Key Insights & Memorable Quotes
Below are the most popular and impactful highlights and quotes from Tough: My Journey to True Power:
“There is no right way to be black or white or anything else. There are literally thousands of different ways to be in this world, so ultimately all you can be is yourself.”
“Learning to live without shame gave me genuine empathy for the first time. I look at every person in the world, and I understand that we've all got issues and we're all in the process of becoming. If someone hasn't vanquished their demons, or doesn't know how to vanquish their demons, or isn't even aware that they have demons to vanquish - I get it, because I lived that way for the first forty-two years of my life, and I've been unlearning it every day for the last ten.”
“The purpose of being tough is not to attack, but to protect. The purpose of being strong is not to dominate, but to support. The purpose of having power is not to rule, but to serve. What I've learned is that to be a true man is to be the ultimate servant. With any talent or advantage that life has give you, whether by birth or by circumstance, your duty is to use that advantage in the service of others.”
“I always seek to provide value in the entertainment that I create, but in addition to that, tithing makes every dollar I earn valuable no matter what, because 10 percent of every dollar is going to someone in need. When the Bible speaks of giving back, it tells the story of farmers who, when harvesting from their orchards, always leave something on the vine for those who have nothing. If you have ten apples, you pick nine and leave one. That's what I do. Ten percent of every dollar I make goes to pay for a shelter to help a woman like my mom escape a man like my dad. Ten percent of every dollar I make goes to helping a kid like my childhood friend Chris stay off the streets. Ten percent of every dollar I make goes to helping students get the kind of scholarship that would have allowed me to follow my dream of going to art school. Because I tithe, everything I do has value.”
“A healthy faith empowers you by giving a sense of meaning and purpose to go out and be good and do good in the world. A cult does the opposite. A cult robs you of any agency and power you might have outside the group.”
“I'm getting angry because I have an unrealistic expectation of how other person should be acting. I need to let that go.”
“we always have a choice. Even if you have a gun to your head, you have a choice. We have agency. Every minute of our lives, we can choose how we feel and how we respond to events and what we want to do. We don’t always get to choose our circumstances, but we always get to choose what to do with the circumstances that we have.”
