31 Pursuit Quotes

Chase after the truth like all hell and you'll free yourself, even though you never touch its coat tails.

She whom I love is hard to catch and conquer, Hard, but O the glory of the winning were she won!

There is certainly no absolute standard of beauty. That precisely is what makes its pursuit so interesting.

How false is the conception, how frantic the pursuit, of that treacherous phantom which men call Liberty.

Happiness in this world, when it comes, comes incidentally. Make it the object of pursuit, and it leads us a wild-goose chase, and is never attained. Follow some other object, and very possibly we may find that we have caught happiness without dreaming of it.

Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.

'Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.'

Always mystify, mislead, and surprise the enemy, if possible; and when you strike and overcome him, never let up in the pursuit so long as your men have strength to follow; for an army routed, if hotly pursued, becomes panic-stricken, and can then be destroyed by half their number. The other rule is, never fight against heavy odds, if by any possible maneuvering you can hurl your own force on only a part, and that the weakest part, of your enemy and crush it. Such tactics will win every time, and a small army may thus destroy a large one in detail, and repeated victory will make it invincible.

Follow a shadow, it still flies you; Seem to fly it, it will pursue: So court a mistress, she denies you; Let her alone, she will court you.

The indefatigable pursuit of an unattainable perfection, even though it consist in nothing more than the pounding of an old piano, is what alone gives a meaning to our life on this unavailing star.

It is only possible to succeed at second-rate pursuits - like becoming a millionaire or a prime minister, winning a war, seducing beautiful women, flying through the stratosphere or landing on the moon. First-rate pursuits - involving, as they must, trying to understand what life is about and trying to convey that understanding - inevitably result in a sense of failure. A Napoleon, a Churchill, a Roosevelt can feel themselves to be successful, but never a Socrates, a Pascal, a Blake. Understanding is for ever unattainable. Therein lies the inevitability of failure in embarking upon its quest, which is none the less the only one worthy of serious attention.

Philologists, who chase A panting syllable through time and space, Start it at home, and hunt it in the dark To Gaul, to Greece, and into Noah's ark.

Harvard's motto is 'Veritas.' Many of you have already found out and others will find out in the course of their lives that truth eludes us if we do not concentrate with total attention on its pursuit. And even while it eludes us, the illusion still lingers of knowing it and leads to many misunderstandings. Also, truth is seldom pleasant; it is almost invariably bitter. There is some bitterness in my speech today, too. But I want to stress that it comes not from an adversary but from a friend.

O young Mariner, You from the haven Under the sea-cliff, You that are watching The gray Magician With eyes of wonder, I am Merlin, And I am dying, I am Merlin Who follow The Gleam.

Drink up, baby, look at the stars I'll kiss you again Between the bars Where I'm seeing you there With your hands in the air Waiting to finally be caught Drink up one more time and I'll make you mine...

I want justice. And there's an old poster out West, I recall, that says, 'Wanted: Dead or Alive'.

The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him.

'There are a few of us -madmen all! -who are in love with knowing, who would sell the last shirt from our backs for one small truth, one tiny star-fire to light up the murk and mystery of what we call our life: We may go blind before we see it, that's the haunting-'

Once you get them running, you stay right on top of them, and that way a small force can defeat a large one every time.

Yeah runnin' down a dream that never would come to me. Workin' on a mystery, goin' wherever it leads. I'm runnin' down a dream.

Le duc, le vit en l'air, serrait Augustine de bien pres; il braillait, il jurait, il deraisonnait, et la pauvre petite, toute tremblante, se reculait toujours, comme la colombe devant l'oiseau de proie qui la guette et qui est pres d'en faire sa capture.

A strong pursuit, give no time for the enemy to think, take advantage of victory, uproot him, cut off his escape route.

If any man seeks for greatness, let him forget greatness and ask for truth, and he will find both.

She was of course only too good for him; but as nobody minds having what is too good for them, he was very steadily earnest in the pursuit of the blessing...

Fortune hath somewhat the nature of a woman; if she be too much wooed, she is the farther off.