Tougher Than Tough Quotes & Sayings

The toughest thing is facing yourself. Being honest with yourself, that's much tougher than beating someone up. That's what I call tough. — Joe Strummer

If we do not make tough decisions now, future Americans will have to make even tougher ones. — Virginia Foxx

However, if you fail to prepare, you will either go through stress to win your race or you may quit when the battle becomes tougher than you ever imagined. — Israelmore Ayivor

This is tough but CHERUB's are tougher — Robert Muchamore

When you think life is tough, it can get a lot tougher. — Kate Gosselin

Striking a balance in life is tough, but trying to strike balance and remain fair in the face of imbalance and oppression is even tougher. — Aisha Mirza

Is he any good?" Susan said. "DeSpain. Yeah. He's a good cop. Very tough cop." "Too tough?" "Some people thought so," I said. "Tougher than you?" "Never a horse that couldn't be rode, little lady. Never a rider that couldn't be throwed." "Good heavens," Susan said. "Does that mean he might be?" "Means maybe we'll find out some day," I said. — Robert B. Parker

I'm tougher than you think. You just need to believe in me. You know, like a fairy. — Becca Ritchie & Kristia Ritchie

Life's tough. It's even tougher when you are stupid. — John Wayne

Creating success is tough. But keeping it is tougher. You have to keep producing, you can't ever stop. — Pete Rose

It is tough to lose. But it is even tougher when the winner is everything that you fear and worse - a criminal enterprise masquerading as a legitimate state. Tougher still to point this out to the Washington establishment, always enamored of tales of second chances and political redemption. It puts you in the position of being a sore loser. Worse, a sore loser with a failed political agenda. So it was as Ellen and I try to raise the alarm after Charles Taylor takes the presidency of Liberia. — K. Riva Levinson

If we don't make tough decisions today our children are going to have to make much, much tougher decisions tomorrow. — Paul Ryan

No man worth his salt, no man of spirit and spine, no man for whom I could have any respect, could rejoice in the identification of Tallulah's husband. It's tough enough to be bogged down in a legend. It would be even tougher to marry one. — Tallulah Bankhead

Why is it so tough to forget pain and tougher to remember happiness.
We treasure our scars but forget to live on our smiles. — Hanif Hassan Barbhuiya

She blames herself. I hurt from knowing that I hurt her. Even when we know all of these other people are to blame. My friends. The media. Not her. Not me.

I can't help myself. I continue the cycle and I say, "I don't want to hurt you."

Lily is quiet for a moment before she says, "I'm tougher than you think. You just need to believe in me. You know, like a fairy."

I do believe in fairies. I do. I do. The jubilant chorus from Peter Pan fills my ears.

I look up at her, tears in both our eyes. Is that how we end this? I trust that I can share my grief with her and that she won't crumble beneath the pain?

She nods to me like go on. I can handle it. — Becca Ritchie & Kristia Ritchie

Politics is a tough game. But would I change places with a trauma nurse in an emergency ward on a busy Saturday night? No way. There are lots of jobs in the world that are tougher than politics. And politicians and people who've done it need to remember that. — Michael Ignatieff

The best leaders are gentle. In our culture, we have been misled to believe that the tougher we are, the more respect we will gain, but that is simply not true. What we gain by being tough is fear, and fear is not respect. Respect is gained by giving it away. — Rebecca Eanes

But you're a man, Chess. You're tough."
Chess snorted. "Ever seen the inside of a birthin' room? Stick a pin in the map almost anywhere, you'll find ten women tougher'n me - and you, for that matter. — Gemma Files

In all those stories about people who sold their souls to the devil, I never quite understood why the devil was the bad guy, or why it was okay to screw him out of his soul. They got what they wanted: fame, money, love, whatever - though usually it turned out not to be what they really wanted or expected. Was that the devil's fault? I never thought so. Like John Wayne said, "Life's tough. It's even tougher when you're stupid. — James Anderson

The obvious," Noah goes on, a little out of breath, "being that he is probably some super secret assassin or something. And I'm not as tough as I look."
"That's OK," I tell him. "I'm way tougher than you look. — Ally Carter

Quick Ben, tell me, who was the toughest Bridgeburner you ever knew? Think back, and think carefully. Get your ego out of the way. Ignore your favorites and the ones who spent all their time looking mean. Not the callous shits, not the back-stabbers, none of the posers. The toughest, Quick Ben. Day in, day out, good times, bad. Tell me. Who?"
The High Mage squinted, glanced down at the ground at this feet, and then he sighed and nodded, looking up as he said, "I didn't need that list, Ganoes. I knew my answer right from the start. We all knew."
"Who?"
"Fiddler. There's no tougher man alive. — Steven Erikson

You know what a callus teaches us? When life gets tough, you have to be even tougher. A callus is tough skin that comes from years of hard work. — Valerie Testa Almquist

Life is tough, but it's tougher if you're stupid. — John Wayne

What we learn through failure becomes a precious part of us, strengthening us in everything we do. So let the tough things make you tougher. — Soichiro Honda

It's tougher to be vulnerable than to actually be tough. — Rihanna

Always marry a woman from Texas. No matter how tough things get, she's seen tougher. — Dan Rather

I'm drawn to look tough. The arched eyebrows are just there - I don't do them like that. I have strong features, but I wish I could be tougher. — Eva Mendes

I mean, in my - and I'm not trying to do spilled milk, but in those days it was a little - I think it was much tougher, because you got an image, and you were in a saloon. And it was tough to come out of a saloon and to get in films, and to maintain an image, you know. — Don Rickles

Dance is a tough life (and a tougher way to make a living). Choreography is even more brutal because there is no way to carry our history forward. Our creations disappear the moment we finish performing them. It's tough to preserve a legacy, create a history for yourself and others. But I put all that aside and pursued my gut instinct anyway. I became my own rebellion. Going with your head makes it arbitrary. Going with your gut means you have no choice. — Twyla Tharp

Everyone, except a writer, thinks writing is easy.
Writing is tough. Being a disciplined writer is tougher. — Tarang Sinha

It's tough being a dictator, but I've always thought it must be tougher being a hanger-on to a dictator. The late nights spent listening to his crazed ranting, the weary rictus grin from smiling at bad jokes, the draining knowledge that one misjudged comment could land you on the chopping block. — John Niven

Cigarettes, cigarettes were much tougher. Booze was tough And I had a real drinking problem before as we discovered in the hospital really, but the cigarettes are much tougher and to tell you the truth. — Joe Eszterhas

Life is tough, but it's tougher when you're stupid. — John Wayne

In the late fifties Romney had been a forceful advocate of breaking up GM. That, he believed, would make everyone leaner and more competitive. In 1957 he went before the Kefauver Senate committee on monopolies. Before he testified he was summoned to the Ford headquarters by Henry Ford and Ernie Breech, the chairman of the company, who were nervous about what he was going to say and wanted to get some idea of his thrust. Romney explained what he wanted: the breaking up of GM and perhaps even Ford. "But that would just make the competition tougher," Ford had said. "If you broke up GM the rest of us would suffer." "That's exactly what I mean," Romney had said. "Listen, I think it's tough enough the way it is - it's a damn hard dollar," Ford had answered. — David Halberstam

When times get tough, I get tougher. — C.M. Stunich

If you can't stand your own company alone in a room for long hours, or, when it gets tough, the feeling of being in a locked cell, or, when it gets tougher still, the vague feeling of being buried alive
then don't be a writer. — Graham Swift

The thing that happens is that politicians run on tough-on-crime rhetoric. You appeal to the public and say, 'Let's put more money into taller fences, tougher laws, tougher sentencing, handcuffs,' and where does that money come from? Well, immediately, it comes out of all the money needed for corrections. — Eugene Jarecki

Life is, at times, tough ...
And all we need to do is to prove that we are tougher than it ... — Sanhita Baruah

My father wasn't a cruel man. And I loved him. But he was a pretty tough character. His own father was even tougher - one of those Victorians, hard as iron - but my dad was tough enough. — Anthony Hopkins

Mental rehab is way tougher than the physical part ... [You think] I'm tired of doing the same thing [exercising] all day. It's tough, but you've got to overcome it. — Will Poole

It's a tough world to find yourself in, but an even tougher one to be yourself in — Chris Colfer

Life is tough - and you have to be tougher than life to change the world. — Sebastian Pinera

When things are tough, you get tougher. — Chrissie Wellington

I've learned ... That life is tough, but I'm tougher. — Andy Rooney

But while I'd be their daughter, while I'd eat the roast and come home from dates and wash the dishes, I would also be myself. I would love my mother, but I'd never want to be her again. I would never be what someone else wanted me to be. I would never laugh at a joke I didn't think was funny. I would never tell another lie. I would be the truth-teller, starting today. That would be tough.
But I was tougher. — Judy Blundell

It's tough to change friends, and it's even tougher to admit when a friendship has run its course, but it can be an important part of growth, too. Friends come and go and, when you change, oftentimes the things you have in common are no longer in alignment, especially if those things are of a time-wasting or unhealthy nature. We have a finite amount of time - the most valuable resource on this planet - and you have 100 percent control over how that time gets spent. Surround yourself with people who want you to be better, and you will see yourself start to level up faster than ever before. — Steve Kamb

My past is not pleasant; I grew up in a very tough town, Waterbury, Connecticut. I grew up in New York, too, but Waterbury was tougher. — Dylan McDermott

I think America needs lots of tough people. Not just me. I think America needs to get tougher, all of us. — Chris Christie

It's funny, our beauty standard has become harder and tougher because we live in a tough age. I don't think anyone wants to walk down the street and feel vulnerable. You want to walk down the street and feel like you're in control. — Tom Ford

A tough life can be defeated only by the tougher person! — Mehmet Murat Ildan

New York City is a very tough place. I'm tough, too. When people give me a punch in the nose, I react by getting even tougher. — Ivana Trump

The only society I like is rough and tough, and the tougher the better. There's where you get down to bedrock and meet human people. — Robert W. Service

You're not so tough. No tougher than the man whose blood will spill from your veins. — Dawn M. Turner

The jewelry business is a very, very tough business - tougher than the computer business. You truly have to understand how to take care of your customers. — Guy Kawasaki

For there are fashions in myth, and the world-conquering West of the nineteenth century needed a philosophy of life in which realpolitik - victory for the tough people who face the bleak facts - was the guiding principle. Thus the bleaker the facts you face, the tougher you seem to be. — Alan W. Watts

I think even with women who come across with a tough exterior, the interior is the same. I think you'll find this with women around the word: some women, because of their circumstances, are forced to be tougher, forced to cultivate tougher exteriors. — David Bezmozgis

Life is tough. If you're stupid, it's even tougher. — Dick Burleson

You think publishing is tough but the music world is ten times tougher. — Jeffery Deaver

In this remarkable time for the world, I refuse to believe it's time to stop believing in the possibilities of our remarkable country. I refuse to accept the downsizing of the American Dream. I refuse to bet against American entrepreneurial spirit and American ingenuity.The competition's tough, and it requires us to be tougher - tough-minded, never hard hearted. — John F. Kerry

It's very tough to give advice because it's tough out there for everybody but for a girl it's even tougher, because I don't think the glass ceiling has changed at all in the past 30 years. Otherwise the radio would be covered with girl bands, or girls in bands, so I don't think much has changed on that level. But I think that bands can still have a lot of success trying to go another route. — Joan Jett

Her scar tissue, which she seems to amass both physically and mentally, may not be pretty, but they have become tougher than if she had never been wounded at all. — Donna Lynn Hope

I'm tougher than this."

He shook his head. "Somehow it doesn't matter how tough you are. You can be tough as hell and still be leveled flat without warning."
She looked at him. "What do you do when you're leveled flat?"
"You make a plan, you move on that plan, and you keep breathing — Jill Shalvis

But life is tough and if you're creative, it's tougher. — Bobby Short

Airshow flying is tough, it's even tougher if you do something stupid. Don't do nuthin dumb! — Ralph Royce

There is nothing tougher than a tough Mexican, just as there is nothing gentler than a gentle Mexican, nothing more honest than an honest Mexican, and above all nothing sadder than a sad Mexican. — Raymond Chandler

I'm pretty easily overwhelmed and pretty tough as well. I think I'm tougher than I used to be. There's been a lot of hardship along the way. But that's what life is. And it's how you deal with those things, and how you let them shape you that makes you a better person and defines what sort of person you're going to be. — Nathaniel Rateliff