QuickView Of Bio-Sketch Quotes

Here is a QuickView of the quotes from all 30 of our current Growth Planning Bio-Sketch persons.

  • Each person has been selected because they used one or more of Our Ten Growth Planning Life-Skills to help them work through their life-struggles in order to achieve their vision and goals.
  • And, each quote has been selected to illustrate one or more of the Ten Life-Skills.

 

Amelia Earhart

"In soloing – as in other activities – it is far easier to start something than it is to finish it.”

“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do.”

-- Amelia Earhart was the first female pilot to fly solo non-stop across the Atlantic.

 

Barack Obama

"Life appears to be hard sometimes, because life is hard sometimes. None of us have control of the circumstances into which we are born. We may be born into poverty or in a country torn by war. For African-Americans, we have additional hurdles to overcome – the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow, and the ongoing problems of discrimination.

Despite all that, our life is what we make it. Those who achieve don’t waste time on self-pity or on how unfair life is, nor do they blame others for their problems .Instead, they strive for excellence and take responsibility for their actions, focusing not just on themselves, but on others.”

"We must be pushing our kids to set their sights higher. They might think they've got a pretty good jump shot or a pretty good flow, but our kids can't all aspire to be the next LeBron or Lil Wayne. I want them aspiring to be scientists and engineers, doctors and teachers, not just ballers and rappers. I want them aspiring to be a Supreme Court Justice. I want them aspiring to be President of the United States."

-- Barack Obama is the 44th President of the United States.

 

Ben Carson, M.D.

"The American dream, to me, means that you have the ability to determine where you're going, formulate your dream, and then to put in motion all the building blocks that will help you achieve it. I am so grateful that I was born in America. There’s no place that offers the opportunities we have. All it requires is the right mindset and the willingness to work. People who realize that are already halfway toward realizing their American dream."

"Growing up where I lived, it was a macho thing to get angry, kick down the wall and punch in the window. But I came to understand that when you react on impulse like that, it actually is a sign of weakness, because it means that other people and the environment can control you, and I decided that I didn't want to be that easily controlled."

-- Dr. Ben Carson, M.D. is a world famous pediatric neurosurgeon, author and motivational speaker.

 

Benjamin Mays

“Every man and woman is born into the world to do something unique and something distinctive, and if he or she does not do it, it will never be done.”

"It must be borne in mind that the tragedy of life does not lie in not reaching your goals; the tragedy lies in not having any goals to reach."

-- Dr. Benjamin E. Mays was the President of Morehouse College and lifelong mentor of 1948 Morehouse graduate, Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

Bessie Coleman

“I knew deep-down, and always reassured my mom, that I would ’amount to something’ with my life.”

“I refused to take no for an answer.”

“I decided blacks should not have to experience the difficulties I had faced, so I decided to open a flying school and teach other black women to fly.”

-- Bessie Coleman, who in 1921 became the first African American pilot, dazzled crowds as a barnstormer stunt pilot at air shows, earning her the name “Brave Bessie.”

 

Booker T. Washington

"Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome."

“There is no power on earth that can neutralize the influence of a high, simple and useful life.”

“Nothing ever comes to one that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.”

-- Booker T. Washington was founder and President of Tuskegee University ... and one of America's most respected educators.

 

César Chávez

Si se puede! – “Yes, we can!”

"If you're not frightened that you might fail, you'll never do the job. If you're frightened, you'll work like crazy."

"It is not enough to teach our young people to be successful so they can realize their ambitions, earn good livings, and accumulate the material things this society bestows. Those are worthwhile goals. But it is not enough to progress as individuals while our friends and neighbors are left behind."

-- Called "a Moses figure for his own people," César Chávez formed and led the United Farm Workers organization to gain fair pay and decent working conditions for Mexican and other farm workers.

 

Dwight Eisenhower

"In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable."

“Pessimism never won any battle.”

“What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight - it's the size of the fight in the dog.”

-- General Dwight Eisenhower was World War II Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe, and the 34th President of the United States.

 

Farrah Gray

"I have always believed, and put into action, my faith that we carve out our own statue. We write the lyrics of our own song, and we paint our own picture based on our innate talents. We are our own Picasso's, painting our lives, stroke by stroke, decision by decision. And, I can't say it enough: never underestimate the power of your reputation ... and never forget that someone is always watching you."

“Success isn't something that happens overnight: it's a process. You have to nurture it along with continuous care, and the best way to do this is to have the right people working with you - not for you, but with you. I can dream alone and strive alone, but true success always requires the help and support of others."

-- Farrah Gray started a business club in Chicago's inner city projects at age 8 and became a millionaire at age 14.

 

George Lucas

"My first 6 years in the business were hopeless. A lot of times I'd say, 'Why am I doing this?' That's why you have to find something that you love enough to be able to take risks, jump over hurdles, and break through the brick walls that are always going to be placed in front of you. If you don’t have that kind of feeling for what you’re doing, you’ll stop at the first giant hurdle.”

"You simply have to put one foot in front of the other and keep going. Put blinders on and plow right ahead."

-- George Lucas is an American filmmaker famous for his Star Wars saga and his Indiana Jones films.

 

Hill Harper

"Every day we are faced with challenges and choices.  Some are harder than others. It's often easier when we're younger because many decisions are made for us, and there are many rules to follow. Be patient and know that if you can make it through today, tomorrow's challenges and choices will be a lot easier."

"While it is important to have friends, it's also important to realize that you - completely on your own - have to be able to make yourself happy. It is by making the right choices in our life (that include our friendships, family relationships, education, careers and other things we do ... or don't do) that we learn how to bring true happiness into our life."

-- Hill Harper, an actor currently starring in CSI:New York, is the author of Letters to a Young Brother: MANifest Your Destiny, and Letters to a Young Sister: DeFine Your Destiny.

 

Ice Cube

"You've got to start with a plan. When I was in school, I took architectural drafting and that taught me that everything starts with a plan. The biggest buildings in the world start with a plan."

“My pops always told me that the world is full of opportunities – and you either take them or you deny them. So, when I saw opportunities, I’d take advantage of them , rather than just hanging out in my trailer.”

-- Ice Cube is a Hip Hop artist, actor, filmmaker, and businessman.

 

John H. Johnson

“I am convinced that the only way to get ahead in this world is to live and sell dangerously. You’ve got to commit yourself to an act or vision that pulls you further than you want to go, and forces you to use your hidden strengths.”

"Yet, very often when you try to see things in their largest form, you get discouraged and feel that it’s impossible. If you can somehow think and dream of success in small steps, every time you make a step, every time you accomplish a small goal, it gives you confidence to go on from there.”

-- John H. Johnson founded the world's largest black-owned publishing company.

 

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

“I can do something else besides stuff a ball through a hoop. My biggest resource is my mind. It is what makes everything else work.”

“I'm not comfortable being preachy, but more people need to start spending as much time in the library as they do on the basketball court.”

“I tell kids to pursue their basketball dreams, but I tell them to not let that be their only dream.”

-- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is an author, history scholar, and the leading scorer in NBA history.

 

Les Brown

"Good things happen to positively charged people because they look for good things even when others only see the bad. Positively charged people are both powerful and empowering. They are leaders. They are successful. They believe in themselves and their abilities, and their enthusiasm and self-confidence affect everyone around them."

“A quarterback goes back to pass and envisions a receiver breaking free and catching the ball. Touchdown! Positive visualization is an effective method for programming our mind and focusing our goals to succeed ... and it just doesn't apply to athletics."

-- Les Brown is a renowned motivational speaker, author and television personality.

 

Lewis Carroll

"Would you tell me please which way I ought to walk from here?" asked Alice. "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat. "I don't much care where," said Alice. "Then it doesn't matter which way to walk," said the Cat.

"If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.”

"Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle.”

"One of the secrets of life is that all that is really worth the doing is what we do for others.”

-- Lewis Carroll was a teacher and author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

 

LL Cool J

"I think when you move past your fear and you go after your dreams wholeheartedly, you become free. Know what I'm saying? Move past the fear.”

"Keeping it real ain't about carrying a gun or smoking blunts. It's about being true to yourself and those around you."

"I'm happy to be black. I am what I am, I'm doing very well in my life, and I'm thankful to God for that. I am a real person that cares about his art and cares about what he's doing - I have a heart and a soul and want to touch people and give. As a black man, my hope is that I can touch more and more people all over the world of different races and different colors. And I think eventually, if I just stay on this path, we'll get there."

-- LL Cool J (Ladies Love Cool James) is a hip hop artist, actor, author, and clothing entrepreneur.

 

madam c.j. walker

"There is no royal, flower-strewn path to success. And if there is, I have not found it; for if I have accomplished anything in life, it is because I have been willing to work hard."

"I got my start by giving myself a start."

"This is the greatest country under the sun. But, we must not let our love of country, our patriotic loyalty, to cause us to abate one whit in our protest against wrong and injustice."

-- Madam C.J. Walker was an inventor of women's hair care products and the first female, black or white, who became a millionaire by her own achievements.


Marian Wright Edelman

"I am doing what I think I was put on this earth to do. And I'm really grateful to have something that I'm passionate about and that I think is profoundly important.”

"Service is the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life, and not something you do in your spare time. Service is what life is all about."

“Never work just for money or for power. They won't save your soul or help you sleep at night.”

-- Marian Wright Edelman is a lawyer, educator, activist, reformer, author, and the founder and President of the Children's Defense Fund.

 

Maya Angelou

“I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world  by the lapels. Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass.”

“When you know you are of worth – not asking it, but knowing! it – you walk into a room with a particular power. When you know you are of worth, you don't have to raise your voice, you don't have to become rude, you don't have to become vulgar; you just are. And you are like the sky is, as the air is, the same way water is wet. It doesn't have to protest – it just is.”

"We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated."

"Don't make money your goal.  Pursue the things you love doing, and do them so well that people can't take their eyes off you."

-- Maya Angelou is one of the world's eminent authors and poets ... including the book about her childhood sufferings, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and the poem, Phenomenal Woman.

 

Michael Jordan

"All I knew is that I never wanted to be average. I had dreams, but I didn't know where my dreams would lead. But dreams are like that. Put all the work in, and then let the future emerge. Dreams are realized by effort, determination, passion, and staying connected to that sense of who you are."

"Whether it was competing with my siblings or trying to get attention from my parents, I wanted to show what I was capable of accomplishing. I wanted results, and I was driven to find out the best way to get them."

“I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying. And that is why I succeed.”

-- Michael Jordan is considered to be the greatest athlete of the 20th Century and the greatest basketball player of all time.

 

Muhammad Ali

"Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made  from something they have deep inside them – desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But, the will must be stronger than the skill.”

"I know where I'm going and I know the truth, and I don't have to be what you want me to be. I'm free to be what I want."

“I hated every minute of training, but I said, 'Don't quit. Suffer now … and live the rest of your life as a champion'. What keeps me going is goals."

-- Muhammad Ali is one of the most well known and well respected living persons -- not just athletes – throughout the entire world.

 

Oprah Winfrey

"It isn't until you come to a spiritual understanding of who you are deep down in the spirit within you that you can begin to take control of your life.”

"I've come to believe that each of us has a personal calling that's as unique as a fingerprint - and that the best way to succeed is to discover what you love and then find a way to offer it to others in the form of service, working hard, and also allowing the energy of the universe to lead you.”

"Create the highest, grandest vision possible for your life, because you become what you believe.”

"You CAN have it all! You just can't have it all now … or all at one time. But, you can’t do it all yourself; so don’t be afraid to rely on others to help you accomplish your goals.”

-- Oprah Winfrey is the Emmy Award winning host of The Oprah Winfrey Show, an actress, a magazine publisher, and a TV/film/Broadway producer.

 

Quincy Jones

"Not one drop of my self-worth depends on your acceptance of me."

"Obsession and humility – that’s what it takes. Everybody I know that really does their thing, they're junkies, they really are. I mean, their thing takes over them. It really does. There is some kind of subconscious attraction to everything, even things they’re not aware of that they’re interested in."

“Your future is so bright it burns my eyes”

-- Quincy Jones is a musician, composer, producer, and the most nominated Grammy artist.

 

Rachel Carson

"If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life."

"One way to open your eyes is to ask yourself, 'What if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again?'"

"Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find resources of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.”

-- Rachel Carson was a marine biologist and author of Silent Spring, the 1962 book that helped launch the modern environmental movement.

 

shirley ann jackson

"Treasure your curiosity and nurture your imagination. Have confidence in yourself. Do not let others put limits on you. Dare to imagine the unimaginable."

"Aim for the stars so that you can reach the treetops, and at least you'll get off the ground."

"What inspires me - and all scientists - to go further is the knowledge that no matter how successful we are at unwrapping each mystery, we will be greeted by a thousand new mysteries that will baffle and amaze us anew."

-- Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson is a theoretical physicist, former Chairperson of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the current President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

 

Susan B. Anthony

"With so many just and true women devoted to the cause, failure is impossible!”

“Cautious, careful people always casting about to preserve their reputation or social standards never can bring about reform. Those who are really in earnest are willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathies with despised ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences.”

"Oh, if I could but live another century and see the fruition of all the work for women! There is so much yet to be done."

-- Susan B. Anthony led the effort to secure women’s right to vote.

 

Thomas Edison

"The object of all work is production or accomplishment - and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose ... as well as perspiration!"

"Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration."

"Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."

-- Thomas Edison was the famous American inventor who holds a world record of 1,093 patents.

 

W. Clement Stone

"If you employed study, thinking, and planning time daily, you could develop and use the power that can change your destiny. And, keep your mind on your objective, and persist until you succeed. Study, think and plan."

"There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is ATTITUDE ... and the big difference is whether it is POSITIVE or negative."

"I think there is something more important than believing: ACTION!! The world is full of dreamers. There aren't enough who begin to take concrete steps to actualize their vision."

-- W. Clement Stone was a businessman and co-creator of the achieving success through a "Positive Mental Attitude" way of living.

 

Wilma Rudolph

"My mother taught me very early to believe I could achieve any accomplishment I wanted to. The first was to walk without braces."

“I ran and ran and ran every day, and I acquired this sense of determination, this sense of spirit that I would never, never give up, no matter what else happened.”

“Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us.”

-- Wilma Rudolph, crippled by polio at age 4, won 3 gold medals in the 1960 Olympics.

______________

QUOTES FROM FUTURE BIO-SKETCHES

RUSSELL SIMMONS

"If you plant good, healthy seeds in the world, the world will give you a good, healthy harvest in return.  The science is simple: When you give the world love and respect, the world will give you love and respect back.  When you give the world negativity and contempt, the world is going to return that negativity to you.  Remember, there is a direct connection between what you put into the world and the level of success you achieve in your personal or professional life."

"When you find and embrace your Dharma (your purpose in life), you won't spend years wondering what to do with your life but will begin fulfilling your purpose right away.  You'll realize that you're never too old to start something new.  You'll understand that the only time is now.  So 'stop frontin', because there is tremendous power inside you. All you need is the courage to reach for it today."

-- Russell Simmons is a master entrepreneur who has brought hip-hop music and culture to virtually every aspect of American life.

john singleton

"Cinema was my rite of passage. I really took filmmaking very seriously. It was an honor and then a crutch also, because at a young age, I would come up with these cool ideas and then draw them out and put them in a sequence and then figure out how we would do this. It was cool for me, because, from the beginning of my career I was only concerned about being a real serious filmmaker."

"To be a director, you have to be obsessive about details, but at the same time you have to be open and big enough to accept the surprises that happen off the cuff. I try to be a master of both.”

-- John Singleton is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer whose films include Boyz N the Hood, Poetic Justice, Higher Learning, and Baby Boy.

gordon parks

"In my youth, violence became my enemy. … Photography, writing, music, and film are the weapons I use against it … and against all the things I dislike about America – poverty, racism, discrimination.”

"At first I wasn't sure that I had the talent, but I did know I had a fear of failure, and that fear compelled me to fight off anything that might abet it.”

"Nothing came easy. I was just born with a need to explore every tool shop of my mind, and with long searching and hard work, I became devoted to my restlessness.”

-- Gordon Parks was an internationally renowned photojournalist and an accomplished author, music composer, and filmmaker of films such as The Learning Tree and the Shaft movies.