Matthew Henson Quotes

I think we all need to be looking to the better angels of our own selves. We don't need to be looking for great people so much as becoming great people.

An excuse is the tool our weak self uses to prevent our strongest self from reaching greatness.

I challenge you, me. Die or live and be great.

A master blesses calamity, for the master knows that from the seeds of disaster (and all experience) comes the growth of self.

They're all personal and self-created challenges that I think I've overcome within myself. Being confident enough to get on stage and play, things like that.

It is moments like these that force us to try harder, and dig deeper, and to discover gifts we never knew we had - to find the greatness that lies within each of us.

Adversity is the source of our deepest growth and greatest blessings; embrace it, dare to seek it.

The more you venture to live greatly, the more you will find within you what it takes to get on top of the things and stay there.

Difficulties give us the opportunity to prove our greatness by overcoming them.

We all have unfair situations and things we don't like. You can get bitter, discouraged and sour, or you can see it as fertilizer and say, “ This difficulty is not going to defeat me; it's going to promote me. It's not going to hinder me; it's going to help me.” Don't just go through it, grow through it.

I guessed life was like that. You gained and you lost, and if you saved anything from the ruins, even if only a shred of self-respect, it was enough to take you through the next bit.

Problems call forth our courage and our wisdom; indeed, they create our courage and wisdom.

Often it's the deepest pain which empowers you to grow into your highest self.

This new meta-system is very much in favor of the self, but a self that is based on a proper sense of dignity, not on an inflated ego. A person who dare not admit he is wrong inflates his ego but weakens his self.

Great things alone can make a great mind, and petty things will make a petty mind unless a man rejects them as completely alien.

I want to be judged by who I am as a person, not by what happened to me. In fact, all the bad things have only contributed to my confidence and sense of self, because I survived them and became a better and stronger person.

Getting sober was the single bravest thing I've ever done and will ever do in my life.

Adversity, if you allow it to, will fortify you and make you the best you can be.

It made me strong.I took a step back, near my whole self in the mirror.I pushed back my shoulders and raised my chin, my back straight as an arrow.

What doesn't kill us sharpens us. Hardens us. Schools us. You're beating plowshares into swords, Vosch. You are remaking us. We are the clay, and you are Michelangelo. And we will be your masterpiece.

You don't overcome challenges by making them smaller but by making yourself bigger.

I'm tough on myself in terms of the standards I want to live up to, but that's also part of my pleasure: Knowing you are being your fullest self. Being your fullest self is a lot of work.

Do not let adversity break you. Think of it as a learning experience that will make you stronger.

Finally, imagine that you've really worked hard on yourself and become a level 10 person. Now, is this same level 5 problem a big problem or a little problem? The answer is that it's no problem. It doesn't even register in your brain as a problem. There's no negative energy around it. It's just a normal occurrence to handle, like brushing your teeth or getting dressed.

It is misleading to imagine that we are developed in spite of our circumstances, for we are developed because of them. It is mastery in circumstances that is needed, not mastery over them.