This is a compilation of thoughts and quotes that I have found or written recently, as well as many that I've collected throughout the years. Most thoughts are posted randomly, as I feel inspired. A listing of quotes can be found alphabetically (check the 2008 and 2009 archives listing), or by source.

Feel free to suggest additions!


“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” – Proverbs 23:7

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Perseverance / Persistence Quotes

1. Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent. - Marilyn Vos Savant

2. The little reed, bending to the force of the wind, soon stood upright again when the storm had passed over. – Aesop

3. The drops of rain make a hole in the stone not by violence, but by oft falling. – Lucretius

4. It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer. - Albert Einstein

5. In the struggle between the stone and the water, in time, the water wins. - Japanese proverb

6. Don't be discouraged. It's often the last key in the bunch that opens the lock. - Stonsifer

7. It matters not if you try and fail, and try and fail again. It matters if you try and fail, and fail to try again. – Unknown

8. I have never been especially impressed by the heroics of the people convinced that they are about to change the world. I am more awed by the heroism of those who are willing to struggle to make one small difference after another. - Ellen Goodman

9. You have to take it as it happens, but you should try to make it happen the way you want to take it. - German proverb

10. Shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren; and on, on to the victory! - Joseph Smith, D&C 128:22

11. When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. - Franklin Delano Roosevelt

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

13. In the end the great truth will have been learned, that the quest is greater than what is sought, the effort finer than the prize, or rather that the effort is the prize, the victory cheap and hollow were it not for the rigor of the game. - Benjamin Cardozo

14. Great works are performed, not by strength, but by perseverance. - Samuel Johnson

15. Every strike brings me closer to the next home run. - Babe Ruth

16. The life that conquers is the life that moves with a steady resolution and persistence toward a predetermined goal. Those who succeed are those who have thoroughly learned the immense importance of plan in life, and the tragic brevity of time. - W. J. Davison

17. Don't you quit, You keep walking...You keep trying... There is help and happiness ahead! Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don't come until Heaven. But for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come. It will be alright in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come. - Jeffrey R. Holland

18. The best way out of a problem is through it. - Unknown

19. I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles. - Christopher Reeve

20. Never give in! Never give in! Never, never, never. Never, in anything great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. – Sir Winston Churchill

21. I realized early on that success was tied to not giving up. Most people in this business gave up and went on to other things. If you simply didn't give up, you would outlast the people who came in on the bus with you. - Harrison Ford

22. Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit. - Napoleon Hill

23. You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it. - Margaret Thatcher

24. Perseverance is not a long race: it is many short races one after another. - Walter Elliot

25. Success in life depends upon staying power. The reason for failure in most cases is lack of perseverance. Men get tired and give up. - J.R. Miller

26. 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 J. Iacocca

27. He conquers who endures. - Persius

28. Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did. - Newt Gingrich

29. The wayside of business is full of brilliant men who started out with a spurt, and lacked the stamina to finish. Their places were taken by patient and unshowy plodders who never knew when to quit. - J.R. Todd

30. Triumph
If you can sing,
When there is no song in your heart;
If you can keep on being loving, lovable, and lovely,
When those who should be loving you are blind;
If you can hold a lifted brow,
Despite the weights your shoulders cannot beat–
There is benediction there
For you to share.

If you can carry on dry-eyed
While your heart is drowning
In a deluge of tears;
If you can keep on going,
When the pain in you is just too great,
And your soul is shaken with hopeless anguish,
And your suffering, ache-filled body wants to slump;
If you can keep on going–
And keep on going…

When nerves and blood and muscle scream and sob
With the injustice and unholy ways
Of those who should be warm and just, but can’t be,
Because the abysmal holds for them more lure
Than the celestial–
Why, God?

But, if you can tilt your cheeks, sunward,
Keeping your eyes filled with spiritual light and message,
And coax a skip of childlike rhythm
Into your lagging walk–
And lift your best foot forward,
As though you had no care–
There is benediction there
For you to share.

- Virginia Stillman

31. Always a River to Cross
There is always a river to cross;
Always an effort to make
If there’s anything good to win,
Any rich prize to take.
Yonder’s the fruit we crave,
Yonder the charming scene;
But deep and wide, with a troubled tide,
Is the river that lies between.

For the treasures of precious worth
We must patiently dig and dive;
For the places we long to fill
We must push and struggle and strive.
And always and everywhere
We’ll find, on our onward course,
Thorns for the feet and trials to meet
And a difficult river to cross.

For the rougher the way that we take,
The stouter the heart and the nerve;
The stones in our path we break,
Nor e’er from our impulse swerve.
For the glory we hope to win
Our labors we count no loss;
Tis folly to pause and murmur because
Of the river we have to cross.

So, ready to do and to dare,
Should we in our places stand,
Fulfilling the Master’s will,
Fulfilling the soul’s demand;
For though as the mountain high
The billows may war and toss,
They’ll not overwhelm if the Lord’s at the helm
When the difficult river we cross.

- unknown

32. However confused the scene of our life appears, however torn we may be who now do face that scene, it can be faced, and we can go on to be whole. - Muriel Rukeyser

33. 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

34. Perseverance is failing nineteen times and succeeding the twentieth. - Julie Andrews

35. A constant struggle, a ceaseless battle to bring success from inhospitable surroundings, is the price of all great achievements. - Marden

36. You must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessing. - Andrew Jackson

37. The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one often comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won't. - HW Beecher

38. Do not quit! Hundreds of times I have watched people throw in the towel at the one-yard line while someone else comes along and makes a fortune by just going that extra yard. - Joseph E. Cossman

39. Through perseverance, many people win success out of what seemed destined to be certain failure. - Benjamin Disraeli

40. With ordinary talent and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable. - Sir Thomas Foxwell Buxton

41. Yard by yard it's very hard. But inch by inch, it's a cinch. - Unknown

42. The best way out is always through. - Robert Frost

43. The distance doesn't matter, only the first step is difficult. - Madame Marquise du Deffand

44. The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones. - Chinese proverb

45. There is no royal road to anything. One thing at a time, and all things in succession. That which grows slowly endures. - J.G. Holland

46. It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop. - Confucius

47. Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit. - Napoleon Hill

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

49. Practice, practice, practice until you eventually get numb on rejections. - Brian Klemmer

50. 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 a joy in overcoming obstacles. Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost. - Helen Keller

51. Victory is always possible for the person who refuses to stop fighting. - Napoleon Hill

52. There is genius in persistence. It conquers all opposers. It gives confidence. It annihilates obstacles. Everybody believes in a determined person. People know that when he or she undertakes a thing, the battle is half won, for their rule is to accomplish whatever they set out to do. - Orison Swett Marden

53. Continued persistence overcomes almost all resistance. - Mark Victor Hansen

54. It’s easier to have courage and trust the process when you feel you’re making headway. Mastery is not persistence when you see a light at the end of the tunnel. True mastery is persistence when you don’t yet see the light. - James Arthur Ray

55. Keep on going and the chances are you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I have never heard of anyone stumbling on something sitting down. - Charles Kettering

56. Most people with a big idea, great talent and/or something to say don't get lucky at first. Or second. Or even third. It's so easy to conclude that if you're not lucky, you're not good. So persistence becomes an essential element of 'good', because without persistence, you never get a chance to get lucky. - Seth Godin

57. As long as we are persistent 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

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

59. As long as we are persistent 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

60. When I thought I couldn’t go on, I forced myself to keep going. My success is based on persistence, not luck. - Norman Lear

61. Let the man who has to make his fortune in life remember this maxim: Attacking is the only secret. Dare and the world always yields; or if it beats you sometimes, dare it again and it will succumb. - William Makepeace Thackeray

62. By being persistent, you're demonstrating faith. Persistence is simply another word for faith. If you didn't have faith, you'd never persist. - Earl Nightingale

See also Endurance Quotes

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