Quotes About Persistence

Colonel Sanders went to 1,000 restaurants before someone bought his KFC chicken recipe.

It is wishful thinking to expect change without factoring in a few failures along the way.

If you're not getting nos you're not trying.

When the world says, "Give up," hope whispers, "Try it one more time." —Anon

The opposite of success isn't failure, it's doing nothing.

Waywardness is an ongoing exploration of what might be; it is an improvisation with the terms of social existence, when the terms have already been dictated, when there is little room to breathe...It is the untiring practice of trying to live when you were never meant to survive. It is the untiring practice of trying to live when you were never meant to survive.

An example from the monkey: The higher it climbs, the more you see of its behind.

When you encounter difficulties and contradictions, do not try to break them, but bend them with gentleness and time.

Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering you own imperfections but instantly set about remedying them - every day begin the task anew.

You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working and just so, you learn to love by loving. All those who think to learn in any other way deceive themselves.

Start by doing what's necessary then do what's possible and suddenly you are doing the impossible.

The tired ox treads with a firmer step.

Gentleness is like water—it will eventually reach its goal. Aggression is like fire—it is quick and then it is gone.

Aggression is a short-term solution for a long-term problem. Gentleness is persistent. Gentleness is therefore a sign of strength, while aggression is often a sign of weakness.

when we exert ourselves toward positive endeavors, we should not grimace, but rather have the joy of an elephant jumping into a pool of cool water on a hot, dusty day.

Metellus, who, by his exertions, had triumphed over every obstacle, over arms, deserts, seasons, and finally over Nature herself that controls all, nothing was impossible [...]

What we resist, will persist.

Man can overcome any obstacle if he knows in his heart that he must and in his mind that he shall,

But that's her problem, not mine. No, my problem is elephantine. How do you eat an elephant, sir? Bit by tiny bit.

So, I think that Marilyn, what she gave the world, and in many ways Kennedy too, was that they had dreams and they didn't allow anybody to take away their dreams.

Once you see the glimmer of an opening, shove your foot into the crack.

Maybe you've made something mediocre—there's plenty of that in any artist's cabinets—but something mediocre is better than nothing, and often the near-misses, as I call them, are the beckoning hands that bring you to perfection just around the blind corner.

you have to just go on. It's sort of like a bird flying into a plate glass window. And then you just sort of pick yourself up, shake yourself off, and check for anything broken, and go back to work.

What is important is to believe in something so strongly that you're never discouraged.