Michelle Obama Quotes

There's a lot of kids just like me growing up in the Philippines, so I don't want them to give up. So listen to your parents, work hard and you can achieve so much.

I watched a small man with thick calluses on both hands work 15 and 16 hours a day. I saw him once literally bleed from the bottoms of his feet, a man who came here uneducated, alone, unable to speak the language, who taught me all I needed to know about faith and hard work by the simple eloquence of his example.

I always hustled to make money and pay for school. I was never afraid of hard work.

When I hear people boo, that just makes me want to go out there and work harder.

It's so funny looking back, but my so-called overnight success actually took 15 years. I remember when I didn't have any money, and my only car was mom's Hyundai.

Don't let life discourage you; everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was.

My Dad was such an incredible person, and you have the option of just curling up in a dark corner and letting it all go or you have the option of standing strong, sticking together and carrying on what he lived and died for. And I think that's what's so important - to be able to carry on where he left off.

I'm very inspired by him-it was my father who taught us that an immigrant must work twice as hard as anybody else, that he must never give up.

When I started out, I struggled, and I was broke a lot. But I'm glad I struggled, and I'm glad I was broke a lot.

Maybe there's a little girl who thinks she can be an Olympic athlete, and she sees all the things I struggled through to get here. Yeah, I didn't walk away with a medal or run away with a medal, but I think there's lessons to be learned when you win and lessons to be learned when you lose.

If there's no fire, there's no scream. If there's no scream, then no one hears you and no one comes to help you in the first place. The depth of my struggle has definitely determined the height of my success. To be able to teach my kids not just about success but about the struggle that comes with it.

Since I was a child, my father was sick. I've always known him to be that way. That's why I'm proud of him - he has a disease he's obviously struggling with, but he's not letting it stop him from doing what he wants to do.

I was raised by a single mother who made a way for me. She used to scrub floors as a domestic worker, put a cleaning rag in her pocketbook and ride the subways in Brooklyn so I would have food on the table. But she taught me as I walked her to the subway that life is about not where you start, but where you're going. That's family values.

I was lucky enough to have a father who said, 'Don't quit.' So I just kept going.

When the time came for me to go to college, there was only one scholarship that my high school offered at the time and I didn't win that one, but that didn't stop me. I went on to college anyway. I worked my way through it and paid my student loans for 11 years.

I watched my parents battle, work night shift, work two jobs. That's toughness. That's toughness... That's something; it all carries over from your parents, and I was fortunate to have both parents in my life.

Nothing was ever handed to me. My hope is that when people read my story, it will inspire them to reach for their goals and not give up. The real story is this: if I can do it, you can, too.

You can see that all these people who did really great things failed six times or didn't get going until they were much older. I think that's much more instructive and educational.

You've got to know how to hustle. I got a lot of inspiration from my parents. My father was definitely a hustler. With six kids in the house, you always got to be hustling. And my mom, she's got sick work ethic.

I am the product of hustlers who taught me how to do it. They gave me a hustler's ambition. Not a bad thing to get from your parents. But hustling only gets you so far. You have to trust yourself. And you have to be ready to fall on your face and be okay when it happens.

My mom's a hustler. She a grinder.

It wasn't easy to get the family to this point. I had to work two jobs. I had all nine kids. I stayed there with them and got them all into show biz. I don't care what anyone else said, I did my job.

I came to New York with no money and just one suitcase. I had my family's emotional support, but they weren't able to help me financially.

I try to remember who I am and what I come from, because I didn't come from super means. I had to work and pray and try really hard to succeed and get everything that I wanted out of life.

The thing is, it's that Detroiters are hard workers. We've always been hard workers, even when times are down. I've been able to take that with me, that work ethic, to help me build my career.