Quotes About Persistence

Surely, in the light of history, it is more intelligent to hope rather than to fear, to try rather than not to try. For one thing we know beyond all doubt: Nothing has ever been achieved by the person who says, "It can't be done.

For one thing we know beyond all doubt: Nothing has ever been achieved by the person who says, "It can't be done.

Hold on tight to your dream

I am the woman who glows in the dark, I'll stay awake forever if I have to.

It's only and always the two of us who are involved, she who wants me to give her what nature and circumstances kept, I who can't give what she demands; she who gets angry at my inadequacy and out of spite wants to reduce me to nothing, as she has done with herself, I who have written for months and months to give her a form whose boundaries won't dissolve, and defeat her, and calm her, and so in turn, calm myself.

It's hard to explain why, but that regret made me suffer. It seemed to be the sign of a true interest in Lila, something much stronger than the compliments for my discipline as a constant reader. It occurred to me that if Lila had taken out just a single book a year, on that book she would have left her imprint and the teacher would have felt it the moment she returned it, which I left no mark, I embodied only the persistence with which I added volume to volume in no particular order.

My job, I thought, is to demonstrate that one can remain healthy. Demonstrate it to myself, no one else. If I am exposed to lizards, I will fight the lizards. If I am exposed to ants, I will fight the ants. If I am exposed to thieves, I will fight the thieves. If I am exposed to myself, I will fight myself.

Such persistence in memorizing fashionable jargon, wasted effort. I had been conditioned by my education, which had shaped my mind, my voice.

So? Better to give up? No, the master answers, you don't have to throw everything away: it's arduous to speak truthfully, but you do your best.

how much work I've done and what a long road I've traveled. At every step I could have given in and yet I didn't.

Really, go ahead." "No.

Finally she said something that I would never have had the courage to utter: "Look, Marcello tried in every possible way to buy me but no one is going to buy me.

Allora perché non ti rassegni? Colpa della testa che non sa calmarsi, cerca di continuo un modo per funzionare.

If you don't try, nothing ever changes.

Strictly speaking, there are no holidays for art; art pursues you everywhere, and that's just fine with the artist.

D]amit das Kind den Weg durch Intrigen auch findet, schlägt sie an jeder Ecke Wegweiser in den Boden und Erika gleich mit, wenn diese nicht üben will.

One failure is worth seven and a half successes.

I've learned that life is very tricky business: Each person needs to find what they want to do in life and not be dissuaded when people question them.

The process of writing has something infinite about it. Even though it is interrupted each night, it is one single notation.

The process of writing has something infinite about it. Even though it is interrupted each night, it is one single notation, and it seems most true when it eschews artistic devices of any sort.

You just go around getting hung up on all the least convenient things--and if the only obstacle in your way is a little extra work, then that's the wonderful gift right there.

Everything you want right now, everything you want so passionately and think you'll never get—you will get it someday." I accidentally met her eyes, and it felt like she was talking to me. "Yes, you will get it," she said, looking right at me, "but by that time, you won't want it anymore. That's how it happens.

Why were we all so bad at writing stories? When would it get better?

You cannot wait to be in the mood of prayer; you have to use the spur of your Prayer Rule to force yourself to pray," as Sergei Fudel writes in his excellent book Light in the Darkness.[xliii