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On What He Would Tell His Younger Self "Theres a saying in German: Selbsterkenntnis ist der beste Weg zur Besserung, which means 'Self-knowledge is the best way to improve.' I believe in that. When you fail, the trick is to get up again and evaluate in an honest way what went wrong," Schwarzenegger explained to Men's Health in 2018. He continued, "Each one of the things I made a mistake in, I eventually learned from that, and it made me a better person. It made me more experienced. It made me wiser." Albert L. Ortega - Getty Images
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On Hard Work "One of my six principles of success is work your ass off. There is no shortcut," Schwarzenegger told Men's Health in 2017. "If you think there is, youre wrong. Everything Ive ever accomplished in my life was because I worked my butt off, not because I found some shortcut." Harry Langdon - Getty Images
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On His Rivalry with Sylvester Stallone In 2017, Schwarzenegger explained the origin of his legendary feud with Stallone during a Q&A session . "We were attacking each other in the press relentlessly. We called each other names and called out our weak points, and it was so competitive. It became so silly that all of a sudden it became a competition about who has the most muscular body, who has the most unique killing, who makes more money at the box office. It was unbelievable. The actors later patched things up, to the point where Schwarzenegger refused to another Expendables movie without Stallone. "There is no Expendables without Sly," the former governor said . "I would never do the movie without him, no." Todd Williamson - Getty Images
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On Trusting Yourself "So many young people are getting so much advice from their parents and from their teachers and from everyone. But what is most important is that you have to dig deep down, dig deep down and ask yourselves, who do you want to be? Not what, but who," the actor said during his commencement address at USC in 2009. "And Im talking about not what your parents and teachers want you to be, but you. Im talking about figuring out for yourselves what makes you happy, no matter how crazy it may sound to other people." Antony Jones - Getty Images
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On How to Diet "Every time I did a movie when I needed to be ripped, I just cut out the bread and the dessert and I got ripped...In Austria we always just ate the egg. Why do you want to separate the egg [yolk]? It doesnt make any sense," he hilariously told The Financial Times in 2019. Michael Ochs Archives - Getty Images
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On Being a Champion "The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow. This area of pain divides the champion from someone else who is not a champion," Schwarzenegger once said . Michael Ochs Archives - Getty Images
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On the Idea of Perfection "I always felt like my body wasnt there and I was critical and thats makes you hungry and puts fire in your belly to make you perform; to do more. Thats good when people feel like that," he explained in 2017 . "What is not helpful is if you stand there in front of the mirror and you say, 'I see perfection.' Because then its over. You will not be motivated to go and do the work anymore." Hulton Archive - Getty Images
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On Fatherhood "Kids are the next best thing after cloningeven though you realize every child has a different personality. If you really want to spread your philosophy, whether its about giving back, fighting for fitness, or, just like my dad told me, making the world a better place than you inherited, youd better do a good job as a parent," the actor said in 2018 . Kevin Winter - Getty Images
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On His Work Ethic "I see guys I meet in the gym that are from Austria. Theyre aggressive. Theyre from Israel, theyre from France, theyre from Germany, from Russia, from all kinds of different places," he told Men's Health in 2019. "And they find their way, because what happens when youre a foreigner is, you have the work ethic. You know that you have to struggle from the beginning; otherwise you wouldnt be leaving your country. If you had this wonderful, rosy atmosphere, you would not want to leave." Barbara Alper - Getty Images
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On Working With Others Schwarzenegger told Men's Health about the unlikely trait that he shares with Trump: "I always complain about Trump not being able to shift from Trump to president. Well, the reason why I say this is because I saw that with myself, that I was not able to shift from Arnold to governor. I was still stuck as Arnold. Arnold always gets things done. I forced my way in there, then I do it and do it and do it and do it, until it gets done. And I felt the same thing I can do with politics. But I learned quickly that thats really not the way it works. You got to be able to bring people together. It takes much more time, much more effort, but thats just the way it is. If you dont like that, dont get into politics." Orjan F. Ellingvag - Getty Images
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On Changing the World "It [reformed health care and environmental change] will not happen if people just sit around and complain when they hear something on the news," Schwarzenegger said in 2018 . "Im a big advocate of 'get off your fucking couch and do something about it.' If you believe theres something being done wrong by legislators, go out and do everything you can to unseat that person." "The same if you see a president acting strange: Do everything you can to unseat that president. My father said to me, 'Be useful.' Useful not only to yourself, but useful to your neighborhood, your country, the world. It entails everything." David McNew - Getty Images