Negative feelings are typical of learning, and you shouldn’t feel like you’re stupid when you’re frustrated doing something. You might say to yourself, ‘I can’t do this,’ but you should say, ‘That’s great.’ That means you really have the potential to learn something there. Angela Duckworth Read Quote
One of the challenges of commencement speeches is that you have this older, wiser person who is accomplished talking to young, not-yet-so-wise, not-yet-accomplished adults or, in high school or middle school, even younger. Angela Duckworth Read Quote
It is important to realize that the process of ‘fostering’ a passion takes trial and error. It takes experience; you cannot do it all in your head. And it takes a long time. Angela Duckworth Read Quote
I think it’s very important to send the message that, while parents are needed to remind you to practice and occasionally force you to finish things… they also need to learn to respect you. You as an individual, ultimately, are the captain of where you’re going. Angela Duckworth Read Quote
Some people prefer a world where we’re all equally talented in everything. Whether you prefer that world or not, I don’t think that world exists. Angela Duckworth Read Quote
Many things matter other than our measured intelligence, so let’s get to work on them. Angela Duckworth Read Quote
People’s lives really do turn out differently. And it certainly can’t be explained by how intelligent you remember them being when they were sitting next to you in organic chemistry class. Angela Duckworth Read Quote
I don’t think that every child in America is going to necessarily aspire to, you know, a four-year degree from a liberal arts college or a certain kind of life. I think that people should learn to be excellent in the thing that they choose to do. Angela Duckworth Read Quote
To me, the most shocking thing about grit is how little we know, how little science knows, about building it. Every day, parents and teachers ask me, ‘How do I build grit in kids? What do I do to teach kids a solid work ethic? How do I keep them motivated for the long run?’ The honest answer is, I don’t know. Angela Duckworth Read Quote
Some of the things we do are great, but they often have these iterations that are not great. We screw up sometimes. We get rejected. Angela Duckworth Read Quote
