The Hardest Thing Quotes & Sayings

I'm convinced that the best solutions are often the ones that are counterintuitive - that challenge conventional thinking - and end in breakthroughs. It is always easier to do things the same old way ... why change? To fight this, keep your dissatisfaction index high and break with tradition. Don't be too quick to accept the way things are being done. Question whether there's a better way. Very often you will find that once you make this break from the usual way - and incidentally, this is probably the hardest thing to do - and start on a new track your horizon of new thoughts immediately broadens. New ideas flow in like water. Always keep your interests broad - don't let your mind be stunted by a limited view. — Nathaniel J. Wyeth

This is the hardest thing I've ever done. The rehab has not gone as expected. — Jennifer Capriati

An attitudinal sea change. I think that's the hardest one to fix. Presidential directives, bills, provisions can all be rescinded, repealed, amended, but attitudes linger. The hardest thing is going to be to try to reverse an attitude, a bunker mentality that equates secrecy with either security or heightened efficiency and that regards transparency as an invitation to mischief and trespass. This default position of operating in the shadows is going to be somewhat appealing to whomever inherits office. — Ted Gup

The hardest thing in the world for a writer is to amass a readership. So many good books come out, and so many good books disappear. — Patrick DeWitt

We sometimes say, "Only believe;" but believing is just the hardest thing in the world when sin lies heavy on your shoulders. We say, "Sinner, only trust in Christ." Ah. you do not know what a great "only" that is. It is a work so great, that no man can do it unaided by God; for faith is the gift of God, and he gives it only to his children. — Charles Haddon Spurgeon

The hardest thing in the world is to simplify your life; it's so easy to make it complex. — Yvon Chouinard

A lot of people who do drama say comedy is the hardest thing, but, not wanting to sound like a bighead, comedy is easy for me, as I've always been fairly funny. — Nick Frost

All that we had, every moment we shared, it meant everything to me. Everything you felt, I felt it, too. It was the hardest thing to do, to walk away from you, from us, but I had to do it, because you deserve so much more. And I hope you see that. I hope that you've moved on and found some guy who treats you like the amazingly beautiful girl you are. And that he knows how lucky he is to have you. I hope he appreciates every single thing about you. And I hope that he loves you and gives you the world, Amanda. Because I would have. — Jay McLean

The hardest thing for me is the sense of impermanence. All passes; nothing returns. — Ellen Glasgow

The hardest thing [for me] is to 'just' agree, and that is what sparks creativity, the feeling that something can be better, the feeling that something's missing, the feeling that something's needed. — Kanye West

The hardest thing for me to do, and the best thing I've done and learned as an actor is to sacrifice being funny in certain circumstances in order to do something that makes sense for the story or the character, or emotionally. — Jonah Hill

The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see. — Ayn Rand

Getting sober was one of the three pivotal events in my life, along with becoming an actor and having a child. Of the three, finding my sobriety was the hardest thing. — Gary Oldman

Sometimes you're encouraged, and other times disappointed. It's a matter of going in and precluding all that with, 'This is what I do, not who I am.' I need to be who I am in the process of doing what I do. I need to stay true to what it is I'm really here for. And that's the hardest thing, the biggest challenge. — Craig T. Nelson

Well, I started out down a dirty road Started out all alone And the sun went down as I crossed the hill And the town lit up, the world got still I'm learning to fly but I ain't got wings Coming down is the hardest thing Well, the good ol' days may not return And the rocks might melt and the sea may burn I'm learning to fly but I ain't got wings Coming down is the hardest thing Well, some say life will beat you down Break your heart, steal your crown So I've started out for God knows where I guess I'll know when I get there I'm learning to fly around the clouds But what goes up must come down — Tom Petty

'Unicorn Island' is the synonym for my happy place. It's a really beautiful message: that happiness is one of the hardest things you'll ever fight for, but it's the only thing worth fighting for. — Lilly Singh

Whether the lightning bewildered me and made me take a false turn, I cannot tell; for the hardest thing to understand, in intellectual as well as moral mistakes, is - how we came to go wrong. — George MacDonald

I think that every living person, every person who is awake to the functioning principles within his reality has a moment where he stops blaming the problems in the world on group thinking, on humanity and authority, and starts to face himself. I hate this more than anything. This is the hardest principle within christian spirituality for me to deal with. The problem is not out there, the problem is the needy beast of a thing living in my chest. — Donald Miller

Until I separated from Parker, I had never been without them-and it's the hardest thing to share them. But we're trying to give the children the semblance of having whole lives. — Kirstie Alley

The hardest thing on earth is choosing what matters — Larry McMurtry

You know the hardest thing to do in Hollywood is burn bridges. There is usually some sucker who still likes me. There is usually some sucker who will still work with me. — Terry Gilliam

I would say that the powerful, revolutionary thing about Jesus' message is that he says, 'What do you do with the people that aren't like you? What do you do with the Other? What do you do with the person that's hardest to love?' ... That's the measure of a good religion, is - you can love the people who are just like you; that's kind of easy. So what Jesus does is takes the question and talks about fruit. He's interested in what you actually produce. And that's a different discussion. How do we love the people in the world that are least like us? — Rob Bell

I love writing journalism because it's all over in two hours and comes straight off the top of the head. Writing novels is soooooo much harder. It's the hardest thing I've ever done. — Rachel Johnson

That era provided a profusion of wonderful actors and actresses to admire - and not always the ones remembered by posterity. Take Joel McCrea, for instance, a real cowboy and a good actor who could excel in westerns like Union Pacific or The Virginian, but who was also wonderful in comedies like The Palm Beach Story for Preston Sturges - and comedy is the hardest thing an actor can do. — Robert Wagner

But we don't always have to be studying something, I thought, it's perfectly enough merely to think, to do nothing but think and give our thoughts free rein. To give in to our philosophical worldview, simply submit to our philosophical worldview, but that's the hardest thing, I thought. Wertheimer — Thomas Bernhard

The hardest thing to learn in the game of love is when to fold a winning hand. — Robert Breault

It's the hardest thing on earth to like yourself, and then when you do, it's a catastrophe. I mean, the people I know who like themselves - I don't want to see them! — Mike Nichols

The most important thing, in anything you do, is always trying your hardest, because even if you try your hardest and it's not as good as you'd hoped, you still have that sense of not letting yourself down. — Tom Holland

The softest thing in the world dashes against and overcomes the hardest; that which has no (substantial) existence enters where there is no crevice. — Lao-Tzu

The first thing I did on my diet was take the batteries out of the remote control and make myself get up and change the channel. That's probably the hardest exercise I did. — Stephen Furst

Here is the hardest hit of all, O'Malley," Harry said. "Here is the very worst thing I can do to you."
He held out his hand, as if asking for a handshake.
He was asking for a handshake.
Conor responded almost automatically, putting out his own hand and shaking Harry's before he even thought about what he was doing. They shook hands like two businessmen at the end of a meeting.
"Goodbye, O'Malley," Harry said, looking into Conor's eyes. "I no longer see you. — Patrick Ness

Screenplays are the hardest thing to try to get right. They look so simple when they work, but they really destroy your brain cells trying to get them there. — Jerry Bruckheimer

I think the hardest thing is to know what you want, ask for it, and then to stop talking. — Amy Poehler

My friends, the hardest thing, when you reach a certain level, is to stay fresh, day in and day out. The world changes very fast around us, no? So, as difficult as it is, the key to success is to embrace this constant change and move with the times," said Chef Piquot. — Richard C. Morais

The hardest thing to do in life is to be yourself. — Debasish Mridha

Making it look easy is the hardest thing in the world to do. — Sarah Ban Breathnach

The truth is, I've been going pretty much nuts all year. I constantly have to fight being scattered. I feel like I'm on automatic pilot from fatigue. The hardest thing is trying to be present, living for the moment, for everybody in the family. — Patricia Richardson

The easiest thing humans can do is fall in love. The hardest thing is learning what it takes to stay in love. — Agnes H. Hagadus

The hardest thing is being with other people - it's like they're on a different wavelenght, but only you know it. They talk about their lives and what's wrong with them, and you kind of, like, just let them go. It's a whole different language, and you've got to remember that you can only respond in their mother tongue. It's really hard to relate. — J.R. Ward

I had an amazing mother. She raised nine kids, practically as a single parent, which is the hardest thing in the world. Nine of us! Day in and day out. She had to make sure we all had an education and that we all felt loved. — Sufe Bradshaw

Life is everything. Life is God. Everything shifts and moves, and this movement is God. And while there is life, there is delight in the self-awareness of the divinity. To love life is to love God. The hardest and most blissful thing is to love this life in one's suffering, in the guiltlessness of suffering. — Leo Tolstoy

The hardest thing to do is to be true to yourself, especially when everybody is watching. — Dave Chappelle

The ego-shell in which we live is the hardest thing to outgrow. — D.T. Suzuki

I had to learn to think, feel and see in a totally new fashion, in an uneducated way, in my own way, which is the hardest thing in the world. I had to throw myself into the current, knowing that I would probably sink. The great majority of artists are throwing themselves in with life-preservers around their necks, and more often than not it is the life-preserver which sinks them. — Henry Miller

Do you know what is the hardest thing in life? To make a choice. — Honore De Balzac

Performing is the hardest thing. Even though I've done it for so many years, it's still exposing yourself. You suddenly become extremely vulnerable when you're on camera. You're filmed and you're being observed. It's a bit of a violation each time. — Julie Delpy

Stardust is
the hardest thing
to hold out for.
You must make of yourself
a perfect plane-
something still
upon which
something settles-
something like
sugar grains on
something like
metal, but with
none of the chill.
It's hard to explain.
Stardust — Kay Ryan

The hardest thing to write was explaining what anxiety feels like. Every time I'd try to really write about what it feels like to have an anxiety attack, I would actually have an anxiety attack. It was good material but so incredibly uncomfortable. — Jenny Lawson

But it's not easy, realising how we fucked it all up. And that turns out to be the hardest thing to live with, not the regret or the fear, but the realisation that the edge is so close to where we live. — Jess Walter

The hardest thing about being a writer is convincing your wife that lying on the sofa is work. — John Hughes

indifference toward a world which should have been ours was the hardest thing to attain. I — Ayn Rand

I've given you everything a friend can give, Joe Saul-even contempt, and that's the hardest thing of all. — John Steinbeck

In my experience, the hardest thing about having someone "come out" to you is the "pretending to be surprised" part. — Tina Fey

I think insanity is the hardest thing to play. — Richard C. Armitage

If you're with someone you don't exactly trust then you have to watch yourself and that's the hardest thing for an actor not to do, and not listen to yourself as you're talking. — Channing Tatum

The hardest thing about moving to California from Connecticut was just missing my family. If I went back, it would be just because I was homesick. — Kevin Nealon

The obvious is the hardest thing of all to point out to anyone who has genuinely lost sight of it. — Owen Barfield

The hardest thing to accept as a parent is that you cannot apply the bandage before the bruise. — Robert Breault

The hardest and greatest thing a human being can do is submit to his Creator. — Habeeb Akande

The hardest thing to teach young writers is that it's wonderful to tell your truth. And that's what you should do. But it damn well better be beautiful. — Dorothy Allison

I think the hardest thing about making music now is being a great dad at the same time. There's an insanity that goes with writing - a mad scientist thing that you have to go through - and sacrificing a kid's upbringing to do that is not an option. — Eddie Vedder

To have loved and lost, either by that total disenchantment which leaves compassion as the sole substitute for love which can exist no more, or by the slow torment which is obliged to let go day by day all that constitutes the diviner part of love namely, reverence, belief, and trust, yet clings desperately to the only thing left it, a long-suffering apologetic tenderness this lot is probably the hardest any woman can have to bear. — Dinah Maria Murlock Craik

It's hard enough to give fearlessly, and it's even harder to receive fearlessly.
But within that exchange lies the hardest thing of all:
To ask. Without shame.
And to accept the help that people offer.
Not to force them.
Just to let them. — Amanda Palmer

It's what I learn from the great actors that I work with. Stillness. That's all and that's the hardest thing. — Morgan Freeman

Thinking about somebody every day of his life ... oh yes, he said to himself. Oh yes, you do. You think about somebody. He fills your world. He is all about you, a presence, and you think about him; you can't help it, because he's always there, in your thoughts. But you know, of course, that all the while you're thinking about him, he's not thinking about you. That's the hardest thing about it. That's what makes it so very, very hard to bear. So hard that sometimes you just sit there and let the misery wash over you; the misery, the emptiness. — Alexander McCall Smith

August: You know, somethings don't matter that much ... like the color of a house ... But lifting a person's heart
now that matters. The whole problem with people

Lily: They don't know what matters and what doesn't ...
August: ... They know what matters, but they don't choose it ... The hardest thing on earth is to choose what matters. — Sue Monk Kidd

The hardest thing is the idea. Ideas come from somewhere but as far as we know they come from nowhere. — Ian Hunter

When I was growing up, it was the guys who were hardest at school who got the prettiest girls. It's a status thing. — Martin Compston

It's the thing I struggle with every day: the mental diligence and stamina needed to sit in front of the computer, open the file, start writing and to keep doing so, word after word, until I've created the next story. A combination of learning disability and chronic health issues make that the hardest thing for me. — Nalo Hopkinson

To me, cooking is man's natural activity. But I think writing is really hard. Certainly writing fiction is the hardest thing I've ever done. — Ruth Reichl

The hardest thing about being an outcast isn't the love you don't receive. It's the love you long to give that nobody wants. After a while, it backs up into your system like stagnant water and turns toxic, poisoning your spirit. When this happens, you don't have many choices available. You can become a bitter loner who goes through life being pissed off at the world; you can fester with rage until one day you murder your classmates. Or, you can find another outlet for your love, where it will be appreciated and maybe even returned. — Jodee Blanco

Perhaps the hardest thing I've learned, and still struggle with, is that I don't have to be finished in order to be whole. — Mark Nepo

I really believe that the single hardest thing in business is building a company that does repeatable innovation ... and just has this ongoing culture of excellence as it grows. — Sam Altman

The hardest thing is trying not to correct everything on the Internet. It'd be night and day - wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. So you just have to say, 'All right, I'll take it, bring it on.' — George Clooney

I thought I was stronger than a word, but I just discovered that having to say goodbye to you is by far the hardest thing I've ever had to do. — Colleen Hoover

The hardest thing for me about making movies, and that included 'M*A*S*H' because it was made like a movie, was starting and stopping. — Alan Alda

I think the hardest thing to do in the world, show-business-wise, is write comedy. — Carol Burnett

Sometimes waiting is the hardest thing of all. — Luanne Rice

The thing about living in New York is that there are other artists; that is the most difficult, I think they are the hardest critics. — Julian Schnabel

Listening to your instincts, while being the easiest, can also be the hardest thing to do. — Tena Desae

Sometimes the hardest thing about the truth is putting down the misassumptions, falsehoods, and half-truths that stand between it and you. Sometimes that's the last thing that anybody wants to do. And sometimes, it's the only thing we can do. — Mira Grant

Love shouldn't be hard." "There I think you're wrong. I think it should be the hardest thing there is, then it's not so easily given away, or taken away, or just lost. — Nora Roberts

I naturally have an athletic build, thick legs yet a lean upper body. I filled out much later than all my classmates, and I thank God for it now. I had to learn to fix what I can and accept what I cannot fix ... That's probably the hardest thing. — Keri Hilson

I asked for help, which is the hardest thing in the world. — Marcia Wallace

I can't save you like that Ty.
What you did to me wasn't this brilliant thing, like you think it was. You took me away from everything - my parents, my friends, my life. You took me to the sand and the heat, the dirt and isolation. And you expected me to love you. And that's the hardest bit. Because I did, or at least, I loved something out there.
But I hated you too. I can't forget that. — Lucy Christopher

I wish my powers were good for things like picking out asparagus. Is there a way to divine where the asparagus came from? Why are some of them thick and some thin, and over there, there's white ones. How will they taste? Do they all taste different? Which are the freshest? Oh my god, this is the hardest thing I've ever done. — Kelly Thompson

Making movies is really hard. It's the hardest thing I've ever done. — Madonna Ciccone

Goodbye is the absolute hardest thing to say because you have to walk away with just a memory and after awhile that memory fades. — Sarah Dillon

The hardest thing that I'll ever do, is ballet. Because you are either good or bad. — Elle Fanning

The first lesson a watcher learns is to separate truth from illusion. Because in the world of magicks, it's the hardest thing to do. — Joss Whedon

Anyone who has wrestled knows that it's the hardest thing in the world to do. Anyone who says something else is the hardest thing has never wrestled. That's what I have found ... You don't wrestle because it's easy, you wrestle because it's hard. I don't do astrophysics because it's easy, I do it because it's hard. And I juxtapose the two in my mind, body, and soul all the time. — Neil DeGrasse Tyson

Looking back, I can genuinely say that I am truly grateful that my parents sheltered us from the public eye. This may sound like an easy task, but it was probably the hardest thing they had to figure out as parents - how to give their kids a normal childhood even though they were always in the spotlight. — Katherine Schwarzenegger

Though it is the hardest thing, to work out one's weight and heft in the world, to whittle down all that I am and give it a value. — Anna Funder

I have found that to tell the truth is the hardest thing on earth. Harder than fighting in a war, harder than taking part in a revolution.
"If you try it, you will find that at times sweat will break upon you. You will find that even if you succeed in discounting the attitudes of others to you and your life, you must wrestle with yourself most of all. Fight with yourself. Because there will surge up in you a strong desire to alter facts, to dress up your feelings.
"You'll find that there are many things you don't want to admit about yourself and others.
"As your record shapes itself, an awed wonder haunts you. And yet there is no more exciting an adventure than trying to be honest in this way. The clean, strong feeling that sweeps you when you've done it makes you know that. — Richard Wright

It's the hardest thing to come up with an hour of material that can consistently keep people laughing. — Aziz Ansari

Putting my book down should be the hardest thing my reader has to do that day. Authorship is a merciless business! — Rachel Aaron

You make films to give people something, to transport them somewhere else, and it doesn't matter if you transport them to a world of intuition or a world of intellect ... The realm of superstitions, fortune-telling, presentiments, intuition, dreams, all this is the inner life of a human being, and all this is the hardest thing to film ... I've been trying to get there from the beginning. I'm somebody who doesn't know, somebody who's searching. — Krzysztof Kieslowski

My back went out and I gained 40 pounds while sweating over 'Perestroika.' It was incredibly hard, the hardest thing I had to do before the screenplay to 'Lincoln.' — Tony Kushner

To say something nice about themselves, this is the hardest thing in the world for people to do. — Nancy Friday

I'm a cook, and I'm like, "a dash of this, a pinch of that." I cook with a lot of passion and instinct. So that's the hardest thing - to put an actual recipe together. — Eva Longoria