Quotes on Persistence
April 26th, 2005 by Steve Pavlina
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No man with a man’s heart in him, gets far on his way without some bitter, soul searching disappointment. Happy he who is brave enough to push on another stage of the journey, and rest where there are living springs of water, and three score and ten palms.
- Brown
Too many of us wait to do the perfect thing, with the result we do nothing. The way to get ahead is to start now. While many of us are waiting until conditions are “just right” before we go ahead, others are stumbling along, fortunately ignorant of the dangers that beset them. By the time we are, in our superior wisdom, decided to make a start, we discover that those who have gone fearlessly on before, have, in their blundering way, traveled a considerable distance. If you start now, you will know a lot next year that you don’t know now, and that you will not know next year, if you wait.
- The William Feather Magazine
If I had to select one quality, one personal characteristic that I regard as being most highly correlated with success, whatever the field, I would pick the trait of persistence. Determination. The will to endure to the end, to get knocked down seventy times and get up off the floor saying, “Here comes number seventy-one!”
- Richard M. DeVos
Habit is habit and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time.
- Mark Twain
Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.
- Newt Gingrich
Life grants nothing to us mortals without hard work.
- Horace
To bring one’s self to a frame of mind and to the proper energy to accomplish things that require plain hard work continuously is the one big battle that everyone has. When this battle is won for all time, then everything is easy.
- Thomas A. Buckner
Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “Press On” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.
- Calvin Coolidge
They who lack talent expect things to happen without effort. They ascribe failure to a lack of inspiration or ability, or to misfortune, rather than to insufficient application. At the core of every true talent there is an awareness of the difficulties inherent in any achievement, and the confidence that by persistence and patience something worthwhile will be realized. Thus talent is a species of vigor.
- Eric Hoffer
Energy and persistence conquer all things.
- Benjamin Franklin
April 26th, 2005 at 9:29 am
“Never, never, never, never, never, never quit” Winston Churchill. Often misquoted I’m sure (perhaps even here), but I was told it was a 7 word speech at a college commencement ceremony.
April 26th, 2005 at 10:54 am
Thanks,
just what I needed to read, today.
I’ll just get back to what I should be doing
April 26th, 2005 at 2:25 pm
I suspect that a bigger problem than unwillingness to persist or lack of determination is the fear of applying that persistence to the wrong goal or applying it to the right goal in the wrong way. I believe that’s perhaps my biggest problem (more the latter fear than the former).
April 26th, 2005 at 3:39 pm
Here’re some more good quotes:
“If you stand up and be counted, from time to time you may get yourself knocked down. But remember this: A man flattened by an opponent can get up again. A man flattened by conformity stays down for good.” — Thomas J. Watson (founder of IBM)
“I had to pick myself up and get on with it, do it all over again, only even better this time.” — Sam Walton (founder of Wal-Mart)
“Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration. Accordingly, a ‘genius’ is often merely a talented person who has done all of his or her homework.” — Thomas Edison
“Many of life’s failures are experienced by people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” — Thomas Edison
April 26th, 2005 at 4:05 pm
@Ryan – I think that fear was mentioned in one of the quotes. Quite often we want to wait until conditions or our knowledge of how to proceed are perfect. This is more an illusion we create to tell ourselves that the true reason for the procrastination is not actually fear. I often suffer from the same problem yourself. Fearful of the potential (or imaginary) consequences of attempting to do something out of my comfort zone, I myself often have a reaction to procrastinate or wait until the time is better. The best way to learn is by doing, so even if you fail, you will still have learned how to succeed far more than if you had waited!
April 26th, 2005 at 6:55 pm
The more I practice, the luckier I get. ~Jerry Barber
June 21st, 2005 at 3:37 pm
Luck is when preparation meets oppurtunity.Preparation is when practice meets persistance and oppurtunity is when persistense gets its worth.