Quotes About Perseverance

What would have become of Hercules, do you think, if there had been no lion, hydra, stag or boar – and no savage criminals to rid the world of? [33] What would he have done in the absence of such challenges? Obviously he would have just rolled over in bed and gone back to sleep. So by snoring his life away in luxury and comfort he never would have developed into the mighty Hercules.

Because I have no natural gifts, shall I on that account give up my discipline? Far be it from me! Epictetus will not be better than Socrates, but if only I am not worse, that suffices me. For I shall not be a Milo, either, and yet I do not neglect my body, nor a Croesus, and yet I do not neglect my property, nor, in a word, is there any other field in which we give up the appropriate discipline merely from despair of attaining the highest.

But if with trembling and lamentation you seek not to fall into that which you avoid, tell me how you are improving.

Approach life as your own Olympic Games—

Take example from the wrestling-masters. Has the boy fallen down? Get up, again, they say; wrestle again until you have made yourself strong. That's the sort of attitude you should have…For both ruin and salvation have their source within you.

you have the power of patience to deal with your difficulties.

Don't let the force of the impression when first it hits you knock you off your feet; just say to it, 'Hold on a moment; let me see who you are and what you represent.

How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself?

Consciousness of its weakness will keep you from tackling difficult subjects.

It is difficult circumstances that show real men.

Whatever your mission, stick by it as if it were a law and you would be committing sacrilege to betray it.

Each time an obstacle arises, remind yourself of this truth. While it may hinder some part of you, it cannot constrain your true self.

For my part, I can say, 'bring what challenge you please and I will turn it to good account: bring illness, death, poverty, slander, a judgement of death: they will all be converted to advantage by my wand of Hermes.

Every difficulty in life presents us with an opportunity to turn inward and to invoke our own submerged inner resources. The trials we endure can and should introduce us to our strengths.

Pain too is just a scary mask: look under it and you will see. The body sometimes suffers, but relief is never far behind.

A boxer derives the greatest advantage from his sparring partner – and my accuser is my sparring partner. He trains me in patience, civility and even temper. [10] I mean, a doctor who puts me in a headlock and sets a dislocated pelvis or shoulder – he benefits me, however painful the procedure. So too does a trainer when he commands me to 'lift the weight with both your hands' – and the heavier it is, the greater the benefit to me.

It's only my leg you will chain, not even God can conquer my will.' 'I will throw you into prison.' 'Correction – it is my body you will throw there.

Don't give in to second thoughts, because no one who wavers will make progress

We must endure, and toil without complaining.

I can only suppose that you weigh all those negatives against the worth of the show, and choose, in the end, to be patient and put up with it all.

Instead of meeting misfortune with groans and tears, I will call upon the faculty especially provided to deal with it.

Till o'er the wreck, emerging from the storm, Immortal Nature lifts her changeful form: Mounts from her funeral pyre on wings of flame, And soars and shines, another and the same.

If you worked hard, believed in what you did, and stayed the course, then success and recognition would follow.

The "underground railroad" should be understood not as a single entity but as an umbrella term for local groups that employed numerous methods to assist fugitives, some public and entirely legal, some flagrant violations of the law.