12 Quotes & Sayings By Maria Shriver

Maria Shriver is the First Lady of California and the wife of Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. She is the author of numerous best-selling books, including her autobiography, Now Is Your Time, which became an international bestseller when it was published in 2010. She is also the founder of the Maria Shriver Leadership Institute at the University of Southern California, an organization she co-founded with her husband in 1997 to increase leadership training for women Read more

The institute has trained more than 5,000 women across the country. She appeared on Oprah Winfrey's show during its first week to discuss her new book (her fourth) titled What Every Woman Wants.

1
Starting at the bottom is not about humiliation. It's about humility–a realistic assessment of where you are in the learning curve. Maria Shriver
2
Having kids – the responsibility of rearing good, kind, ethical, responsible human beings – is the biggest job anyone can embark on Maria Shriver
3
Listen: You can't short-circuit the learning process. It takes time to get to the top, and that's good-because by the time you get there, you'll have learned what you need to know in order to stay there. Maria Shriver
4
Comparing how you feel on the inside (bad) to the way someone else looks on the outside (great) is a losing proposition. It's an impossible standard. Maria Shriver
5
Having kids - the responsibility of rearing good, kind, ethical, responsible human beings - is the biggest job anyone can embark on. As with any risk, you have to take a leap of faith and ask lots of wonderful people for their help and guidance. I thank God every day for giving me the opportunity to parent. Maria Shriver
6
My mother's death brought me to my knees. She was my hero, my role model, my very best friend. I spoke to her every single day of my life. I really tried hard when I grew up to make her proud of me. Maria Shriver
7
The gift my mother gave me was the gift of possibility. From an early age, she instilled in me a belief that I could do anything I wanted to do. It wasn't a matter of, 'Can I?' or 'Should I?' It was just, 'You can, you must, you will! ' She wanted me to believe that anything was possible. Maria Shriver
8
No matter who you are, what you've accomplished, what your financial situation is - when you're dealing with a parent with Alzheimer's, you yourself feel helpless. The parent can't work, can't live alone, and is totally dependent, like a toddler. As the disease unfolds, you don't know what to expect. Maria Shriver
9
I like to make jokes I consider myself a funny person. I just think making jokes about people who are in a situation beyond their control is not funny to them or their families. Maria Shriver
10
I don't believe in gutter politics. I don't believe in gutter journalism. Maria Shriver
11
When the world is so complicated, the simple gift of friendship is within all of our hands. Maria Shriver