Michael J. Fox famous quotes

The more I expect, the more unhappy I am going to be. The more I accept, the more serene I am.
-- Michael J. Fox

#Unhappy #Accepting #Serene

In terms of what happened over that hiatus that I took, I just rested. I spent that time with my family, during their really formative years, and enjoyed that, and I messed with pills and new medications that help me to deal with dyskinesia and some other things I was struggling with, that I don't have as much now because of medication to counter the side effects. So, it just seemed like the right time to do it.
-- Michael J. Fox

#Struggle #Years #Sides

I like to encourage people to realize that any action is a good action if it's proactive and there is positive intent behind it.
-- Michael J. Fox

#Positive #People #Action

There are things I've always wanted to do. Things I may not be able to do, but I never really ruled them out - like running a marathon. It's all a matter of timing for me. I suppose I could probably do it if I planned it out right with medication. I don't set a whole lot of goals. It smacks a little bit of will to me, and I find that will is not the way to go for me.
-- Michael J. Fox

#Running #Goal #May

Our challenges don’t define us, our actions do.
-- Michael J. Fox

#Challenges #Our Actions #Action

When I was younger, I was always described as happy-go-lucky. Then I drank and I partied - did all that stuff that might tell you maybe there was a little bit of untruth in that [description]. Now, the surprising thing is that when I say stuff, I actually mean it. I don't have to do the work of trying to formulate my point of view. It just is. And it's surprising how much I love life. I just really have a good time.
-- Michael J. Fox

#Love Life #Mean #Views

The least amount of judging we can do, the better off we are.
-- Michael J. Fox

#Judging #Judgement

I saw a birthday card the other day, and it said, "If you didn't know how old you were, how old would you think you were?" I started changing it in my mind right away to, "If you didn't know how sick you were, how sick would you think you were?"
-- Michael J. Fox

#Thinking #Sick #Mind

One's dignity may be assaulted, vandalized and cruelly mocked, but cannot be taken away unless it is surrendered.
-- Michael J. Fox

#Life #Motivational #Success

The secret to a good marriage, as far as I am concerned, is a joke I make: Keep the fights clean and the sex dirty.
-- Michael J. Fox

#Sex #Dirty #Fighting

Acceptance doesn't mean resignation; it means understanding that something is what it is and that there's got to be a way through it.
-- Michael J. Fox

#Motivational #Mean #Acceptance

Almost instantly [after my announcement of Parkinson's], I saw the first couple of days the coverage was about, you know, "Fox's Parkinson's, blah, blah, blah." Then, two days after that, I saw the coverage turn. It started to become, "Can young people get Parkinson's?" All of a sudden, the conversation turned to become about that. And that was one of the first eye-opening things.
-- Michael J. Fox

#Couple #Eye #Two

My experience is to deal with things through humor.
-- Michael J. Fox

#Deals

When I started it [non for profit], I thought, I'm not smart enough to do this. I had no experience in management, no experience in administration, no experience in nonprofit; but then this phrase came into my head: I only have to be smart enough to find people who are smarter than me; I only have to be smart enough to recognize who knows more than me.
-- Michael J. Fox

#Smart #People #Nonprofits

I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence I can reach for; perfection is God's business.
-- Michael J. Fox

#Work #Inspirational Life #Self Esteem

Lance Armstrong showed up, and I started talking to him; I saw all these people with cancer who followed him to Paris for the Tour de France, and I saw the difference he was making in their lives. That put it together for me...having it be not so much about me, but [my being] a vehicle for it.
-- Michael J. Fox

#Cancer #Talking #Paris

The purpose that you wish to find in life, like a cure you seek, is not going to fall from the sky. ...I believe purpose is something for which one is responsible; it's not just divinely assigned.
-- Michael J. Fox

#Inspirational #Fall #Believe

I don't think [Parkinson's] is Gothic nastiness. There's nothing on the surface that's horrible about someone with a shaky hand. There's nothing horrible about someone in their life saying, "God, I'm really tired of this shaky hand thing" and me saying, "Me, too." That's our reality. We have no control over it.
-- Michael J. Fox

#Tired #Reality #Thinking

I see possibilities in everything. For everything that's taken away, something of greater value has been given.
-- Michael J. Fox

#Giving Up #Taken #Optimistic

A lot of times, when you have a disability, one of the things you deal with is other people's projections of what your experience is and their fear about it, and not seeing the experience you're having. There's nothing horrifying about [Parkinson's disease] to me. It is what I deal with. It is my reality and my life, but it's not horrible.
-- Michael J. Fox

#Reality #People #Disease

I often say now I don't have any choice whether or not I have Parkinson's, but surrounding that non-choice is a million other choices that I can make.
-- Michael J. Fox

#Choices #Parkinson

I think we all get our own bag of hammers. We all get our own Parkinson's. We all have our own thing. I think that we'll look at it through the filter of that experience, and we'll say, "Yeah, I need to laugh at my stuff, too."
-- Michael J. Fox

#Thinking #Laughing #Needs

[My son] will have a fairly stable future. Not one where the schoolyard talk is whose father grossed $8 million on his last picture.
-- Michael J. Fox

#Father #Son #Lasts

The first part of my life was to be an actor and maybe have some success at that. Then [it was time] to find somebody to be in a relationship with and have a life that way. Because of Parkinson's, I had to change: How can I be of service here? Is there something unique to my situation that I can use to help people? I did not have the wherewithal to invent that. It just happened in front of me and had me join in.
-- Michael J. Fox

#Unique #People #Use

I'm going to marry a Jewish woman because I like the idea of getting up Sunday morning and going to the deli.
-- Michael J. Fox

#Good Morning #Sunday #Ideas

When prescribing one of the drugs I take, my doctor warned me of a common side effect: exaggerated, intensely vivid dreams. To be honest, I've never really noticed the difference. I've always dreamt big.
-- Michael J. Fox

#Dream #Differences #Doctors

I have now is whenever my kids say, "Can you look at this?" or "Can I ask you something?" or "Can you come here for a minute?" no matter what I am doing, I say yes instead of saying, "Just a sec." They never abuse the privilege, and I never once regretted it. What they took me away to do was never less important than what I was doing already.
-- Michael J. Fox

#Kids #Abuse #Important

My happiness grows in direct proportion to my acceptance, and in inverse proportion to my expectations.
-- Michael J. Fox

#Inspirational #Motivational #Change

I remember my son wanted to go to bed with his cowboy boots on, and we had this fight for like an hour. Then I realized that the only good reason I had for him not to do it is because I didn't want him to. There was really no other reason. And finally I said, "OK, fine." It was a great victory for me, because I realized it doesn't really matter.
-- Michael J. Fox

#Son #Fighting #Cowboy

It’s all about control. Control is illusory. No matter what university you go to, no matter what degree you hold, if your goal is to become master of your own destiny, you have more to learn. Parkinson’s is a perfect metaphor for lack of control. Every unwanted movement in my hand or arm, every twitch that I cannot anticipate or arrest, is a reminder that even in the domain of my own being, I am not calling the shots. I tried to exert control by drinking myself to a place of indifference, which just exacerbated the sense of miserable hopelessness.
-- Michael J. Fox

#Drinking #Destiny #Hands