Challenge Quotes

Others can challenge and motivate us, but we must reach down deep into our souls and call forth our God-given intelligence and capabilities. We cannot do this when we depend on the efforts of someone else.

~ James E. Faust

When the intelligence is making a policymaker too happy, he ought to challenge it, and even if he doesn't, the intelligence briefer needs to launch a red team against his own conclusions to see if he can hold his ground.

~ Michael Hayden

To young people born under the weird planet of the SAT, intelligence was equated with agility, with raw acuity. It produced a certain sort of person of which I was a typical specimen: the mental contortionist, able to rise to almost every challenge placed before him, except the challenge of real self-knowledge.

~ Walter Kirn

It's more fun to write villains. They are more of a challenge, and I get a sick kind of pleasure out of delving into their minds. There's rarely emptiness, and there is almost always deep intelligence.

~ Nnedi Okorafor

Percussion is the most adaptable family of instruments. The biggest challenge is to project percussion in a lyrical way.

~ Evelyn Glennie

To make architecture with any real value is a massive challenge.

~ Thomas Heatherwick

I think all good architecture should challenge you, make you start asking questions. You don't have to understand it. You may not like it. That's OK.

~ Thom Mayne

Every Fourth of July, our Declaration of Independence is produced, with a sublime indignation, to set forth the tyranny of the mother country and to challenge the admiration of the world. But what a pitiful detail of grievances does this document present in comparison with the wrongs which our slaves endure!

~ William Lloyd Garrison

Whatever the medium, there is the difficulty, challenge, fascination and often productive clumsiness of learning a new method: the wonderful puzzles and problems of translating with new materials.

~ Helen Frankenthaler

The truth is that throughout my careers in both chess and the martial arts, I often knew that my rivals were more naturally gifted than me - either with their mental machines or their bodies. But I have believed in my training, my approach to learning, and my ability to rise to the challenge under pressure.

~ Joshua Waitzkin

I feel like every time I write a song, it feels like the first time I wrote a song. It's just as hard; it doesn't get easier, but that's why I love it: because it's a challenge every time. I also feel like I'm learning new ways.

~ Shawn Mendes

I think I will always be performing I don't think I can take that away. Because I really just enjoy it. I like getting up to sing I like the challenge of learning new material and singing it in front of an audience.

~ Lea Salonga

The challenge as a parent is letting your kids fail in the right ways because that's where we do most of our learning.

~ Rob Lowe

I brought a Border Collie back home to Vancouver from Wales - where some of my ancestors are from - and needed to challenge him in other ways than just being my pet. So I investigated sheep herding and took a few lessons, and decided I was probably learning more than my dog!

~ Jane Siberry

One thing I learned particularly at Yale was how to work with others. Having studied so long trying to master myself, the biggest challenge was learning about the other person's work.

~ Trai Byers

Ferran Adria making hamburgers... some thought it was crazy. But getting them perfect was a challenge. Plus I'm fascinated by all aspects of food.

~ Ferran Adria

Bad Religion has never been about criticizing people who are Christian. But we've always been about pointing out the irony and contradictions in Christian theology and the more extreme versions of Christians that seek to challenge modern secularism.

~ Greg Graffin

People who dismiss science in favor of religion sometimes confuse the challenge of rigorously understanding the world with a deliberate intellectual exclusion that leads them to mistrust scientists and, to their detriment, what they discover.

~ Lisa Randall

You can look at Bad Religion, and, really, almost everything I've ever done was an exercise in creativity. I've always had a desire to challenge and question authority, and that's where the fire inside comes from. I challenged authority out of a desire to make things better, not to be nihilistic about it.

~ Greg Graffin

As you navigate through the rest of your life, be open to collaboration. Other people and other people's ideas are often better than your own. Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.

~ Amy Poehler

It's not really about the competition. Your biggest challenge in a race is yourself. You're often racing against time. You're frequently running everything through your mind. You're always competing against preconceived ideas. It's not really the person next to you that you worry about.

~ Summer Sanders

There is never time in the future in which we will work out our salvation. The challenge is in the moment the time is always now.

~ James A. Baldwin

Boxing is the ultimate challenge. There's nothing that can compare to testing yourself the way you do every time you step in the ring.

~ Sugar Ray Leonard

My mistake in my relationships has been to feel that I can do it all on my own: 'I don't need a man.' That is definitely a mistake. Women generally want to feel loved and appreciated. It's something that I am working on every day, trust me! It's a challenge for me to do that.

~ Miranda Kerr

There is nothing like a challenge to bring out the best in man.

~ Sean Connery

Every single job is a challenge. You are walking into a new set, a new character, creating a world and trying to get comfortable to do your best work.

~ Felicia Day

A nice person is a 'yes' person, whereas a good person is a person who accepts their responsibility in things and moves forward and tries to constantly evolve and isn't afraid to say no or challenge someone or be honest or truthful.

~ Miranda Kerr

America may be slow to rise to a challenge. But our history has shown that once we make up our minds to really do something, nothing can stand in our way.

~ Carrie P. Meek

This year, 1996, has been designated the 'Year of the Vaccine,' commemorating the 200th anniversary of Edward Jenner's vaccination of James Phipps with cowpox virus and subsequent challenge with smallpox virus. Insight into the nature of viruses, and how viruses interact with mammalian cells, has evolved since the turn of the century.

~ Peter C. Doherty

Negative emotions will challenge your grit every step of the way. While it's impossible not to feel your emotions, it's completely under your power to manage them effectively and to keep yourself in a position of control. When you let your emotions overtake your ability to think clearly, it's easy to lose your resolve.

~ Travis Bradberry

A vibrant civil society can challenge those in power by documenting corruption or uncovering activities like the murder of political enemies. In democracies, this function is mostly performed by the media, NGOs or opposition parties.

~ Evgeny Morozov

I am proof that one person can rise above any challenge, and if I can, then so will others if they are given the chance.

~ Emmanuel Jal

Voting shouldn't be a challenge. It should be as easy and accessible as possible. We shouldn't require forms of ID that folks don't have. We shouldn't restrict days or hours that allow working people a chance to both do their job and exercise their democratic right, and we damn well shouldn't be throwing up new obstacles midstream.

~ Donna Brazile

So I picked a field where I had a little exposure. Where I thought I could have an enormous challenge, and have a chance to really do some good, to be a pioneer in an area, and not just be like everyone else.

~ Henry Kravis

Being away from home was tough, but the challenge and the thrill of being on Broadway was so fulfilling, and I'm thankful to my husband for making it possible and holding it down at home.

~ Nicole Ari Parker

I want to challenge you today to get out of your comfort zone. You have so much incredible potential on the inside. God has put gifts and talents in you that you probably don't know anything about.

~ Joel Osteen

We created a line of pet food called Nutrish that's made to human standards, and 100 percent of the proceeds go to animal rescue. One of our top-tier donors is the ASPCA, and they help us challenge animal shelters all across the country to get more animals placed in homes.

~ Rachael Ray

To be happy when you are travelling, you need to be happy inside before you leave. A positive frame of mind will definitely enhance your travelling experience. If I'm not in a positive frame of mind then the whole thing definitely becomes more of a challenge for me.

~ Andrea Bocelli

Some days, 24 hours is too much to stay put in, so I take the day hour by hour, moment by moment. I break the task, the challenge, the fear into small, bite-size pieces. I can handle a piece of fear, depression, anger, pain, sadness, loneliness, illness. I actually put my hands up to my face, one next to each eye, like blinders on a horse.

~ Regina Brett

A good spicy challenge strikes a balance between flavour and fear.

~ Adam Richman