Overcoming Odds Quotes

Even against the greatest of odds, there is something in the human spirit - a magic blend of skill, faith, and valor - that can lift men from certain defeat to incredible victory.

I grew up in a working class family. People thought I might go work at a mill. My mom wanted me to learn how to lay carpet because she was concerned about my future. Nobody had high hopes for me. But I was a hustler.

Success is not measured by what you accomplish, but by the opposition you have encountered, and the courage with which you have maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds.

We're not just three dumb girls from the ghetto who got lucky.

There's a big difference between where I came from and the NFL. Things like this don't happen to people from there often. It just took a lot of hard work and dedication, staying on the right path, believing in myself, and having an inner drive.

Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win.

Fred VanVleet's story - here's a kid who's not very fast, not very tall, undrafted, had every excuse to not make it big and here he is and he's gonna be one of the top free agents.

By turning negatives into positives, losing into a journey to winning, I have been able to overcome the odds that were against me into motivation for my success.

I had my first professional fight was in 2001 in Venezuela - it was also my first international trip away from Brazil. It was a great experience. Then in 2005, I went to Finland and won. The next year there was a tournament in Brazil with three fights in one night. I was the underdog and won all three fights.

In my wildest imagination, I never thought that the fifth of six children born to Helen and Buddy Watts - in a poor black neighborhood, in the poor rural community of Eufaula, Oklahoma - would someday be called Congressman.

if there be a hundred of you who are steadfast, they shall overcome two hundred; and if there be a thousand of you, they shall overcome two thousand by the command of ALLAH. And ALLAH is with those who are steadfast.

Disappointment Can do a couple things. It can drop you into a giant sucking sinkhole of depression, a place you have to fight to climb out of. Or it can trigger an epic mania to overcome the odds and transform failure into success. Say you swing as high as the chains will take you because you seek the thrill of flight, and on the up- kick, you lose your seat. Injury is likely. But if you worry about falling down, and never chance "up," the sky will remain forever out of reach.

Pessimists calculate the odds. Optimists believe they can overcome them.

Ants, fighting together, will vanquish the lion.

I got cast on 'MADtv' as one of eight permanent cast members chosen from 8,000 comics who'd been screened. For any comic trying to make something of themselves, that was like hitting triple 7s-jackpot.

Nothing is more inspiring than a person with seemingly mediocre talent rising against the odds to become a champion by way of hard work, effort, and perseverance toward their goals.

If you fall behind, run faster. Never give up, never surrender, and rise up against the odds.

I want a kid to look at me and say, 'You know what, this man had no chance in life, but he stayed in there, and he worked hard. He dedicated himself, and he did it'.

I definitely wasn't anything special when I first started but I think I adapted quite quickly into racing and it became a bit better slowly. All of cadets, the first four years of karting, I only won one proper race, one! Which was the British Open Championship at PFI and I started 21st and I won.

Although the circumstances of our lives may seem very disengaged, with me standing here as the First Lady of the United States of America and you just getting through school, I want you to know we have very much in common. For nothing in my life ever would have predicted that I would be standing here as the first African-American First Lady.

Nothing really comes easy to you when you're under-recruited, you're undersized, you're undervalued. It's a situation where you have to be better than the bigger guys.

When I was about 10, I saw Timothy Bottoms in a tele-movie called 'A Shining Season,' and it really moved me. I was maybe 8 or 9. Timothy played a runner who had cancer, and he defied the odds by coaching a girls' team to victory.

People overcoming the odds is actually a really important part of humanity, and I don't think we kind of get to celebrate that as much as we should.

I was in junior college a few years ago, so to be here sitting in this spot talking to these NFL executives, it's a dream come true. It's something that not a lot of people saw coming.

I was the undersized underdog who people never gave a chance. From that, the motivation to prove people wrong just grew and grew... Looking back now, I'm glad I didn't hit puberty until later.