You can do what you have to do, and sometimes you can do it even better than you think you can.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes that individuals often have greater potential and capability than they realize.
This quote by Jimmy Carter highlights the notion that people can achieve their necessary goals and may even surpass their own expectations in the process. It encourages resilience and self-belief, suggesting that through determination and effort, one can unlock untapped capabilities, often achieving more than anticipated.
In practice
In a motivational speech to college graduates, one might say, 'Remember, you can do what you have to do.'
Acknowledging the physical realities of our planet does not mean a dismal future of endless sacrifice. In fact, acknowledging these realities is the first step in dealing with them. We can meet the resource problems of the world - water, food, minerals, farmlands, forests, overpopulation, pollution - if we tackle them with courage and foresight.
The preeminent obstacle to peace is Israel's colonization of Palestine.
I would say the biggest handicap we have right now is some nutcases in our country that don't believe in global warming. I think they are going to change their position because of pressure from individuals, because the evidence of the ravages of global warming is already there.
If I were president, I'd be very glad to see the Palestinians have a nation recognized by the United Nations. There's no downside to it.
My understanding of racial discrimination as a child was highly distorted because the most prominent man in Archery was an African-American bishop. When he came home from up north, where he was in charge of A.M.E. churches in five states, it was front-page news. He was the most successful man in my life.
Our American values are not luxuries but necessities, not the salt in our bread, but the bread itself. Our common vision of a free and just society is our greatest source of cohesion at home and strength abroad, greater than the bounty of our material blessings.
Faith makes it possible to achieve that which man's mind can conceive and believe.
We can all reduce our life to a description that makes people feel sorry for ourselves or we can expand our life to a dimension where we connect and give to others.
Everybody says I can't act. They said the same thing about Elizabeth Taylor. And they were wrong. She was great in A Place in the Sun. I'll never get the right part, anything I really want. My looks are against me. They're too specific.
Goals. There's no telling what you can do when you get inspired by them. There's no telling what you can do when you believe in them. There's no telling what will happen when you act upon them.
I'm a slow walker, but I never walk back.
Don't be like me. Be better than me. That's the goal.
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