Top 70 Amy Chua Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Do you know what a foreign accent is? It’s a sign of bravery.”

— Amy Chua

2. “Nothing is fun until you’re good at it.”

— Amy Chua

Featured in: Fun Quotes

3. “Never complain or make excuses. If something seems unfair, just prove yourself by working twice as hard and being twice as good.”

— Amy Chua

4. “As a purely mathematical fact, people who sleep less live more.”

— Amy Chua

5. “There’s nothing better for building confidence than learning you can do something you thought you couldn’t.”

— Amy Chua

6. “The truth is I’m not good at enjoying life.”

— Amy Chua

7. “Every day that you don’t practice is a day you’re getting worse.”

— Amy Chua

8. “Do you know what a foreign accent is? It’s a sign of bravery. Those are people who crossed an ocean to come to this country.”

— Amy Chua

9. “Kids raised to be pampered and spoiled don’t really end up being good leaders. Leaders need to be independent minded and confident.”

— Amy Chua

10. “Instilling a sense of self-discipline and focus when the kids are younger makes it so much easier by the time they get into high school.”

— Amy Chua

11. “You can’t invent Google, Facebook or the iPod unless you’ve mastered the basics, are willing to put in long hours and can pick yourself up from the floor when life knocks you down the first 10 times.”

— Amy Chua

12. “Parenting cannot just be one size fits all.”

— Amy Chua

13. “Some parents let their kids sleep at other people’s houses, where they drink alcohol, watch TV for hours and God knows what else. But if you say you have to get all A’s and practice the violin for two hours, then they consider that abusive. That upsets me.”

— Amy Chua

14. “My goal as a parent is to prepare you for the future, not to make you like me.”

— Amy Chua

15. “Everything I’ve ever done that’s valuable is something I was afraid to try.”

— Amy Chua

16. “The Chinese mom is not the helicopter mom. I would never do their homework for them. It’s all about: Take responsibility, don’t blame others. Be self-reliant. Never blame the teacher.”

— Amy Chua

17. “Most things are difficult at the beginning and they become fun, something you love, only after you’ve worked at them.”

— Amy Chua

Featured in: Fun Quotes

18. “To be honest, I know that a lot of Asian parents are secretly shocked and horrified by many aspects of Western parenting.”

— Amy Chua

19. “You know, parenting is so personal. And we’re all afraid that we didn’t quite get it right. And it feels like the stakes are so high. By we – what if we made a mistake?”

— Amy Chua

20. “Everything I do as a mother builds on a foundation of love and compassion.”

— Amy Chua

21. “All decent parents want to do what’s best for their children. The Chinese just have a totally different idea of how to do that.”

— Amy Chua

22. “Tenacious practice, practice, practice is crucial for excellence; rote repetition is underrated in America.”

— Amy Chua

23. “Western parents worry a lot about their children’s self-esteem. But as a parent, one of the worst things you can do for your child’s self-esteem is to let them give up. On the flip side, there’s nothing better for building confidence than learning you can do something you thought you couldn’t.”

— Amy Chua

24. “Tiger parenting is all about raising independent, creative, courageous kids. In America today, there’s a dangerous tendency to romanticize creativity in a way that may undermine it.”

— Amy Chua

25. “I’m a proud strict mom and, you know, I’m really proud of the two daughters I’ve raised. And I’m especially proud of my relationship with them. We’re very close. I think we’re good friends.”

— Amy Chua

26. “We all want to do the right thing for our children. We all don’t know what that is and we all – you know, you won’t know until the future.”

— Amy Chua

27. “Real self-esteem has to be earned. I also believe in virtuous circles, like, nothing is fun until you are good at it. It is great if you can instill in children the ability to not give up, to have a work ethic.”

— Amy Chua

Featured in: Fun Quotes

28. “Chinese parents believe that their kids owe them everything.”

— Amy Chua

29. “Don’t assume your child is weak. If you, the parent, assume that they can’t take anymore, what kind of signal are you sending them?”

— Amy Chua

30. “But just because you love something, I added to myself, doesn’t mean you’ll ever be great. Not if you don’t work. Most people stink at the things they love.”

— Amy Chua

31. “I see my upbringing as a great success story. By disciplining me, my parents inculcated self-discipline. And by restricting my choices as a child, they gave me so many choices in my life as an adult. Because of what they did then, I get to do the work I love now.”

— Amy Chua

32. “I think the biggest difference is that I’ve noticed Western parents seem much more concerned about their children’s psyches, their self-esteem, whereas tough immigrant parents assume strength rather than fragility in their children and therefore behave completely differently.”

— Amy Chua

33. “I worry that by losing my temper so much and being so harsh and yelling so much that, by example, I will have taught my daughters to be that way, and I’m now constantly telling them not to do that.”

— Amy Chua

34. “The Chinese model calls for giving your kids very little choice – and I’ve come to see that you can go too far with that. On the other hand, I also believe that Western parents sometimes give their young kids too much choice.”

— Amy Chua

35. “Unlike Western parents, reminding my child of Lord Voldemort didn’t bother me.”

— Amy Chua

36. “When my kids wanted to give up on things, I wouldn’t let them, and those are lifelong lessons.”

— Amy Chua

37. “Happiness is not always through success. Equally, the constant pursuit of success is sure unhappiness. But we have to find the balance. My own thoughts are that parenting is very personal. And we all feel enormous insecurity about parenting. What are they going to think of us 20 years down the line?”

— Amy Chua

38. “Oddly enough, I’m not a particularly judgmental person. I just don’t have a lot of filtering when I’m in ‘tiger mother’ mode. I say what comes into my head.”

— Amy Chua

39. “The Romans thought of themselves as the chosen people, yet they built the greatest army on Earth by recruiting warriors from any background.”

— Amy Chua

40. “I do play tennis, but I don’t really like competition. I’m supposed to be so intense, but I hate competition.”

— Amy Chua

41. “I think if you’re a ‘tiger parent’ early on, you don’t need to be a ‘helicopter parent’ in high school.”

— Amy Chua

42. “I say ‘I love you’ to my daughters every day.”

— Amy Chua

43. “A Western upbringing tends to stress questioning authority, which is always asking why, why, why.”

— Amy Chua

44. “There are all kinds of psychological disorders in the West that don’t exist in Asia.”

— Amy Chua

45. “Once you get to the Enlightenment, the way that powers get to be hyperpowers isn’t just by conquest. It’s through commerce and innovation. Societies like the Dutch Republic and the United States used tolerance to become a magnet for enterprising immigrants.”

— Amy Chua

46. “I think there are many ways to raise great kids. From what I can tell, Ayelet Waldman’s kids are interesting, strong, and happy, and if that’s the case, that’s good parenting.”

— Amy Chua

Featured in: Strong Quotes

47. “I do think that maybe, even subconsciously, a lot of parents in the West are wondering, have we gone too far in the direction of coddling and protecting – you know, you see kids, sometimes that seem very rude and disrespectful. And the more important thing is they don’t seem that happy.”

— Amy Chua

48. “I sort of feel like people are not that honest about their own parenting. Take any teenage household; tell me there is not yelling and conflict.”

— Amy Chua

49. “I’m a slave to my dogs and go out with them almost every day. They are poorly behaved if they don’t run. They really act up.”

— Amy Chua

50. “I do believe that when your child does poorly on a test, your first step should not necessarily be to attack the teacher or the school’s curriculum. It should be to look at the idea that, maybe, the child didn’t work hard enough.”

— Amy Chua