DETERMINATION
Quotes
1
Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its own mission, fulfill it, or betray it.
— Frantz Fanon
2
The best way is always through.
— Robert Frost
3
Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall.
— Confucius
4
An unfulfilled vocation drains the color from a man’s entire existence.
— Honoré de Balzac
5
To generalize is to be an idiot.
— William Blake
6
One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.
— Helen Keller
7
Ours is a world where people don’t know what they want and are willing to go through hell to get it.
— Don Marquis
8
The human heart refuses to believe in a universe without a purpose.
— Immanuel Kant
9
More men fail through lack of purpose than lack of talent.
— Billy Sunday
10
My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I’m happy. I can’t figure it out. What am I doing right?
— Charles M. Schulz
11
When people talk to me about the weather, I always feel they mean something else.
— Oscar Wilde
12
None climbs so high as he who knows not whither he is going.
— Oliver Cromwell
13
We succeed only as we identify in life, or in war, or in anything else, a single overriding objective, and make all other considerations bend to that one objective.
— Dwight D. Eisenhower
14
Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness.
— Thomas Carlyle
15
Not snow, no, nor rain, nor heat, nor night keeps them from accomplishing their appointed courses with all speed.
— Herodotus
16
It is best not to swap horses while crossing the river.
— Abraham Lincoln
17
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.
— Winston Churchill
18
Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.
— Samuel Johnson
19
I take a simple view of living. It is keep your eyes open and get on with it.
— Laurence Olivier
20
To have a grievance is to have a purpose in life.
— Eric Hoffer
21
We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.
— Marian Wright Edelman
22
There is nothing like a dream to create the future.
— Victor Hugo
23
The will is the strong blind man who carries on his shoulders the lame man who can see.
— Arthur Schopenhauer
24
I am an idealist. I don’t know where I am going but I’m on my way.
— Carl Sandburg
25
The will to succeed is important, but what’s even more important is the will to prepare.
— Bobby Knight
26
Man is a stubborn seeker of meaning.
— John Gardner
27
If I am building a mountain and stop before the last basketful of earth is placed on the summit, I have failed.
— Confucius
28
Some examples of persistence:
The Coca-Cola company sold only four hundred Cokes in its first year of business.
Dr. Seuss’s first book was rejected by twenty-three publishers.
Henry Ford went bankrupt twice before hitting it big in the automotive industry.
Sayings
1
Just do it.
— Nike Slogan
2
Perseverance is everything.
— West African saying
3
Today’s mighty oak is just yesterday’s little acorn that held its ground.
Joke
After much persistence, the young woman managed to land an interview with the personnel director of a prestigious company, and asked if she could be considered for their excellent training program. “Impossible,” snapped the personnel director, already flooded with applications.
“Try again in five years.”
“Fine,” replied the young woman calmly. “Would morning or afternoon be better?”