Ben Carson Quotes

Abraham Lincoln once said, "All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my mother." I'm not sure I want to say it quite like that, but my mother, Sonya Carson, was the earliest, strongest, and most impacting force in my life. It would be impossible to tell about my accomplishments without starting with my mother's influence.

I would like people to recognize in looking at my story that the person who has the most to do with what happens to you is you. It's not the environment, it's not the other people who were there trying to help you or trying to stop you. It's what you decide to do and how much effort you put behind it.

Occasionally I talk with people who see doctors as people who do nothing but give of themselves and never receive from anyone else – especially not from their patients. That is totally false. The longer I remain in my profession, the more I realize how much I receive from those who come to me for help.

True greatness isn't so much what you do as who you are.

Often the willingness to think differently about a problem and then risk sharing the idea with others certainly pay off.

I started reading about people of great accomplishment ... and it dawned on me suddenly that the person who has the most to do with what happens in your life is you.

One of the great truths of life: I did not do it alone. I had help along the way.

There are a group of people who would like to silence everybody and have everyone go along to get along. But that's not going to be very helpful for us in the long run in terms of solving our problems, and someone has to be courageous enough to actually stand up to the bullies.

I learned that with great responsibility often come great honor and opportunity.

My mentors are those individuals who saw potential in me long before I perceived it in myself – or who challenged me to do more – the people who helped guide me toward excellence.

Be nice to every-body. You meet the same people going up as you meet going down.

I realized my obligations to others should be greater than my obligations to myself.

Every human being experiences risks; some of the risks are common to all humans, and some are unique to the life each of us has been given to live. But I know for certain that risk – both it's shadow and its reality – has shaped my life inside and out.

Like an adventure who was asked why he climbed the mountain and answered, “Because it's there!” I think our culture has developed this intense love-hate relationship with risk, in part because it's always there.

That learning process has been likened to the challenge of having someone open a fire hydrant and expect you to swallow it all.