The only joy in the world is to begin.
—Cesare Pavese (1908–50) Italian Novelist, Poet, Critic, Translator
Nourish beginnings, let us nourish beginnings.
Not all things are blest, but the
seeds of all things are blest.
The blessing is in the seed.
—Muriel Rukeyser (1913–80) American Poet, Writer
Wise men are instructed in reason men of less understanding by experience; The most unknowing learn by necessity. Wise men do in the beginning what fools in the end.
—Unknown
He has the deed half done who has made a beginning.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
Sometimes when you think you are done, it is just the edge of beginning. Probably that’s why we decide we’re done. It’s getting too scary. We are touching down onto something real. It is beyond the point when you think you are done that often something strong comes out.
—Natalie Goldberg (b.1948) American Buddhist Author
This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
The beginning is the half of every action.
—Common Proverb
Be willing to be a beginner every single morning.
—Meister Eckhart (c.1260–1327) German Christian Mystic
Remember tonight.. for it is the beginning of always.
—Unknown
Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.
—Henry Ford (1863–1947) American Businessperson, Engineer
So never lose an opportunity of urging a practical beginning, however small, for it is wonderful how often in such matters the mustard-seed germinates and roots itself.
—Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) English Nurse
There are no classes in life for beginners; right away you are always asked to deal with what is most difficult.
—Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) Austrian Poet
When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies. And now when every new baby is born its first laugh becomes a fairy. So there ought to be one fairy for every boy or girl.
—J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) Scottish Novelist, Dramatist
Each day the world is born anew for him who takes it rightly.
—James Russell Lowell (1819–91) American Poet, Critic
But the beginning of things, of a world especially, is necessarily vague, tangled, chaotic, and exceedingly disturbing.
—Kate Chopin (1850–1904) American Novelist, Short-Story Writer
How beautiful is youth! how bright it gleams with its illusions, aspirations, dreams! Book of Beginnings, Story without End, Each maid a heroine, and each man a friend!
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
It’s never too late—never too late to start over, never too late to be happy.
—Jane Fonda (b.1937) American Actress, Political Activist
Every beginning is a consequence. Every beginning ends something.
—Unknown
All difficult things have their origin in that which is easy, and great things in that which is small.
—Laozi (fl.6th Century BCE) Chinese Philosopher, Sage
It was on that road and at that hour that I first became aware of my own self, experienced an inexpressible state of grace, and felt one with the first breath of air that stirred, the first bird, and the sun so newly born that it still looked not quite round.
—Colette (1873–1954) French Novelist, Performer
Beginnings are apt to be shadowy and so it is the beginnings of the great mother life, the sea.
—Rachel Carson (1907–64) American Naturalist, Science Writer
When there is a start to be made, don’t step over! Start where you are.
—Edgar Cayce (1877–1945) American Faith Healer
If my soul could get away from this so-called prison, be granted all the list of attributes generally bestowed on spirits, my first ramble on spirit-wings would not be among the volcanoes of the moon. Nor should I follow the sunbeams to their sources in the sun. I should hover about the beauty of our own good star. I should not go moping around the tombs, nor around the artificial desolation of men. I should study Nature’s laws in all their crossings and unions: I should follow magnetic streams to their source and follow the shores of our magnetic oceans. I should go among the rays of the aurora, and follow them to their beginnings, and study their dealings and communions with other powers and expressions of matter. And I should go to the very center of our globe and read the whole splendid page from the beginning.
—John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American Naturalist
No river can return to its source, yet all rivers must have a beginning.
—American Indian Proverb
So many fail because they don’t get started—they don’t go. They don’t overcome inertia. They don’t begin.
—W. Clement Stone (1902–2002) American Self-help Guru, Entrepreneur
A hard beginning maketh a good ending.
—John Heywood
It is easier to forgive an enemy than a friend.
—Dorothee Luzy Dotinville (1747–1830) French Dancer, Actress
The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.
—Chinese Proverb
What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.
—T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) American-born British Poet, Dramatist, Literary Critic
No man can tell what the future may bring forth, and small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.
—Demosthenes (384–322 BCE) Greek Statesman, Orator