You just can’t beat the person who never gives up.
—Nancie J. Carmody
Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Many strokes overthrow the tallest oaks.
—John Lyly (1554–1606) English Dramatist, Novelist, Writer
All great achievements require time.
—David J. Schwartz (1927–87) American Self-help Author
A little and a little, collected together, becomes a great deal; the heap in the barn consists of single grains, and drop and drop make the inundation.
—Sa’Di (Musharrif Od-Din Muslih Od-Din) (c.1213–91) Persian Poet
No rock so hard but that a little wave may beat admission in a thousand years.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–92) British Poet
Every blade of grass has its Angel that bends over it and whispers, Grow, Grow”.”
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
Some men give up their designs when they have almost reached the goal; while others, on the contrary, obtain a victory by exerting, at the last moment, more vigorous efforts than ever before.
—Polybius (c.200–c.118 BCE) Greek Historian
The fall of dropping water wears away the Stone.
—Lucretius (c.99–55 BCE) Roman Epicurean Poet, Philosopher
Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
—Helen Keller (1880–1968) American Author
Some people plant in the spring and leave in the summer. If you’re signed up for a season, see it through. You don’t have to stay forever, but at least stay until you see it through.
—Jim Rohn (1930–2009) American Entrepreneur, Author, Motivational Speaker
He conquers who endures.
—Persius (34–62 CE) Roman Satirist
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. That’s what most people lack, having the guts to go on and just say they’ll go through the pain no matter what happens.
—Arnold Schwarzenegger (b.1947) Austrian-American Athlete, Actor, Politician
Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins; not through strength, but through persistence.
—H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (b.1940) American Self-Help Author
Paralyze resistance with persistence.
—Woody Hayes (1913–87) American Sportsperson
The rewards for those who persevere far exceed the pain that must precede the victory.
—Ted Engstrom (1916–2006) American Christian Religious Leader
We deem those happy who from the experience of life have learned to bear its ills, without being overcome by them.
—Juvenal (c.60–c.136 CE) Roman Poet
The longest day is soon ended.
—Pliny the Younger (c.61–c.112 CE) Roman Senator, Writer
Champions keep playing until they get it right.
—Billie Jean King (b.1943) American Tennis Player
Every human being who reaches the age of understanding of the purpose of money wishes for it. Wishing will not bring riches. But desiring riches with a state of mind that becomes an obsessions, then planning definite ways and means to acquire riches, and backing those plans with persistence which does not recognize failure, will bring riches.
—Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American Author, Journalist, Attorney, Lecturer
Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.
—Newt Gingrich (b.1943) American Politician
Hope is a vigorous principle; it is furnished with light and heat to advise and execute; it sets the head and heart to work, and animates a man to do his utmost. And thus, by perpetually pushing and assurance, it puts a difficulty out of countenance, and makes a seeming impossibility give way.
—Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) Anglican Church Historian, Clergyman
There is room in the halls of pleasure
For a long and lordly train,
But one by one we must all file on
Through the narrow aisles of pain.
—Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919) American Poet, Journalist
Anyone can carry his burden, however hard, until nightfall. Anyone can do his work, however hard, for one day. Anyone can live sweetly, patiently, lovingly, purely, till the sun goes down. And this is all that life really means.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
There are no traffic jams on the extra mile.
—Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American Author
Diligence is the mother of good luck.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Genius is often only the power of making continuous efforts. The line between failure and success is so fine that we scarcely know when we pass it—so fine that we are often on the line and do not know it. How many a man has thrown up his hands at a time when a little more effort, a little more patience, would have achieved success. As the tide goes clear out, so it comes clear in. In business sometimes prospects may seem darkest when really they are on the turn. A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success. There is no failure except in no longer trying. There is no defeat except from within, no really insurmountable barrier save our own inherent weakness of purpose.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
It’s not so important who starts the game but who finishes it.
—John Wooden (1910–2010) American Sportsperson
Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors.
—African Proverb
Everyone has his superstitions. One of mine has always been when I started to go anywhere, accomplished.
—Ulysses S. Grant (1822–85) American Civil War General, Head of State
By perseverance the snail reached the Ark.
—Charles Spurgeon (1834–92) English Baptist Preacher
It matters if you just don’t give up.
—Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) English Theoretical Physicist, Cosmologist, Academic
What this power is I cannot say; all I know is that it exists and it becomes available only when a man is in that state of mind in which he knows exactly what he wants and is fully determined not to quit until he finds it.
—Alexander Graham Bell (1847–1922) Scottish-born American Inventor, Engineer, Academic
If I were asked to give what I consider the single most useful bit of advice for all humanity it would be this: Expect trouble as an inevitable part of life and when it comes, hold you head high, look it squarely in the eye and say, “I will be bigger than you. You cannot defeat me.”
—Ask Ann Landers (1918–2002) American Advice Columnist
Success requires persistence, the ability to not give up in the face of failure. I believe that optimistic explanatory style is the key to persistence.
—Martin Seligman (b.1942) American Psychologist, Author
Never give up, never give in, and when the upper hand is ours, may we have the ability to handle the win with the dignity that we absorbed the loss.
—Doug Williams qqq
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 DeVos (1926–2018) American Businessman, Philanthropist
LIFE’S MIRROR
There are loyal hearts, there are spirits brave,
There are souls that are pure and true,
Then give to the world the best you have,
And the best will come back to you.
Give love, and love to your life will flow,
A strength in your utmost need,
Have faith, and a score of hearts will show
Their faith in your word and deed.
Give truth, and your gift will be paid in kind;
And honor will honor meet;
And a smile that is sweet will surely find
A smile that is just as sweet.
Give pity and sorrow to those who mourn,
You will gather in flowers again
The scattered seeds from your thoughts outborne
Though the sowing seemed but vain.
For life is the mirror of king and slave,
‘Tis just what we are and do;
Then give to the world the best you have,
And the best will come back to you.
—Mary Ainge de Vere (Madeline S. Bridges) (1844–1920) American Poet, Author
Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second. Give your dreams all you’ve got and you’ll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
The darkest hour is just before the dawn.
—Common Proverb
I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.
—John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937) American Oil Magnate, Philanthropist
For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again, But the wicked stumble in time of calamity.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
The troubles of our proud and angry dust are from eternity, and shall not fail. Bear them we can, and if we can we must. Shoulder the sky, my lad, and drink your ale.
—A. E. Housman (1859–1936) English Poet, Classical Scholar
Either I will find a way, or I will make one.
—Philip Sidney (1554–86) English Soldier Poet, Courtier
Persist and persevere, and you will find most things that are attainable, possible.
—Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) English Statesman, Man of Letters
In the clutch of circumstance, I have not winced or cried aloud; under the bludgeoning of chance, my head is bloody but unbowed.
—William Ernest Henley (1849–1903) English Poet, Critic, Editor
Continuous, unflagging effort, persistence and determination will win. Let not the man be discouraged who has these.
—James Whitcomb Riley (1849–1916) American Children’s Books Writer, Poet, Writer
I am a slow walker, but I never walk backwards.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
Never say die.
—Common Proverb
Nearly every man who develops an idea works at it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then gets discouraged. That’s not the place to become discouraged.
—Thomas Edison (1847–1931) American Inventor, Scientist, Entrepreneur
Come what may, time and the hour runs through the roughest day.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
What we do not see, what most of us never suspect of existing, is the silent but irresistible power which comes to the rescue of those who fight on in the face of discouragement.
—Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American Author, Journalist, Attorney, Lecturer
One should act in consonance with the way of heaven and earth, which is enduring and eternal. The superior man perseveres long in his course, adapts to the times, but remains firm in his direction and correct in his goals.
—I Ching Ancient Chinese Divination Text
Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and, above all, confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained.
—Marie Curie (1867–1934) Polish-born French Physicist, Chemist
Perseverance is the most overrated of traits, if it is unaccompanied by talent; beating your head against a wall is more likely to produce a concussion in the head than a hole in the wall.
—Sydney J. Harris (1917–86) American Essayist, Drama Critic
I hold a doctrine, to which I owe not touch, indeed, but all the little I ever had, namely, that with ordinary talent and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable.
—Sir Thomas Buxton, 1st Baronet (1786–1845) English Politician, Social Reformer
Life is like riding a bicycle. You don’t fall off unless you stop pedaling.
—Claude Pepper (1900–89) American Politician
Perseverance is failing nineteen times and succeeding the twentieth.
—Julie Andrews (b.1935) British Actress, Singer
Diamonds are only lumps of coal that stuck to their jobs.
—B. C. Forbes (1880–1954) Scottish-born American Journalist, Publisher
As long as we are persistence in our pursuit of our deepest destiny, we will continue to grow. We cannot choose the day or time when we will fully bloom. It happens in its own time.
—Denis Waitley (b.1933) American Motivational Speaker, Author
When you get into a tight place, and everything goes against you till it seems as if you could n’t hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that ‘s just the place and time that the tide ‘ll turn. Never trust to prayer without using every means in your power, and never use the means without trusting in prayer.
—Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–96) American Abolitionist, Author
When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) American Head of State, Lawyer
Boys, there ain’t no free lunches in this country. And don’t go spending your whole life commiserating that you got the raw deals. You’ve got to say, “I think that if I keep working at this and want it bad enough I can have it.” It’s called perseverance.
—Lee Iacocca (1924–2019) American Businessperson
We can do anything we want to do if we stick to it long enough.
—Helen Keller (1880–1968) American Author
No greater thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.
—Epictetus (55–135) Ancient Greek Philosopher
He who labors diligently need never despair; for all things are accomplished by diligence and labor.
—Menander (c.343–c.291 BCE) Greek Comic Dramatist, Poet
Endurance is the crowning quality, and patience all the passion of great hearts.
—James Russell Lowell (1819–91) American Poet, Critic
Good things come to those who wait, but they are left-overs from those who hustle.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
The man who does more than he is paid for will soon be paid for more than he does.
—Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American Author, Journalist, Attorney, Lecturer
The big shots are only the little shots who keep shooting.
—Christopher Morley (1890–1957) American Novelist, Essayist
I’m a slow walker, but I never walk back.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
You’ve got to say, “I think that if I keep working at this and want it badly enough I can have it.” It’s called perseverance.
—Lee Iacocca (1924–2019) American Businessperson
The most essential factor is persistence—the determination never to allow your energy or enthusiasm to be dampened by the discouragement that must inevitably come.
—James Whitcomb Riley (1849–1916) American Children’s Books Writer, Poet, Writer