Terry Fox Quotes

I want to be an example of a guy who made something of himself out of nothing. A guy who overcame the odds of a tough childhood, who worked hard, who didn't let his surroundings get the best of him and lead him to jail or the graveyard. Where I ended up - being a comedian, a TV star, and a movie actor - might be unique, but my story is not.

The mere fact that so many continue to rise, year after year, out of just such conditions as you may think are fatal to your advancement, ought to convince you that you also can conquer your environment.

I've always been an underdog. I feel like I beat the odds.

I've been an underdog all my life.

I like being the underdog. I like turning around and shutting people up when they tell me I can't.

On a 60-mile trek with a 200-kg. bergen on my back, I felt my ankle break. Some might have given up. I broke my other ankle to even up the pain. And carried on.

I've had a very unusual background in science - not the usual route of planning on being a scientist from age 3. I think my story shows that success is more about personal motivation and determination than it is about where you were born or what your economic status was.

I came from such a simple origin, without any great privilege, and I would say I also wanted to make a mark. It wasn't until I was about 15 that I appeared in a race.

Finite to fail, but infinite to venture.

I knew what I was getting into when I chose golf. Hell, I knew I'd never get rich and famous. All the discrimination, the not being able to play where I deserved and wanted to play - in the end, I didn't give a damn. I was made for a tough life because I'm a tough man. And in the end, I won: I got a lot of black people playing golf.

If you watch the history of baseball, teams come back, and sometimes they could have come back, but they give in or give up.

Through perseverance many people win success out of what seemed destined to be certain failure.

When I made my Broadway debut, I was still cleaning houses, something I'd done since I went out on my own at 15.

I have to work extra hard because I am dyslexic. People said that I couldn't be an actress, but I'm proving them wrong. Acting has helped me overcome the challenge.

You have to lift your head up out of the mud and just do it.

If I would have listened to other people back in 2000 telling me I should have stopped playing basketball because of a kidney disease, I wouldn't have won a world championship.

If I were to listen to people all the time when they say, 'Hey, this is a really high challenge, this is a high climb, the bar is pretty steep,' then I wouldn't have gone to the academy. I wouldn't have become an aircraft carrier pilot. I wouldn't have become a Navy SEAL for sure. And I probably wouldn't have applied to Harvard.

If you are different, or you have minimum possibilities, you can still succeed. I am living proof of that.

I've always felt like the underdog, and I'm comfortable with that label.

I was always told that I was too small, too skinny, too slow, not tough enough, and I never ever believed what people told me.

I'm living proof you can excel regardless of where you come from.

I had to fight my whole life to break out of my circumstances. That's just part of my makeup.

You don't have to be the biggest to beat the biggest.

Often the best guys are just those that can suffer longer, who don't give up. And it's so easy to give up, when you're on a mountain and it's really hurting. We go through a lot physically.

When I started my campaign for Congress, I was one who people said, 'Tulsi, you have a bright future, but there's no way you can win.'