Etta James Quotes

Ten years ago, if you asked me where I'd be now, I'd have said F-ing dead. But I'm not dead. I have an awesome life. And I'm just very grateful. That's the one thing I try to convey. Gratitude.

I am happy because I am growing daily and I am honestly not knowing where the limit lies. To be certain, every day there can be a revelation or a new discovery. I treasure the memory of the past misfortunes. It has added more to my bank of fortitude.

These things I wish for you-tough times and disappointment, hard work and happiness. To me, it's the only way to appreciate life.

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

No one has a life where everything that happened was good. I think the thing that made life good for me is that I never looked back. I've always been positive, no matter what happened.

I've had a very happy life, and although I have had tragedy, I've never suffered from any darkness.

I'm really not thick-skinned - my wife will tell you that I take sunsets personally - but I know that I've got the belly for whatever comes down the pike. I think it's tenacity. You've been there before, and you just have to recall, 'How did I handle that one?'

I had the luxury of falling down a few times and picking myself up as a stronger version of myself.

Once I've learned all those things and gotten through the hard times, I come out feeling really powerful.

You will find that you survive humiliation. And that's an experience of incalculable value.

Gymnastics has made me strong. I feel like it broke me down to my lowest point, but at the same time, it has given me the greatest strength anyone could ask for.

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.

The good news is at this point as I get older, the load has gotten heavier but my shoulders have gotten wider because I've gotten happier so it's a damn good thing.

When I think of my past, I try to dwell on the good times, the happy moments, and not to be haunted by the bad. . . To me the gift of life is contained in the command, whatever happens: "Don't let it get you. Just keep on going." Thus, I try to think of the good that I have already experienced and what will still be coming.

We're only passers-by, and all you can do is love what you have in your life. A person has to fight the meanness that sometimes comes with you when you're born, sometimes grows if you aren't in lucky surroundings. It's our challenge to fend it off, leave it behind us choking and gasping for breath in the mud. It's our task to seek out something with truth for us, no matter if there is a hundred-mile obstacle course in the way, or a ramshackle old farmhouse that binds and binds.

Without defeats, how do you really know who the hell you are? If you never had to stand up to something - to get up, to be knocked down, and to get up again - life can walk over you wearing football cleats. But each time you do get up, you're bigger, taller, finer, more beautiful, more kind, more understanding, more loving. Each time you get up, you're more inclusive. More people can stand under your umbrella.

When you go through enough dark places, you don't complain about little things. You don't lose your joy because you got stuck in traffic; you don't get offended because a coworker was rude to you. You've been through too much to let that sour you.

If you can't go back to your mother's womb, you'd better learn to be a good fighter.

When you're not happy, you need to be strong to change, resisting the temptation of turning back. The weak goes nowhere

When I look around and see the beautiful people and wonderful surroundings that are now my reality, I know that I have overcome so much.

The beautiful thing about setbacks is they introduce us to our strengths.

Every time a man rises from defeat, he becomes mentally and emotionally stronger. Thus, in time, one may actually find his self - his true, inner self - through temporary defeat.

You are greater than anything that can happen to you. In a big and terrifying crisis, people find within themselves a power and a strength and also a wisdom they had no idea they possessed.

Of course we all break and we all cry and stumble. It's whether you allow the negative experiences to define you or shape you and make you become who you are in the best possible way. You use them as tools.

I try to see the lightness of life, and that comes from having a hard time growing up.