Quotes About Persistence

Prayer is like lying awake at night, afraid, with your head under the cover, hearing only the beating of your own heart. It is like a bird that has blundered down the flue and is caught indoors and flutters at the windowpanes. It is like standing a long time on a cold day, knocking at a shut door.

The Kansas state motto, "Ad astra per aspera" - To the stars through difficulties.

An inventor fails 999 times, and if he succeeds once, he's in. He treats his failures simply as practice shots.

It is not a disgrace to fail. Failing is one of the greatest arts in the world.

The biggest job we have is to teach a newly hired employee how to fail intelligently. We have to train him to experiment over and over and to keep on trying and failing until he learns what will work.

A three-year diet of rubber chicken and occasional crow.

Yesterday I was a dog. Today I'm a dog. Tomorrow I'll probably still be a dog. Sigh! There's so little hope for advancement.

If you grit your teeth and show real determination, you'll always have a chance.

The early bird gets the worm but the late bird doesn't even get the late worm.

I am not concerned with simply surviving. I am very concerned about improving. I start each day by examining yesterday's work and looking for areas where I can improve. I am always trying to draw the characters better, and trying to design each panel somewhat in the manner a painter would treat his canvas.

When they [visitors to his studio:] learn about the six-week daily-strip deadline and the 12-week Sunday-page deadline, a visitor almost never fails to remark: "Gee, you could work real hard, couldn't you, and get several months ahead and then take the time off?" Being, as I said, a slow learner, it took me until last year to realize what an odd statement that really is. You don't work all of your life to do something so you don't have to do it.

I've tried to be a better person... I've tried, and tried and tried! You know how hard I've tried! Tell me how I've tried..." "Nice try... Five cents, please!

I've always been criticized, right from the beginning! Right from the very first day I was born... They said I wasn't right for the part!

A glacier will frequently move forward one foot while retreating three feet... Which reminds me a lot of myself!

Let's just say that life has me beaten... So I give up! I admit there's no way I can win..." "What is it you want, Charlie Brown?" "How about two out of three?

Sometimes I wonder how you can stand being just a dog..." "You play with the cards you're dealt... Whatever that means.

A watched supper dish never fills!

Sidewalks always win Knees always lose!

The man who has done his best has done everything.

No matter how hard you try, You can't build a rainman.

Waiting for somebody does that. It turns minutes to hours, hours to days, and days to several lifetimes.

Everyday in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Everyday in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it has to run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter if you're the lion or a gazelle - when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.

No problem is so formidable that you can't walk away from it.

After a couple of hours of intense work, I look at the paragraph I'm struggling with and know that it will be easier to finish it tomorrow. Other writers who talk about their routines usually make the same point—three or four hours a day is about the maximum that can be expected.