Arnold – Terminating the Impossible

Arnold Schwarzenegger has thrilled his fans in the Terminator franchise – portraying an unstoppable, unrelenting, don’t take no for an answer cyborg.  Off-screen, Arnold is still the Terminator!

Arnold at 13 years of age

“Arnold Schwarzenegger was born on July 30, 1947, near Graz, Austria. Schwarzenegger’s childhood was far from ideal. His father, Gustav, was an alcoholic police chief and one-time member of the Nazi Party, who clearly favored Arnold’s brother over his gangly, seemingly less athletic younger son.

Gustav is reported to have beaten and intimidated Arnold and, when he could, pitted his two boys against one another. He also ridiculed Schwarzenegger’s early dreams of becoming a body builder. “It was a very uptight feeling at home,” Schwarzenegger later recalled. So uptight and uncomfortable, in fact, that Schwarzenegger would later refuse to attend the funeral of his father, who died in 1972, or his brother, who was killed in a car crash in 1971.” – (ref. Biography.com)

 Arnold’s successes from those discouraging beginnings were the result of his picking a goal and pursuing it until it was achieved – then pick the next goal and pursue.  His refusal to accept no came from his conviction that what he sought was possible – he would (not just could) succeed.

His successes demonstrate that everyone can realize their potentials, and achieve the extraordinary just by refusing to accept no as an answer.

A man of great determination, here are the most inspirational Arnold Schwarzenegger quotes.

1. “Failure is not an option. Everyone has to succeed.”
2. “The worst thing I can be is the same as everybody else. I hate that.”
3. “The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent.”
4. “I like the color red because it’s a fire. And I see myself as always being on fire.”
5. “I was always dreaming about very powerful people – dictators and things like that. I was just always impressed by people who could be remembered for hundreds of years, or even, like Jesus, be for thousands of years remembered.”
6. “For me life is continuously being hungry. The meaning of life is not simply to exist, to survive, but to move ahead, to go up, to achieve, to conquer.”
7. “Start wide, expand further, and never look back.”
8. “Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.”
9. “The resistance that you fight physically in the gym and the resistance that you fight in life can only build a strong character.”
10. “In our society, the women who break down barriers are those who ignore limits.”
11. “If you work hard and play by the rules, this country is truly open to you. You can achieve anything.”
12. “It’s simple, if it jiggles, it’s fat.”
13. “Bodybuilding is much like any other sport. To be successful, you must dedicate yourself 100% to your training, diet and mental approach.”
14. “What we face may look insurmountable. But I learned something from all those years of training and competing. I learned something from all those sets and reps when I didn’t think I could lift another ounce of weight. What I learned is that we are always stronger than we know.”
15. “I knew I was a winner back in the late sixties. I knew I was destined for great things. People will say that kind of thinking is totally immodest. I agree. Modesty is not a word that applies to me in any way. I hope it never will.”
16. “I welcome and seek your ideas, but do not bring me small ideas; bring me big ideas to match our future.”
17. “I know a lot of athletes and models are written off as just bodies. I never felt used for my body.”
18. “In this country, it doesn’t make any difference where you were born. It doesn’t make any difference who your parents were. It doesn’t make any difference if, like me, you couldn’t even speak English until you were in your twenties.”
19. “I’ve seen firsthand coming here with empty pockets but full of dreams, full of desire, full of will to succeed, but with the opportunities that I had, I could make it. This is why we have to get back and bring California back to where it once was.”
20. “To those critics who are so pessimistic about our economy, I say, Don’t be economic girlie men!”
21. “My own dreams fortunately came true in this great state. I became Mr. Universe; I became a successful businessman. And even though some people say I still speak with a slight accent, I have reached the top of the acting profession.”
22. “You can scream at me, call me for a shoot at midnight, keep me waiting for hours – as long as what ends up on the screen is perfect.”
23. “Learned helplessness is the giving-up reaction, the quitting response that follows from the belief that whatever you do doesn’t matter.”
24. “The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow. This area of pain divides the champion from someone else who is not a champion. That’s what most people lack, having the guts to go on and just say they’ll go through the pain no matter what happens.”
25. “I admired Hitler because he came from being a little man with almost no education to power. But I didn’t admire him for what he did with it.”
26. “I never listen that you can’t.”
27. “None of my rules of success will work unless you do.”
28. “Training gives us an outlet for suppressed energies created by stress and thus tone the spirit just as exercise conditions the body.”
29. “We made, actually, history, because it was the first time ever that doctors could prove that a lifelong Republican has a heart.”
30. “My fellow Americans, this is an amazing moment for me. To think that a once scrawny boy from Austria could grow up to become Governor of California and stand in Madison Square Garden to speak on behalf of the President of the United States that is an immigrant’s dream. It is the American dream.” (ref. MightyFighter.com)