24 Inspirational Quotes From Michael J. Fox
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Michael J. Fox was dealt what many would consider a devastating blow when he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease at the height of his career in 1991. Instead of letting the debilitating health condition keep him down, the actor formed The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research and established himself as a leading advocate in the space.
His fortitude in the face of such struggle has been nothing short of an inspiration. Let's take a look at some of Michael J. Fox's most empowering quotes.
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Best Michael J. Fox Quotes
1. “When the cure for Parkinson’s is found—and it will be—it will be because of all of us, working together.”
2. “Gratitude makes optimism sustainable. If you're grateful for the opportunities you have, for what you've been given to do work-wise, for the opportunities that exist, you're optimistic. If you can just find those moments, I always feel that if you flip the coin 100 times, you're going to come up heads 51.”
3. “There’s the stuff you plan—the stuff you work toward, the stuff you aspire to, your desires and wishes. And then there’s things that just happen. And the things that just happen are usually of more intricate design and a higher purpose.”
4. “It was one of the great ironies of my life that only when it became virtually impossible for me to keep my body from moving would I find the peace, security, and spiritual strength to stand in one place. I couldn’t be still until I could—literally—no longer keep still.”
5. “Optimism is a cure for many things.”
6. “When life takes away, something of greater value is always given in return.”
7. “It may seem hard to believe, but it's catastrophe that offers the most promise for an even richer life. This is the gateway to the good stuff. In other words, you never truly know which way the wind is blowing until the s--t hits the fan.”
8 “You suffer the blow, but you capitalize on the opportunity left in its wake.”
9. “One's dignity may be assaulted, vandalized and cruelly mocked, but it can never be taken away unless it is surrendered.”
Related: Michael J. Fox Speaks Candidly About Living With Parkinson's
10. “My happiness grows in direct proportion to my acceptance, and in inverse proportion to my expectations.”
11. “Happiness is a decision.”
12. “Don’t spend a lot of time imagining the worst-case scenario. It rarely goes down as you imagine it will, and if by some fluke it does, you will have lived it twice.”
13. “Family is not an important thing, it's everything.”
14. “A creative mess is better than idle tidiness.”
15. “Recovering alcoholics have an expression: ‘If you have one foot in yesterday and one foot in tomorrow, you’re pissing all over today.’ With all that’s happened, it’s been liberating to understand that I don’t have to carry the weight of all my disappointments or expectations. Sometimes it just is what it is. I can accept that.”
16. “Live and try.”
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17. “Still, what's happened before and what may happen later can't be as important as what's happening now.”
18. “Acceptance doesn’t mean resignation; it means understanding that something is what it is and that there’s got to be a way through it.”
19. “Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.”
20. “I've dropped my pebble in the ocean, and hopefully; throughout the course of the day, millions of others will drop theirs in too. No single one of us knows which pebble causes the wave to crest, but each of us, quite rightly, believes that it might be ours; an act of faith.”
21. Frankly, my height or lack thereof never bothered me much. Although there is no doubt that it has contributed to a certain mental toughness. I've made the most of the head start one gains from being underestimated.”
22. “The only unavailable choice was whether or not to have Parkinson's. Everything else was up to me.”
23. “Our challenges don't define us, our actions do.”
24. “Sure, it may be one step forward and two steps back, but after a time with Parkinson's, I've learned that what is important is making that step count—always looking up.”
Next, In Sickness and In Health: All About Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan's Long-Lasting Marriage
