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Tough Quotes

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Tough Quotes

“The wave of punitiveness that washed over the United States with the rise of the drug war and the get tough movement really flooded our schools. Schools, caught up in this maelstrom, began viewing children as criminals or suspects, rather than as young people with an enormous amount of potential struggling in their own ways and their own difficult context to make it and hopefully thrive. We began viewing the youth in schools as potential violators rather than as children needing our guidance.”

PeopleWayChildrenWarStatesSchoolYoungDifficultUnitedUnited StatesStruggleMovementYouthAmountDrugToughWaveCaughtCriminalsEnormousHopefullyGuidanceThriveSuspectsCaught UpWar On DrugsMaelstrom
Author:Michelle Alexander
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“Growing up the way I did, it was tough being one of only a few black people in the town and in school. What my upbringing got me is never feeling completely safe emotionally. Never knowing when something racial was going to pop off based on how I look. So that's something I've carried with me personally and is reflected in my work.”

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Author:Gina Prince-Bythewood
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“When you're directing you're kind of interested in the movie and the story and the characters. I just sort of prefer the really tough fighting and some of the other street fighting type moves. You know, where it's not just show. It's not dressing it up for the cameras too much. It's pretty down and dirty, the way it should be. That's something I like to do. I do that.”

KnowsWayShouldKindCharacterStoriesShowsMovingFightingToo MuchStreetsTypeToughDown AndCamerasDirtyDressings
Author:Dolph Lundgren
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“Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way. And don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines.”

IfsWayLifeInspirationalGivingMotivationalDifficultSunPositivePrayingGiving UpToughRainDeterminationAdversityDown AndShiningAthleteGrievingHard TimesNever Giving UpAnother WayDifficult TimesTough TimesOvercoming AdversityStrength Through AdversityBad TimesSitting DownRough TimesHang UpsSun ShinesNever Give Up On SomethingJust Give UpFacing AdversityTimes Of AdversityI Will Never Give UpNever Give InNever Ever Give UpLife Is ToughI Never Give UpNever Give Up HopeGetting Through Tough TimesI Will Not Give UpUplifting In Hard TimesGetting Through Hard TimesTough LifeNever Give Up InspirationalNever Give Up On LoveThrough Hard TimesWon't Give UpAdversity And StrengthWhen Things Get ToughGoing Through Hard TimesDo N't Give UpTough DayStrength In Hard Times
Author:Richard M. Nixon
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“Leaders trust their guts. "Intuition" is one of those good words that has gotten a bad rap. For some reason, intuition has become a "soft" notion. Garbage! Intuition is the new physics. It's an Einsteinian, seven-sense, practical way to make tough decisions. Bottom line, circa 2001 to 2010: The crazier the times are, the more important it is for leaders to develop and to trust their intuition.”

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Author:Tom Peters
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“Personally, I like it much better when someone else does the decision making. That way you have legitimate grounds to whine and complain. I tend to find both whining and complaining quite interesting and amusing, though sometimes--unfortunately--it's hard to choose which one of the two I want to do. Sigh. LIfe can be so tough sometimes.”

WayWantDoeTwoSometimesHardLeadershipDecisionInterestingToughComplainingDecision MakingSighAmusingWhining
Book:The Scrivener's Bones: Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians
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“It occurs to me that the peculiarity of most things we think of as fragile is how tough they truly are. There were tricks we did with eggs, as children, to show how they were, in reality, tiny load-bearing marble halls; while the beat of the wings of a butterfly in the right place, we are told, can create a hurricane across an ocean. Hearts may break, but hearts are the toughest of muscles, able to pump for a lifetime, seventy times a minute, and scarcely falter along the way. Even dreams, the most delicate and intangible of things, can prove remarkable difficult to kill.”

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Author:Neil Gaiman
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“So this is what I will do. I will gather together my past and look. I will see a thing that has already happened. the pain that cut my spirit loose. I will hold that pain in my hand until it becomes hard and shiny, more clear. And then my fierceness can come back, my golden side, my black side. I will use this sharp pain to penetrate my daughter's tough skin and cut her tiger spirit loose. She will fight me, because this is the nature of two tigers. But I will win and giver her my spirit, because this is the way a mother loves her daughter.”

WayLooksTwoHardUseHandsPainTogetherPastSpiritMotherFightingWinningSidesBlackClearCuttingHappenedDaughterToughSkinsGoldenMy DaughterTigersPenetrateGiverMy PastMother LoveFiercenessI Will WinTough Skin
Book:The Joy Luck Club
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“But what Dakota most enjoyed about the beginning of winter was the crispness of the air (that practically demanded the wearing of knits) and the way that tough New Yorkers - on the street, in elevators, in subways - were suddenly willing to risk a smile. To make a connection with a stranger. To finally see one another after strenuously avoiding eye contact all year.”

WayYearsEyeRiskAirStreetsWillingToughConnectionsWinterStrangerChristmasContactEnjoyedAvoidingNew YorkersSubwayElevatorsEye ContactDakota
Book:Knit the Season
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“I'll be there for ya, girl. No matter what. Beck took a deep breath and released it slowly. He had to stay strong for her, make the tough decisions. It was best that Paul's daughter never know how he felt about her. There'd be less hurt that way, for both of them. Just keep her safe, God. I can settle for that.”

KnowsWayI CanMatterGirlStrongFeltHurtDecisionKnow HowSafeDaughterToughBreathsNo Matter WhatSettlingStay StrongDeep BreathTough Decisions
Book:The Demon Trapper's Daughter: A Demon Trappers Novel
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“How do you get on with your father ' Beleth asked. 'Very well ' Pyrgus answered loyally although it was far from the truth. 'I ate mine ' Beleth told him. 'He got old and feeble and useless but he wanted to hold on to power. So I took steps. Tasted disgusting - stringy tough smelly ... you know how fathers are - but it's the custom here. You're supposed to absorb the essence that way. Rank superstition of course but well ... tradition.”

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Book:Faerie Wars
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“But mostly, I remembered what I’ve always believed. What my mom taught me. That while some things are just plain awful, most things in life can be seen either tragic or comic. And it’s your choice. Is life a big, long, tiresome slog from sadness to regret to guilt to resentment to self-pity? Or is life weird, outrageous, bizarre, ironic, and just stupid? Gotta go with stupid. It’s not the easy way out. Self pity is the easiest thing in the world. Finding the humor, the irony, the slight justification for a skewed, skeptical optimism. That’s tough. - Marco, Animorphs #35: The Proposal”

WorldWayLongSelfBigsChoicesEasySadnessStupidTaughtRegretMomFindingsToughOptimismGuiltMy MomPityAwfulComicIronyRememberedTragicIronicResentmentThings In LifeJustificationBizarreProposalSkepticalOutrageousSelf PityEasy WayMarcosTiresome
Author:Katherine Applegate
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“As crude a weapon as the cave man's club, the chemical barrage has been hurled against the fabric of life - a fabric on the one hand delicate and destructible, on the other miraculously tough and resilient, and capable of striking back in unexpected ways. These extraordinary capacities of life have been ignored by the practitioners of chemical control who have brought to their task no "high-minded orientation," no humility before the vast forces with which they tamper.”

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Author:Rachel Carson
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“I've remembered that most of life is about small, essential connections, so unobtrusive, so elastic, that you scarcely realize they're actually holding you together. The big ones-the great, grand emotional bonds-those are the ones that break, the ones that fail you, the ones that give way and send you careening toward the foot of the bleak and jagged canyon. It's the tough, gnarled, unadorned ties that really do bind, that never let you fall all the way down into darkness.”

WayGivingBigsTogetherLife IsFallRealizingBreakDarknessFailingFeetEmotionalEssentialsToughConnectionsRememberedTiesBleakCanyons
Book:The Shape of Desire
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“When you aren't drinking or using drugs or spending lots of money on fancy toys or basking in the glow of fame or working all the time or eating your way through the refrigerator, being hateful and angry is a very handy shield from the truth. It lets you focus on everyone else's shortcomings, and all the ways they have let you down. You can bemoan how all these broken people keep finding you somehow. That way you don't have to focus on what really matters -- the tough work of fiing what is broken inside you.”

PeopleWayMatterFocusBrokenDrugFameFindingsEatingToughAngryDrinkingSpendingFancyToysLots Of MoneyShieldsHatefulShortcomingsRefrigeratorsHandyBaskingWorking All The TimeSpending A Lot Of MoneyBroken Inside
Book:The 7: Seven Wonders That Will Change Your Life
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“No matter where you are right now, no matter far along you are on your own path, don't wait to "have it all" to celebrate. You're never going to figure it all out. Make being happy your business, all along the way. Life can't be one long, tough haul, with a little party at the end. What good is that? Life should be punctuated with celebrations and you have to build them into your time because being happy isn't easy.”

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Author:Bethenny Frankel
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“Sometimes life is hard. Things go wrong—in life and in love and in business and in friendship and in health and in all the other ways that life can go wrong. And when things get tough, this is what you should do: make good art. . . . Someone on the internet thinks what you’re doing is stupid or evil or it’s all been done before: make good art. Probably things will work out somehow, eventually time will take the sting away, and it doesn’t even matter. Do what only you can do best: make good art.”

ThinkingWayShouldArtSometimesMatterHardDoneLife IsEvilCan DoStupidInternetToughWork OutHard ThingsGood ArtLife Is HardSometimes In LifeThings Will Work OutWhen Things Get Tough
Author:Neil Gaiman
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“I shield my eyes from the sun to see her cold look—the expression I saw in my mind even before I looked at her. She looks older to me than she ever has, stern and tough and worn by time. I feel that way, too. “These people have no regard for human life,” she says. “They’re about to wipe the memories of all our friends and neighbors. They’re responsible for the deaths of a large majority of our old faction.” She sidesteps me and marches toward the door. “I think they’re lucky I’m not going to kill them.”

PeopleThinkingWayFeelsMindHumansLooksEyeMemoriesSunSawsDoorsExpressionColdLuckyToughResponsibleRegardMajorityNeighborHuman LifeMarchWornShieldsWipeFactions
Author:Veronica Roth
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“I'm a little hoarse tonight. I've been living in Chicago for the past two months, and you know how it is, yelling for help on the way home every night. Things are so tough in Chicago that at Easter time, for bunnies the little kids use porcupines.”

KnowsWayLittlesTwoHelpingUseHomeKidsPastNightCitiesKnow HowMonthsToughTonightChicagoEvery NightEasterLittle KidYellingTwo MonthsBunniesWay HomeFunny EasterKids EasterPorcupinesEaster TimeChocolate Eggs
Book:Much Ado About me
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“Genuine confidence is a way of thinking about yourself and your abilities. Confidence is your perception of your own potential; it's a kind of long-term thinking that powers you through the obstacles and tough times, helping you solve problems and putting you in the way of success. Your confidence is quite a separate matter from your social skills.”

ThinkingWayKindLongMatterHelpingProblemSocialTermAbilityConfidenceWords Of WisdomSkillsAchievementPerceptionToughObstaclesSolveGenuineLong TermPotentialAbout YourselfTough TimesWay Of ThinkingThinking About YouSocial SkillsThinking About Yourself
Book:Overachievement: The Science of Working Less to Accomplish More
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“It's tough, it's not the scenario that we wanted for sure. I thought our desperation was there, we worked hard, but it was one game, a lot can happen, they're a good team, and unfortunately we didn't win. We had some bad bounces, and in one game those make a big difference, and unfortunately it didn't go our way. But if we play hard like that, we play desperate like that and control the puck the way we did down low, I like our chances against any team.”

IfsWayHardPlayBigsHappensWantedGamesWinningDifferencesChanceTeamLowsToughDesperateHockeyDesperationScenariosBouncePuckPlay HardGood Team
Author:Sidney Crosby
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“I think it was good, we wanted to win no matter if it was 1-0 or 8-2, we got to win. The Russians are a great team, but so are we. So we've gotta prepare the way we can and play the way we can tomorrow. I think that every game, every practice together we've continue to get better. It's tough in these short tournaments you gotta bond quickly and you've gotta have good chemistry; so hopefully now we can build on that and keep going.”

IfsThinkingWayMatterPlayWantedTogetherGamesWinningPracticeTeamTomorrowToughHopefullyGet BetterKeep GoingChemistryHockeyTournamentsGreat Team
Author:Shea Weber
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