Quotes About Perseverance

What men call adventures usually consist of the stoical endurance of appalling daily misery.

For me, this is old. I probably know what is happening better than he does because I've tried over and over to wreck myself on another human, and always failed. I fail now. For it seems that my sorrow is deep in my bones and I'd have to break every single one to let it out.

Maybe this was what being in a pandemic brought forth. When everything big is out of control, you start taking charge of small things.

I was the sort of kid who spent a Sunday afternoon prying little trees out of the foundation of his parents' house. I should have given in to the inevitable truth that this was the sort of person I would become, in the end, but I kept fighting it.

Blue Juneberry, tough diamond willow.

Ever since I understood this life was to be mine, I have wanted only for it to continue in its precious routine.

Because we shared the loneliness that was one shape. Because I knew that in her old age she shared that same boat, where I had labored. She crested and sank in dark waves. Those waves were taking her onward, through night, through day, the water beating and slashing across her unknown path. She struggled to continue. She was traveling hard, and death was her light.

What I am doing now is for the future, though it may seem small, or trivial, or boring, to you.

The heavy winds couldn't blow her off course. She continued. Even when her heart clenched and her skin turned crackling cold it didn't matter, because the pure and naked part of her went on.

His worst enemy would succumb to this treatment.

Like Rockefeller, he advocated self-discipline and deferred gratification.

This was nicely illustrated by an anecdote.

Still, Tidewater pushed relentlessly ahead.

Once Washington had set his sights on independence, his vision was unblinking, and his consistency proved one of his most compelling qualities.

Despite being the target of so much public obloquy, Rockefeller seemed fearless.

He always possessed an unusual, self-protective capacity to suppress unpleasant memories and keep alive those things that fortified his resolve.

Human affairs are always checkered and vicissitudes in this life are rather to be expected than wondered at." 18

once John D. Rockefeller, Sr., set his mind to something, he brought awesome powers of concentration to bear.

Junior was making progress after his breakdown but was still weak;

if he failed to reach that level, Rockefeller would make up the difference.

Well, Grant, We've had the devil's own day, haven't we? Sherman remarked. Yes, replied Grant with a drag on his cigar. Lick 'em tomorrow though. p205

John D. Rockefeller drew strength by simplifying reality and strongly believed that excessive reflection upon unpleasant but unalterable events only weakened one's resolve in the face of enemies.

He could not immediately regain his balance.

He had to bide his time, though, because he first had to dispose of two legal challenges that dogged his footsteps throughout 1879.