Quotes for the Journey: Perseverance   Big shots are only little shots who keep shooting. Christopher Morley

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.        -Dale Carnegie     Go the extra mile.  It's never crowded.      -Executive Speechwriter Newsletter     When I look at the kids training today. . . I can tell which ones are going to do well.  It’s not necessarily the ones who have the most natural talent or who fall the least.  Sometimes it’s the kids who fall the most, and keep pulling themselves up and trying again.        -Michelle Kwan     Be of good cheer.  Do not think of today’s failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow.  You have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere; and you will find joy in overcoming obstacles.  Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost.        -Helen Keller     When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.       -Harriet Beecher Stowe      What can people not accomplish if they will but master the secret of steadfast perseverance.       -Alice H. Rice

People who have attained things worth having in this world have worked while others idled, have persevered when others gave up in despair, have practiced early in life the valuable habits of self-denial, industry, and singleness of purpose.  As a result, they enjoy in later life the success so often erroneously attributed to good luck.         -Grenville Kleiser

Athletes make their sports look easy because of the thousands of hours of work that they've devoted to their sports.  A good singer seems to be able to hit every note effortlessly only because he or she has spent countless hours practicing and learning and practicing some more.  When they become successful, it's easy to call them lucky or to forget the amount of work that they've put into their chosen field, but the fact is that they kept on with what they wanted to do and didn't give up.        -tom walsh

I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.        -Thomas A. Edison

The heights by great ones reached and kept Were not attained by sudden flight, But they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upward in the night. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Think of a fine painter attempting to capture an inner vision, beginning with one corner of the canvas, painting what he or she thinks should be there, not quite pulling it off, covering it over with white paint, and trying again, each time finding out what the painting isn't, until he or she finally finds out what it is.  And when you finally do find out what one corner of your vision is, you're off and running.        -Anne Lamott

When you put your hand to the plow, you can't put it down until you get to the end of the row.        -Alice Paul

There are but two roads that lead to an important goal and to the doing of great things:  strength and perseverance.  Strength is the lot of but a few privileged people; but austere perseverance, harsh and continuous, may be employed by the least of us and rarely fails of its purpose, for its silent power grows irresistibly greater with time.        -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Perseverance is a great element of success.  If you only knock loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.        -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Success depends upon staying power.  The reason for failure in most cases is lack of perseverance.        -James R. Miller

When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at a rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it.  Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it--but all that had gone before.        -Jacob Riis

In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins--not through strength but by perseverance.        -H. Jackson Brown

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 that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained.        -Marie Curie

There are two ways of attaining an important end--force and perseverance.  Force falls to the lot of a privileged few, but austere and sustained perseverance by the insignificant--its silent power grows irresistible with time.        -Ann S. Swetchine (see the quotation attributed to Goethe above)

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.  Talent will not;  nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.  Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.  Education will not; the world is filled with educated derelicts.  Perseverance and determination alone are omnipotent.        -Calvin Coolidge

One of the simplest things about all facts of life is that to get where you want to go, you must keep on keeping on.        -Norman Vincent Peale

Great works are performed, not by strength, but by perseverance.  Those that walk with vigor, three hours a day, will pass in seven years a space equal to the circumference of the globe.       -Samuel Johnson

Persistent people begin their success where others end in failure.       -Edward Eggleston

The Village Blacksmith Under a spreading chestnut-tree The village smithy stands; The smith, a mighty man is he, With large and sinewy hands; And the muscles of his brawny arms Are strong as iron bands. His hair is crisp, and black, and long, His face is like the tan; His brow is wet with honest sweat, He earns whate'er he can, And looks the whole world in the face, For he owes not any man. Week in, week out, from morn till night, You can hear his bellows blow; You can hear him swing his heavy sledge, With measured beat and slow, Like a sexton ringing the village bell, When the evening sun is low. And children coming home from school Look in at the open door; They love to see the flaming forge, And hear the bellows roar, And catch the burning sparks that fly Like chaff from a threshing-floor. He goes on Sunday to the church, And sits among his boys; He hears the parson pray and preach, He hears his daughter's voice, Singing in the village choir, And it makes his heart rejoice. It sounds to him like her mother's voice, Singing in Paradise! He needs must think of her once more, How in the grave she lies; And with his haul, rough hand he wipes A tear out of his eyes. Toiling,--rejoicing,--sorrowing, Onward through life he goes; Each morning sees some task begin, Each evening sees it close Something attempted, something done, Has earned a night's repose. Thanks, thanks to thee, my worthy friend, For the lesson thou hast taught! Thus at the flaming forge of life Our fortunes must be wrought; Thus on its sounding anvil shaped Each burning deed and thought. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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People say, "What is the sense of our small effort?"  They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time.     -Dorothy Day

You don't just luck into things as much as you'd like to think you do.  You build them step by step, whether it's friendships or opportunities.     -Barbara Bush

Even the woodpeckers owe their success to the fact that they use their heads and keep pecking away until they finish the job they start.     -Coleman Cox

"When I was a young man," he said, "the last wolf in this part of the country was hunted down and killed.  The newcomers to this land brought their long-held fears of the wolf with them.  The newcomers thought, and still think, that the wolf was successful because he loved to kill and was good at it.  To them, he was evil and had to be killed.  They didn't realize that he failed more than he succeeded.  He went hungry eight or nine times out of ten because his prey got away.  When he finally succeeded the tenth time, he satisfied his hunger.  What others saw as a lust for killing was really perseverance.  That was the secret of his success:  He never quit."     -Joseph M. Marshall III

It is not so much brilliancy of intellect, or fertility of resource, as persistency of effort, constancy of purpose, that makes a great person.  Persistency always gives confidence.  Everybody believes in the people who persist.  They may meet misfortunes, sorrows, and reverses, but everybody believes that they will ultimately triumph because they know there is no keeping them down.  "Do they keep at it?  are they persistent?" are the questions which the world asks about us.  Even the person with small ability will often succeed if he or she has the quality of persistence, where a genius without persistence would fail.     -Orison Swett Marden

The world doesn't come to the clever folks, it comes to the stubborn, obstinate, one-idea-at-a-time people.     -Mary Roberts Rinehart

Whether it's a career in the arts, sports, business, or the professions, the way to perfect our skills is through diligent practice and study on a consistent basis.  This means making the commitment to develop our self-discipline and to persist and endure until the goal is met.  This commitment to "finish the race" may not always be easy.  There are often occasions when we may be tempted to spend valuable time pursuing those interests that give pleasure while neglecting our long-range priorities.     -John Marks Templeton, Worldwide Laws of Life

And I recall an account of Trollope going up to London to pick up a rejected manuscript from a publisher, getting on the train to return home, laying the bulky bundle on his lap face down, and beginning a new book on the back pages of the rejected one.     -unattributed

One only gets to the top rung of the ladder by steadily climbing up one rung at a time, and suddenly all sorts of powers, all sorts of abilities which you thought never belonged to you--suddenly become within your own possibility and you think, "Well, I'll have a go, too."     -Margaret Thatcher

You're not obligated to win.  You're obligated to keep trying to do the best you can every day.     -Marion Wright Edelman

Instead of thinking about where you are, think about where you want to be.  It takes twenty years of hard work to become an overnight success.     -Diana Rankin

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