Quotes About Persistence

Things exist either because they have recently come into existence or because they have qualities that made them unlikely to be destroyed in the past.

A mutant individual who was prepared to go on just a little bit longer would always win. So the strategy of maintaining a fixed bidding limit is unstable.

Evolution is something that happens, willy-nilly, in spite of all the efforts of the replicators (and nowadays of the genes) to prevent it happening.

You may grind their souls in the self-same mill, You may bind them, heart and brow; But the poet will follow the rainbow still, And his brother will follow the plow. JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY (1844–90) 'The Rainbow's Treasure

A book series is never truly over. The story lives on, even when the final page has been turned.

I believe that everyone should have a dream and believe in it. Make it real, bring it to life. You'll never regret trying. Trying is what strengthens your heart and delivers courage. Once you believe in yourself, nothing can stop you.

Your fight is long from over, Deon. More of your kind will come... and they will come for you.

Life can be difficult and no one escapes its challenges. Sooner or later you will find yourself pressed to your limits. It may come in the form of a broken relationship, or unemployment, or a serious illness, or the death of a loved one. When it comes you will be tempted to define your life by that painful experience. Don't succumb to that temptation. Refuse to define your life by any single event, whatever it may be. Its a real part of your life, but that is all--just a part.

He was not a good surgeon, he was not a good doctor; he was not, he believed in his heart, a good man. But he refused to stop trying.

We are past the end of things now, but I don't want to leave.

I do not hold to the old belief that professors like writers because they can see us fail in a grander and sillier and therefore more unequivocal way than they have. On the contrary, they like to see someone trying, giving it all up to set a permanent mark.

Even the smallest public rigmarole is a pain in the ass, its true importance measurable not in the final effect but by how willing we are to leave our usual selves behind and by how much colossal bullshit and anarchy we're willing to put up with in a worthwhile cause. I always like it better when clowns seem to try to be happy.

Houses can have this almost authorial power over us, seeming to ruin or make perfect our lives just by persisting in one place longer than we can. (In either case it's a power worth defeating.)

is a thin line between having enough self-confidence and being overconfident. I suppose the difference is whether you succeed or fail; when you win you are strong-willed, and when you lose you are stubborn!

The reason this happens so often is the creators have to fight through so many dark difficulties, and wade through so much misunderstanding and confusion, they cannot see the light as others can, now the door is open and the path made easy. Please remember, the inventor often has a very limited view of what he invented, and some others (you?) can see much more.

There's two kinds of people in this world, there's winners and there's losers. Okay, you know what the difference is? Winners don't give up.--Little Miss Sunshine

Running away just makes your arse a bigger target.

the overwhelming impression I got was that if there was a line of least resistance in life, this face had never been along it.

And though, finally, they would bring him down with sheer weight of numbers, none who heard him ask that question lived to see the dawn.

Americans, from the beginning and throughout much of their history, were a warrior people when dealing with those who stood in their path.

But do you know how old I will be by the time I learn to really play the piano/act/paint/write a decent play?" Yes ... the same age you will be if you don't. So let's start.

Nothing dies harder than a bad idea.

real artists can survive the most hostile environments and yet find their true calling like homing pigeons. That's hogwash. Many real artists bear children too early or have too many, are too poor or too far removed culturally or monetarily from artistic opportunity to become the artists they really are.

Often, when we say it is "too late" for us to begin something, what we are really saying is that we aren't willing to be a beginner. But when we are willing to dip our toe in, even just a little, we are rewarded with a sense of youthful wonder. Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never. —WINSTON CHURCHILL