Never limit yourself because of others' limited imagination; never limit others because of your own limited imagination.
Sometimes people ask me how difficult the astronaut program was, but being in Sierra Leone, being responsible for the health of more than 200 people, seven days a week, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, at age 26 - that prepared me to take on a lot of different challenges.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The challenges faced in demanding situations can prepare one for future difficulties.
In this quote, Mae Jemison reflects on her experiences in Sierra Leone, where she was responsible for the health of many people under constant pressure. She highlights how this responsibility at a young age equipped her with the courage and skills to face various challenges later in her career, emphasizing the importance of facing tough situations as a means of personal growth and preparation for future endeavors.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In an interview about resilience, one might say, 'As Mae Jemison once reflected, my experiences have taught me that facing challenges head-on prepares us for anything.'
More from Mae Jemison
All quotes βGreatness can be captured in one word: lifestyle. Life is God's gift to you, style is what you make of it.
To survive as a species on this planet, we're going to have to see ourselves as Earthlings.
We look at science as something very elite, which only a few people can learn. That's just not true. You just have to start early and give kids a foundation. Kids live up, or down, to expectations.
Intuitive versus analytical? That's a foolish choice. It's foolish, just like trying to choose between being realistic or idealistic. You need both in life.
The reality is the majority of us will not get off this planet. So the long run is, some kind of space exploration has to benefit us here on Earth.
Similar quotes
Brave men do not gather by thousands to torture and murder a single individual, so gagged and bound he cannot make even feeble resistance or defense.
Survival is the ability to swim in strange water.
We're going to be OK because of the American people. They have more grit, determination and courage than you can imagine.
I knew that I would have to be brave. Not foolhardy, not in love with risk and danger, not making ridiculous exhibitions of myself to prove that I wasn't terrified--really genuinely brave. Brave enough to be quiet when quiet was called for, brave enough to observe before flinging myself into something, brave enough to not abandon my true self when someone else wanted to seduce or force me in a direction I didn't want to go, brave enough to stand my ground quietly.
The prayers of cowards fortune spurns.
[Speaking] is never without fear; of visibility, of the harsh light of scrutiny and perhaps judgment, of pain, of death. But we have lived through all of those already, in silence, except death. And I remind myself all the time now, that if I were to have been born mute, and had maintained an oath of silence my whole life for safety, I would still have suffered, and I would still die.