Selected effort quotes

1. I believe that it may happen that one will succeed, and one must not begin to despair, even though defeated here and there; and even though one sometimes feels a kind of decay, though things go differently from the expected, it is necessary to take heart again and new courage. For the great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together. And great things are not something accidental, but must certainly be willed. What is drawing? How does one learn it? It is working through an invisible iron wall that seems to stand between what one feels and what one can do.

2. Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.

3. God helps only those who are prepared and determined to help themselves.

4. Everything considered, a determined soul will always manage.

5. Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.

6. There is scarcely any passion without struggle.

7. Measured objectively, what a man can wrest from Truth by passionate striving is utterly infinitesimal. But the striving frees us from the bonds of the self and makes us comrades of those who are the best and the greatest.

8. A man can do only what he can do. But if he does that each day he can sleep at night and do it again the next day.

9. A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with - a man is what he makes of himself.

10. However impenetrable it seems, if you don't try it, then you can never do it.

11. Every book has an intrinsic impossibility, which its writer discovers as soon as his first excitement dwindles.

12. There is no royal road to learning; no short cut to the acquirement of any art.

13. There is no way of writing well and also of writing easily.

14. It is easy to perform a good action, but not easy to acquire a settled habit of performing such actions.

15. The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.

16. It's like you wanting to marry Miss World and she doesn't want you, what can I do about it? I can try to help you, but if she does not want to marry you what can I do?

17. Say not the struggle nought availeth, The labour and the wounds are vain, The enemy faints not, nor faileth, And as things have been, things remain.

18. My mind contains many good ideas, but it's not always easy to squeeze one out.

19. If I do enough different things in enough different ways, I may, eventually, do something right.

20. Where dost thou careless lie, Buried in ease and sloth? Knowledge that sleeps, doth die; And this security, It is the common moth, That eats on wits and arts, and oft destroys them both.

21. Attempt the impossible in order to improve your work.

22. Give up thinking as though not giving it up. Observe techniques as though not observing.

23. If you want to do your duty properly, you should do just a little more than that.

24. You know that I write slowly. This is chiefly because I am never satisfied until I have said as much as possible in a few words, and writing briefly takes far more time than writing at length.

25. Effort supposes resistance.

26. I'm an instant star. Just add water and stir.

27. You have to make it happen.

28. The real geniuses know where their writing has to be good and where they can get away with some mediocrity.

29. Sometimes you can do all the right things and not succeed. And that's a hard lesson of reality.

30. A man is an artist only at certain moments, by an effort of will. Objects have the same appearance for everybody.

31. Great patience is called for on the hard path that I have entered on.

32. Thy purpose firm is equal to the deed: Who does the best his circumstance allows Does well, acts nobly; angels could no more.

33. No one ever gets far unless he accomplishes the impossible at least once a day.

34. It isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it.

35. This food-and-shelter theory concerning man's efforts is without insight. Our most persistent and spectacular efforts are concerned not with the preservation of what we are but with the building up of an imaginary conception of ourselves in the opinion of others. The desire for praise is more imperative than the desire for food and shelter.

36. In every passionate pursuit, the pursuit counts more than the object pursued.

37. While every human being has a capacity for love, its realization is one of the most difficult achievements.

38. My theory on housework is, if the item doesn't multiply, smell, catch fire, or block the refrigerator door, let it be. No one else cares. Why should you?

39. Have you ever tried to split sawdust?

40. All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.

41. To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the Gift.

42. When I was in school the teachers told me practice makes perfect; then they told me nobody's perfect so I stopped practicing.

43. A few heart-whole, sincere, and energetic men and women can do more in a year than a mob in a century.

44. Great work requires great and persistent effort for a long time. : Character has to be established through a thousand stumbles.

45. Success is blocked by concentrating on it and planning for it ... Success is shy - it won't come out while you're watching.

46. 'Genius' (which means transcendent capacity of taking trouble, first of all).

47. By working hard, old man, I hope to make something good one day. I haven't yet, but I am pursuing it and fighting for it.

48. Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.

49. Facilis descensus Averni: noctes atque dies patet atri ianua Ditis; sed revocare gradium superasque evadere ad auras. hoc opus, hic labor est.

50. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it.

51. The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.

52. The person attempting to travel two roads at once will get nowhere.

53. Easy is right. Begin right and you are easy. Continue easy and you are right. The right way to go easy is to forget the right way and forget that the going is easy.

54. 'Husbands are like fires - they go out when unattended.'

55. Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well.

56. Of all the schools of patience and lucidity, creation is the most effective. It is also the staggering evidence of man's sole dignity: the dogged revolt against his condition, perseverance in an effort considered sterile. It calls for a daily effort, self-mastery, a precise estimate of the limits of truth, measure, and strength. It constitutes an ascesis. All that 'for nothing,' in order to repeat and mark time. But perhaps the great work of art has less importance in itself than in the ordeal it demands of a man and the opportunity it provides him of overcoming his phantoms and approaching a little closer to his naked reality.

57. And all the way, to guide their chime, With falling oars they kept the time.

58. It's dogged as does it. It's not thinking about it.

59. A small task, if it be really daily, will beat the labors of a spasmodic Hercules.

60. Being a husband is a whole-time job. That is why so many husbands fail. They can't give their entire attention to it.

61. I swing as hard as I can, and I try to swing right through the ball. In boxing, your fist usually stops when you hit a man, but its possible to hit so hard that your fist doesn't stop. I try to follow through in the same way. The harder you grip the bat, the more you can swing it through the ball, and the farther the ball will go. I swing big, with everything I've got. I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can.

62. My whole life has largely been one of surprises. I believe that any man's life will be filled with constant, unexpected encouragements of this kind if he makes up his mind to do his level best each day of his life - that is, tries to make each day reach as nearly as possible the high-water mark of pure, unselfish, useful living.

63. I have never felt that anything really mattered but the satisfaction of knowing that you stood for the things in which you believed and had done the very best you could. (8 November 1944)

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

65. There are many who find a good alibi far more attractive than an achievement. For an achievement does not settle anything permanently. We still have to prove our worth anew each day: we have to prove that we are as good today as we were yesterday. But when we have a valid alibi for not achieving anything we are fixed, so to speak, for life. Moreover, when we have an alibi for not writing a book, painting a picture, and so on, we have an alibi for not writing the greatest book and not painting the greatest picture. Small wonder that the effort expended and the punishment endured in obtaining a good alibi often exceed the effort and grief requisite for the attainment of a most marked achievement.

66. Sweat saves blood, blood saves lives, and brains save both.

67. Bread that must be sliced with an ax is bread that is too nourishing.

68. Those who have not shown anything during their responsible life will have nothing to reap in the future.

69. Behold now, Bhikkhus, I exhort you: All compounded things are subject to decay. Strive with diligence!

70. Fanaticism consists in redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim.

71. Actors work and slave-and it is the color of your hair that can determine your fate in the end.

72. My mother drew a distinction between achievement and success. She said that achievement is the knowledge that you have studied and worked hard and done the best that is in you. Success is being praised by others, and that's nice too, but not as important or satisfying. Always aim for achievement and forget about the success.

73. I have always tried to hide my efforts and wished my works to have the light joyousness of springtime which never lets anyone suspect the labors it has cost me...

74. In this age, which believes that there is a short-cut to everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way, in the long run, is the easiest.

75. Badness you can get easily, in quantity: the road is smooth, and it lies close by. But in front of excellence the immortal gods have put sweat, and long and steep is the way to it, and rough at first. But when you come to the top, then it is easy, even though it is hard.

76. In all human affairs there are efforts, and there are results, and the strength of the effort is the measure of the result. Chance is not. Gifts, powers, material, intellectual, and spiritual possessions are the fruits of effort; they are thoughts completed, objects accomplished, visions realized. The Vision that you glorify in your mind, the Ideal that you enthrone in your heart - this you will build your life by, this you will become.

77. In all human affairs there are efforts, and there are results, and the strength of the effort is the measure of the result.

78. People come out to see you perform and you've got to give them the best you have within you. The lives of most men are patchwork quilts. Or at best one matching outfit with a closet and a laundry bag full of incongruous accumulations. A lifetime of training for just 10 seconds.

79. 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.

80. 'Tis as cheap sitting as standing.

81. You must have no dependence on your own genius. If you have great talents, industry will improve them; if you have but moderate abilities, industry will supply their deficiency.

82. We take love for granted. We assume we are all perfect lovers and all we need do is wait and our love will grow and blossom as readily as a flower in spring. Not so. Love doesn't grow unless we do. It takes patience, knowledge, experience, determination, and every positive trait we possess. In addition, love is always changing and unless we stay aware and change with it, it eludes us.

83. To live in love is life's greatest challenge.

84. A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with, the wind. Even a head wind is better than none. No man ever worked his passage anywhere in a dead calm.

85. Satisfaction does not come with achievement, but with effort. Full effort is full victory.

86. One only gets to the top rung of the ladder by steadily climbing up one 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.'

87. An experienced, industrious, ambitious, and often quite picturesque liar.

88. With aching hands and bleeding feet We dig and heap, lay stone on stone; We bear the burden and the heat Of the long day and wish't were done. Not till the hours of light return All we have built do we discern.

89. We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But if that drop was not in the ocean, I think the ocean would be less because of that missing drop. I do not agree with the big way of doing things.

90. The danger that keeps me just a little frightened with every book I write, however, is that I'll overreach myself once too often and try to write a story that I'm just plain not talented or skilful enough to write. That's the dilemma every storyteller faces. It is painful to fail. But it is far sadder when a storyteller stops wanting to try.

91. Progress in mediation comes swiftly for those who try their hardest.

92. It's like chasing a beautiful woman for 80 years. Finally, she relents and you say, 'I am terribly sorry. I'm tired.'

93. The grass is not, in fact, always greener on the other side of the fence. Fences have nothing to do with it. The grass is greenest where it is watered. When crossing over fences, carry water with you and tend the grass wherever you may be.

94. Like it or not we live in interesting times. They are times of danger and uncertainty; but they are also more open to the creative energy of men than any other time in history. And everyone here will ultimately be judged - will ultimately judge himself - on the effort he has contributed to building a new world society and the extent to which his ideals and goals have shaped that effort.

95. You knew that what is given or granted can be taken away, that what is begged can be refused; but that what is earned is kept. (12-10-1966)

96. It's true hard work never killed anyone, but I figure, why take the chance?

97. If a man does not make new acquaintance as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, Sir, should keep his friendship in a constant repair.

98. Details are all that matters: God dwells there, and you never get to see Him if you don't struggle to get them right.

99. A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more. Nobody is going to win a 5,000 meter race after running an easy 2 miles. Not with me. If I lose forcing the pace all the way, well, at least I can live with myself.

100. To succeed, you must have tremendous perseverance, tremendous will. 'I will drink the ocean', says the persevering soul; 'at my will mountains will crumble up'. Have that sort of energy, that sort of will; work hard, and you will reach the goal.