Quotes about challenge
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“Because Anno Domini, in the Year of Our Lord, is fine for Christians, but Thor gets a little upset. He still holds a grudge that Jesus never showed up for that duel he challenged him to.” “Say what now?”

Rick Riordan book The Sword of Summer

Source: The Sword of Summer

“According to the moral absolutism that characterizes McCandless's beliefs, a challenge in which a successful outcome is assured isn't a challenge at all.”

Jon Krakauer book Into the Wild

Source: Into the Wild

Success

“Love this job," Sanya murmured. "Just love it."
"I need to challenge more people to duels," Thomas said in agreement.
"Men are pigs," Murphy said.
"Amen," said Molly.
Lea gave me a prim look and said, "I've not sacrificed a holy virgin in ages.”

Jim Butcher book Changes

Source: Changes

Love, Men, People, Age

“Begin each day with the blueprint of my deepest values FIRMLY in mind then when challenges come, make decisions BASED on those values.”

Stephen R. Covey book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

Source: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

Decision

“There are always risks in challenging excessive police power, but the risks ofchallenging it are more dangerous, even fatal.”

Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) American journalist and author

Source: Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century

“Her one drink had Cecelia giggling and talking and she was explaining that animals had souls too. Nobody challenged her opinion. It was possible, we knew. What we weren't sure of was if we had any.”

Charles Bukowski book Women

Source: Women

Soul, Drink, Animals

“Challenges are gifts that force us to search for a new center of gravity. Don't fight them. Just find a new way to stand.”

Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist

Way, Search, Fight

“A hero can go anywhere, challenge anyone, as long as he has the nerve.”

Rick Riordan (1964) American writer

Source: Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Ultimate Guide

“There are no tough times, hard knocks, or challenges that aren't laden with emeralds, rubies, and diamonds for those who see them through.”

Mike Dooley (1961) American writer

Time

“Education must provide the opportunities for self-fulfillment; it can at best provide a rich and challenging environment for the individual to explore, in his own way.”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

Education, Way

“True character is revealedby the way people react to the bigger challenges in life.”

Alyson Nöel (1965) writer

Life, People, Way

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. book Strength to Love

Strength to Love, p. 25
1960s, Strength to Love (1963)
Context: The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige and even his life for the welfare of others.

Time, Courageous, Life, Business

“The key to life is accepting challenges. Once someone stops doing this, he's dead.”

Bette Davis (1908–1989) film and television actress from the United States

Life, Dead, Motivational, Graduation

“Faith never stays put. It's always challenging always questioning. That's what makes it real.”

Patrick Carman (1966) American writer

Source: Thirteen Days to Midnight

Faith, Question

“Enjoyment appears at the boundary between boredom and anxiety, when the challenges are just balanced with the person's capacity to act.”

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934) Hungarian American psychologist

Appearance, Personality

“Death is not such a bad thing. What would be a bad thing would be living without challenges. Without knowing defeat, we cannot know what victory is. There is no life without death.”

Patricia Briggs book River Marked

Source: River Marked

Life, Death, Victory

“There was no way possible [the queen] could have done all of the things the pamphleteers claimed. The crimes were too gross, too immoral and far too physically challenging. Magnus himself had never attempted half of them.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: The Runaway Queen

Way

“Literature was freedom. Especially in a time in which the values of reading and inwardness are so strenuously challenged, literature is freedom.”

Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist

Frankfurt Book Fair speech (2003)
Context: To have access to literature, world literature, was to escape the prison of national vanity, of philistinism, of compulsory provincialism, of inane schooling, of imperfect destinies and bad luck. Literature was the passport to enter a larger life; that is, the zone of freedom.
Literature was freedom. Especially in a time in which the values of reading and inwardness are so strenuously challenged, literature is freedom.

Literature, Freedom, Time, Reading

“You face the biggest challenge of all: to have the courage to seek your big dream regardless of what anyone says. You are the only person alive who can see your big picture and even you can't see it all.”

Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist

Dreams, Courage, Personality

“Our challenges don't define us, our actions do.”

Michael J. Fox (1961) Canadian-American actor

Variant: Our challenges don't define us, our actions do

“Dante's poem, Langdon was now reminded, was not so much about the misery of hell as it was about the power of the human spirit to endure any challenge, no matter how daunting.”

Dan Brown book Inferno

Source: Inferno

Hell

“Life is a challenge" he once told me, "and only those who rise to the challenge truly know what it means to live.”

Darren Shan book Vampire Mountain

Source: Vampire Mountain

Life

“Sometimes we have to step out of our comfort zones. We have to break the rules. And we have to discover the sensuality of fear. We need to face it, challenge it, dance with it.”

Kyra Davis (1950) writer

Fear, Dance

“I hope we shall… crush in it’s birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

to George Logan, 1816 http://memory.loc.gov/master/mss/mtj/mtj1/049/0600/0642.jpgLetter <br class="br">Posthumous publications, On financial matters <br class="br">Source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series, Volume 10: 1 May 1816 to 18 January 1817

Law, Hope, Birth, Country

“If you are facing a new challenge or being asked to do something that you have never done before don’t be afraid to step out. You have more capability than you think you do but you will never see it unless you place a demand on yourself for more.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

Thinking

“People say children from broken homes have it hard, but the children of charmed marriages have their own particular challenges.”

Gillian Flynn book Gone Girl

Source: Gone Girl

Marriage, Children, People, Home

“If you really want a challenge, just deal with yourself.”

Tori Amos (1963) American singer

“A woman who is convinced that she deserves to accept only the best challenges herself to give the best. Then she is living phenomenally.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

“She wins who calls herself beautiful and challenges the world to change to truly see her.”

Naomi Wolf book The Beauty Myth

Source: The Beauty Myth

World, Beauty, Change, Beauty

“Living is the challenge. Not dying. Dying is so easy. Sometimes it only takes ten seconds to die. But living? That can take you eighty years and you do something in that time.”

Melina Marchetta book Looking for Alibrandi

Source: Looking for Alibrandi

Time

“This story is not and never was meant to challenge anyone's faith; however, if one's faith can be shaken by stories in a humorous novel, one may have a bit more praying to do.”

Christopher Moore book Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

Source: Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

Faith

“The most glorious moments in your life are not the so-called days of success, but rather those days when out of dejection and despair you feel rise in you a challenge to life, and the promise of future accomplishments.”

Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) French writer (1821–1880)

Life, Feeling, Success, Future

“I'm staying," Henry said, annoyed.

"Why?"

"Because, if I leave, it would be like abandoning two mentally challenged people in a nuclear waste dump.”

Lisa Lutz (1970) US author

Source: Curse of the Spellmans

People

“Whoa," said Nico as he climbed off the bus. "Is that a climbing wall?"
"Yeah," I (Percy) said.
"Why is there lava pouring down it?"
"Little extra challenge…" - Percy”

Rick Riordan book The Titan's Curse

Source: The Titan's Curse

“I know that I'm not the easiest person to live with. The challenge I put on myself is so great that the person I live with feels himself challenged. I bring a lot to bear, and I don't know how not to.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

Source: phenomenal woman

Feeling, Personality

“Anything you don’t understand, Mr. Rankin, you attribute to God. God for you is where you sweep away all the mysteries of the world, all the challenges to our intelligence. You simply turn your mind off and say God did it.”

Carl Sagan book Contact

Source: Contact (1985), Chapter 10 (p. 166)

God, World, Intelligence, Understanding

“The way I see it, living in New Jersey is a challenge, what with the toxic waste and the eighteen wheelers and the armed schizophrenics."
Connie Rosolli”

Janet Evanovich book One for the Money

Source: One for the Money

Way

“You both… you both saved me?"

"Come on," said Luis. "You make it sound like it was hard for Val to go to the Unseelie Court, strike a deal with Roiben, challenge Mabry to a duel, win back your heart, and then get back here during rush hour.”

Holly Black (1971) American children's fiction writer

Source: Valiant

Heart

“But then I didn't run from my challenges. I met them straight on and bashed my head against them, until it left me hurt, bloody, and dazed.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Slays

Hurt

“The challenge with being an initiator of projects is that you are never, ever done.”

Seth Godin (1960) American entrepreneur, author and public speaker

“Yes, but what test? What test was I supposed to take? The Kobayashi Maru? The Pepsi Challenge? Could the clue have been any more vague?”

Ernest Cline book Ready Player One

Source: Ready Player One

“Opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves come when life seems most challenging.”

Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) American mythologist, writer and lecturer

Life

“Let go of certainty. The opposite isn't uncertainty. It's openness, curiosity and a willingness to embrace paradox, rather than choose up sides. The ultimate challenge is to accept ourselves exactly as we are, but never stop trying to learn and grow.”

Tony Schwartz (1952) American writer

Learning

“Love is the great test of the human. The human is tested by our ability to withstand love. Love is so difficult, it is so challenging, it demands of us that we wreck it with ourselves. It demands of us an honesty that few of us could sustain.”

Junot Díaz (1968) Dominican-American writer

Love

“The basic difference between an ordinary man and a warrior is that a warrior takes everything as a challenge while an ordinary man takes everything as a blessing or a curse.”

Carlos Castaneda (1925–1998) Peruvian-American author

“One challenge of our adventure on earth is to rise above dead systems… wars, nations, destructions… to refuse to be a part of them, and express the highest selves we know how to be.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Source: One

War, Parting, Dead

“All these years I'd thought being a spy was challenging. Turns out, being a girl is the tricky part.”

Ally Carter I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

Source: I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

Girl, Parting

“The individual's duty is to do what he wants to do, to think whatever he likes, to be accountable to no one but himself, to challenge every idea and every person.”

Jean Paul Sartre book The Age of Reason

Source: The Age of Reason

Idea, Thinking, Personality

“The stairs aren't challenging enough anymore?" he asked.

Antonio laughed. "Challenge has nothing to do with it, Jer. I'd say it's the big bad wolf huffing and puffing at her door up there.”

Kelley Armstrong book Bitten

Source: Bitten

Wolf

“We must assume every event has significance and contains a message that pertains to our questions… this especially applies to what we used to call bad things… the challenge is to find the silver lining in every event, no matter how negative.”

James Redfield book The Celestine Prophecy

Source: The Celestine Prophecy

Question

“You have a steady fella?” Sam asked after a bit.

“No fella can hold me for long.”

Sam gave her a sideways glance. “That a challenge?”

“No. A statement of fact.”

Libba Bray book The Diviners

Source: The Diviners

“She's like a prisoner inside stone walls, and every day the walls get a little thicker, the doorways a little narrower."
"And?" Eddis prompted.
"Well," said Eugenides, "it's a challenge.”

Megan Whalen Turner The Queen of Attolia

Source: The Queen of Attolia

“Human communities depend upon a diversity of talent, not a single conception of ability. At the heart of the challenge is to reconstitute our sense of ability and of intelligence.”

Ken Robinson (1950) UK writer

TED Conference http://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_bring_on_the_revolution.html

Intelligence, Communication, Sense, Heart

“There was an electric anger in his gaze, and a sort of challenge that made Simon long to hit him with something heavy. Like a pickup truck.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

Anger

“Love lasts because it changes and not because it stays the same and never faces any challenges.”

Paulo Coelho book Manuscript Found in Accra

Source: Manuscript Found in Accra

Love, Change

“An artist is someone who uses bravery, insight, creativity, and boldness to challenge the status quo. And an artist takes it personally.”

Seth Godin (1960) American entrepreneur, author and public speaker

Source: Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

Personality

“When in doubt, just spit it out. That all challenges can be overcome by speaking the truth, no matter how itcomes out.”

Dan Brown book Deception Point

Source: Deception Point

Truth

“At this moment, many people have stopped living. They do not become angry, nor cry out; they merely wait for time to pass. They did not accept the challenges of life, so life no longer challenges them”

Paulo Coelho book The Fifth Mountain

Source: The Fifth Mountain

Life, People, Time, Waiting

“It is to the Cross that the Christian is challenged to follow his Master: no path of redemption can make a detour around it.”

Hans Urs Von Balthasar (1905–1988) Swedish Catholic theologian

Source: Unless You Become Like This Child

“The human race is challenged more than ever before to demonstrate our mastery, not over nature but of ourselves.”

Rachel Carson (1907–1964) American marine biologist and conservationist

Nature

“What does a bigot do when he meets someone who challenges his opinions? He doesn’t give. He stays rigid. Doesn’t even try to listen, just lashes out.”

Harper Lee book Go Set a Watchman

Source: Go Set a Watchman

“Ever, if I’ve learned nothing else in my six hundred years of living, it’s that people hate change almost as much as they hate for their beliefs to be challenged.”

Alyson Nöel (1965) writer

Source: Night Star

Hate, People, Learning, Change

“I challenge anyone to understand Islam, its spirit, and not to love it. It is a beautiful religion of brotherhood and devotion.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

Love, Religion, Beauty, Understanding

“Confront a corpse at least once. The absolute absence of life is the most disturbing and challenging confrontation you will ever have.
David Bowie”

David Bowie (1947–2016) British musician, actor, record producer and arranger

Life

“Liz cleared her throat. "Isn't there a more polite term we're supposed to use nowadays? Like…. little person, or vertically challenged, or-"
"I'm not going to call myself the god of vertically challenged people," Bes grumbled. "I'm a dwarf!”

Rick Riordan (1964) American writer

God, People, Personality

“People who are harder to love pose a challenge, and the challenge makes them easier to love. You're driven to love them. People who want their love easy don't really want love.”

Rachel Kushner book The Flamethrowers

Source: The Flamethrowers

Love, People

“We're not lost. We're locationally challenged”

John M. Ford (1957–2006) American author

“Genuine peace must be the product of many nations, the sum of many acts. It must be dynamic, not static, changing to meet the challenge of each new generation. For peace is a process — a way of solving problems”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

Kennedy's "focus on a more practical, more attainable peace, based not on a sudden revolution in human nature but on a gradual evolution of human institutions." was quoted by Barack Obama in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech.
1963, American University speech
Context: I am not referring to the absolute, infinite concept of peace and good will of which some fantasies and fanatics dream. I do not deny the value of hopes and dreams but we merely invite discouragement and incredulity by making that our only and immediate goal. Let us focus instead on a more practical, more attainable peace — based not on a sudden revolution in human nature but on a gradual evolution in human institutions — on a series of concrete actions and effective agreements which are in the interest of all concerned. There is no single, simple key to this peace — no grand or magic formula to be adopted by one or two powers. Genuine peace must be the product of many nations, the sum of many acts. It must be dynamic, not static, changing to meet the challenge of each new generation. For peace is a process — a way of solving problems.

Peace, Way, Problem, Change

“No matter what challenging situation you may find yourself in, imagine the best outcome of it and feel it! When you do, you will change the circumstances, and you will change the situation into what you want!”

Rhonda Byrne (1951) Australian writer and producer

Feeling, Imagination, Change

“Its was one of those events which at a crucial stage in one's development arrive to challenge and stretch one to the limit of one's ability and beyond, so that thereafter one has a new standard by which to judge oneself.”

Kazuo Ishiguro The Remains of the Day

Source: The Remains of the Day

“Do you find coming to terms with the mindless tedium of it all presents an interesting challenge?”

Douglas Adams The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy pentalogy

Source: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“The soul always knows what to do to heal itself. The challenge is to silence the mind”

Caroline Myss (1952) author from the United States

Soul, Silence

“So, does this make you visibly challenged? (Nick)
No, but if you don’t lay off me, I’m going to make you breathing impaired. (Acheron)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon Night Embrace

Source: Night Embrace

“The challenge is to write about real things magically.”

Raymond Chandler (1888–1959) Novelist, screenwriter

Source: Selected Letters

“Complex things are easy to do. Simplicity's the real challenge.”

Robert James Waller The Bridges of Madison County

Source: The Bridges of Madison County

“And so we go.' It's my way of saying that I'm prepared for the next adventure. The next chapter. The next challenge. Whatever comes my way, I'm ready for it. Because that truly is the way it was meant to be…”

D.J. MacHale The Soldiers of Halla

Source: The Soldiers of Halla

Way

“What kills a relationship between two people is precisely the lack of challenge, the feeling that nothing is new anymore. We need to continue to be a surprise for each other.”

Paulo Coelho book Adultery

Source: Adultery

People, Feeling

“The opposite of fear is love - love of the challenge, love of the work, the pure joyous passion to take a shot at our dream and see if we can pull it off.”

Steven Pressfield (1943) United States Marine

Source: Do the Work

Love, Fear, Dreams, Passion

“We all fall to the floor at some point. It's how you pick yourself up that's the real challenge. Isn't it?”

Madonna (1958) American singer, songwriter, and actress

“A surprise trigonometry quiz that everyone in class fails? Must be in the Lord’s plan to give us challenges.”

Nicholas Sparks book A Walk to Remember

Source: A Walk to Remember

“All of us might wish at times that we lived in a more tranquil world, but we don't. And if our times are difficult and perplexing, so are they challenging and filled with opportunity.”

Robert F. Kennedy (1925–1968) American politician and brother of John F. Kennedy

World, Time

“I could not believe in a God that would challenge faith like this.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Everything Is Illuminated

Source: Everything Is Illuminated

God, Faith

“[B]egin challenging your own assumptions. Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while or the light won’t come in.”

Alan Alda (1936) actor and United States Army officer

Source: Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself

World, Light

“Intelligence is a harder gift. For this you must work, you must practice it, challenge it, and maybe toward the end of your life you will master it. Cleverness is the shadow, whereas intelligence is the substance.
-Doc”

Bryce Courtenay (1933–2012) Australian novelist

Life, Intelligence

“Science is based on experiment, on a willingness to challenge old dogma, on an openness to see the universe as it really is. Accordingly, science sometimes requires courage - at the very least the courage to question the conventional wisdom.”

Carl Sagan (1934–1996) American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science educator

Wisdom, Courage, Question, Universe

“Perhaps your challenge isn't finding a better project or a better boss. Perhaps you need to get in touch with what it means to feel passionate. People with passion look for ways to make things happen.”

Seth Godin (1960) American entrepreneur, author and public speaker

Source: Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

People, Way, Feeling, Passion

“Then shut up or grab a sword and come help. (Takeshi)
Is that a challenge? (Savitar)
It would be if I didn’t know for a fact that you’re too lazy to rise to one. (Takeshi)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Acheron

Help

“Fear not, nor be dismayed at the appearance that is darkness, at the disguise that is evil, at the empty cloak that is death, for you have picked these for your challenges. They are stones on which you choose to whet the keen edge of your spirit.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Source: One

Death, Fear, Appearance, Evil

“Embrace each challenge in your life as an opportunity for self-transformation.”

Bernie S. Siegel (1932) American writer

Life

“For there are two possible reactions to social ostracism - either a man emerges determined to be better, purer, and kindlier or he goes bad, challenges the world and does even worse things. The last is by far the commonest reaction to stigma.”

John Steinbeck book Cannery Row

Source: Cannery Row

World

“Some people say that you shouldn't operate from a place of fear but if there is no fear, how is there a challenge?”

Cecelia Ahern (1981) Irish novelist

Source: One Hundred Names

People, Fear

“A warrior takes his lot, whatever it may be, and accepts it in ultimate humbleness. He accepts in humbleness what he is, not as a grounds for regret but as a living challenge.”

Carlos Castaneda (1925–1998) Peruvian-American author

Source: The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe, (1998), Quotations from "Tales of Power" (Chapter 10)

“Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed; if we permit the last virgin forests to be turned into comic books and plastic cigarette cases; if we drive the few remaining members of the wild species into zoos or to extinction; if we pollute the last clear air and dirty the last clean streams and push our paved roads through the last of the silence, so that never again will Americans be free in their own country from the noise, the exhausts, the stinks of human and automotive waste. And so that never again can we have the chance to see ourselves single, separate, vertical and individual in the world, part of the environment of trees and rocks and soil, brother to the other animals, part of the natural world and competent to belong in it. … We need wilderness preserved — as much of it as is still left, and as many kinds — because it was the challenge against which our character as a people was formed. The reminder and the reassurance that it is still there is good for our spiritual health even if we never once in ten years set foot in it.”

Wallace Stegner (1909–1993) American historian, writer, and environmentalist

Wilderness Letter http://wilderness.org/bios/former-council-members/wallace-stegner (1960) <br class="br">Source: The Sound of Mountain Water

People, Health, Books, World

“It's fairly easy to break hearts, Miss Duvall. The more interesting challenge is how to keep someone's love, not to lose it.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Someone to Watch Over Me

Love, Heart

“They didn’t agree on much. In fact, they didn’t agree on anything. They fought all the time and challenged each other ever day. But despite their differences, they had one important thing in common. They were crazy about each other.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Notebook

Source: The Notebook

Time, Romantic