I've often said that the most important thing you can give your children is wings. Because, you're not gonna always be able to bring food to the nest. You're... sometimes... they're gonna have to be able to fly by themselves.
Elizabeth EdwardsRead
I'm not a victim - I never want to be perceived that way.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes personal strength and resilience in the face of adversity.
Elizabeth Edwards conveys a powerful message about self-identity and agency, asserting that she refuses to see herself as a victim. By rejecting the victim label, she encourages a mindset focused on empowerment, resilience, and the ability to overcome challenges rather than being defined by them.
In practice
During a motivational speech about overcoming personal challenges.
I've often said that the most important thing you can give your children is wings. Because, you're not gonna always be able to bring food to the nest. You're... sometimes... they're gonna have to be able to fly by themselves.
I've had to come to grips with a God that fits my own experience, which is, my God could not be offering protection and not have protected my boy.
Part of resilience is deciding to make yourself miserable over something that matters, or deciding to make yourself miserable over something that doesn't matter.
I certainly have a lot to lament, as do we all, everybody has their griefs. But the griefs we can fix, shouldn't we go around fixing them?
... all things are possible if you are willing to put yourself on the line. You cannot stand back and hope for the best. You have to act.
If I had lost a leg, I would tell them, instead of a boy, no one would ever ask me if I was 'over it'. They would ask me how I was doing learning to walk without my leg. I was learning to walk and to breathe and to live without Wade. And what I was learning is that it was never going to be the life I had before.
Where you see wrong or inequality or injustice, speak out, because this is your country. This is your democracy. Make it. Protect it. Pass it on.
We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.
We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy, for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers and sisters.
So while I will never minimize the costs involved in military action, I am convinced that a failure to act in Libya would have carried a far greater price for America.
Be not dumb, obedient slaves in an army of destruction. Be heroes in an army of construction.
We've always had this experience that things take long, but I'm 100% convinced that our principles will in the end prevail. No one knew how the Cold War would end at the time, but it did end. This is within our living experience... I'm surprised at how fainthearted we sometimes are and how quickly we lose courage.
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