual.

There have been plenty of stories of people who go through adversity and had a bump in the road. The guys who persevere and continue to work hard, it turns out OK for them.

Don't give up, no matter how hard it is. Things are going to be tough down the road, but the more work you put in, the more achievement you're going to get out of it.

I'm a Weeble. Remember Weebles? The toy whose tagline was, 'Weebles wobble but they don't fall down?' I'm resilient. Oh, and I work really hard.

Some people may have their doubts about me. But I feel like there's no shot too hard for me to take.

For those who are fighters rather than defeatists, a battle is over when it's impossible to win.

I always believe every team that wins has to go through some things.

Growing up, I've had plenty of obstacles, but to be honest, I didn't always have doubters. I was a standout athlete, so when that happens, you don't have too many people telling you 'You can't do this,' and 'You can't do that.' I've always been a bit of a people person and a hard worker.

Dont give up. Obstacles can be overcome through strategy and learning.

The successes in the entertainment business are like one percent of the iceberg that you see, and the other ninety-nine percent, which is the rejection and the failure and the work and the toil and the sacrifice, is the rest of the iceberg that's below the water.

Nothing any good isn't hard.

Be a warhorse for work and enjoy even the struggle against defeat.

Dare and the world always yields; or if it beats you sometimes, dare it again and it will succumb.

Get yourself out. Be brave. Don't leave before you're ready, because you should know that you tried everything. So there's a conviction and a confidence when you step away from something that may or may not be conducive to your life. I think if you run away too quickly, you're going to have that "Oh God, did I try everything?" feeling. Try everything. Make it work. Do everything you can. If it's not working, then know when the signal is and move on. Change. Try something different.

Everybody seems to have given up hope of trying. I haven't. It isn't easy and it isn't supposed to be, but I'm accomplishing something. How many people give up a lot to do something good. I'm sure we would have found a cure for cancer 20 years ago if we had really tried

Sometimes there's not a better way. Sometimes there's only the hard way.

I think a mantra I always told myself is, "No matter how many times somebody pitches the ball at you, if you swing every time, eventually one of them is going to connect." Being yourself and persistence are two things that became my daily mantras, I suppose.