Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Michael J. Fox

Canadian Actor, Author, Producer, activist and Voice-Over Artist

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

"A creative mess is better than idle tidiness."

"I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God's business."

"My happiness grows in direct proportion to my acceptance, and in inverse proportion to my expectations."

"Happiness is a decision."

"It may seem hard to believe, but it's catastrophe that offers the most promise for an even richer life. This is the gateway to the good stuff. In other words, you never truly know which way the wind is blowing until the shit hits the fan."

"Life is good, and there's no reason to think it won't be--right up until the moment when everything explodes into a fireball of tiny, unrecognizable fragments, or it all goes skidding sideways, through the guardrail, over the embankment, and down the mountain. This will happen (and probably more than once)."

"Family is not an important thing, it's everything."

"If you're lucky, in some point in the future when you're in need of guidance or perhaps moral support, you may cross paths with a suitable mentor. Even luckier, you'll realize you had one in your life all along and you'll gain a new appreciation for how you benefited from that relationship. The luckiest relationship of all, of course, is a combination of the two. You've had help all along, and as the path widens or narrows, whatever the case may be, new and powerful influences will enter your life and aid your progress. In my experience, a mentor doesn't necessarily tell you what to do, but more importantly: tells you what they did or might do, then trusts you to draw your own conclusions and act accordingly. If you succeed, they'll take one step back and if you fail, they'll take one step closer. Whatever it is they teach you, pass it on."

"If you don't take the time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?"

"Pay attention to what's happening around you. Read the book before you see the movie. Remember, though you, alone, are responsible for your own happiness, its still okay to feel responsible for someone else's. Live and to learn."

"Control is illusory. No matter what university you go to, no matter what degree you hold, if your goal is to becomes master of your own destiny, you have more to learn."

"I have no argument with those who see in organized religion a template or an imperative to live life according to a prescribed set of beliefs. Just give others the room, within the laws of civil society, to believe or not believe whatever they like."

"Optimism is a cure for many things."

"Chris[topher] Reeve wisely parsed the difference between optimism and hope. Unlike optimism, he said, 'Hope is the product of knowledge and the projection of where the knowledge can take us."

"I think I benefited from being equal parts ambitious and curious. And of the two, curiosity has served me best."

"My notion of spirituality was different than it is now, but even if I'd been the most fundamentalist of believers, I would have assumed that God had better things to do than arbitrarily smite me with shaking palsy."

"You suffer the blow, but you capitalize on the opportunity left in its wake."

"As with any turning point or instance when a new road is chosen and an old one forsaken, there are consequences."

"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."

"When life takes away, something of greater value is always given in return."

"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."

"Pain is temporary, film is forever."

"I can get sad, I can get frustrated, I can get scared, but I never get depressed - because there's joy in my life."

"Life is what you put into it and how much you take out of it. You put in more than is expected, and you take out less than you want."