Quotes About Effort

It is mostly will. Will and work.

I have done my best," he says. "Let it be remembered I tried.

Odysseus looks at the young man's implacable face. "I have done my best," he says. "Let it be remembered I tried." I remember.

Let me say what sorcery is not: it is not divine power, which comes with a thought and a blink. It must be made and worked, planned and searched out, dug up, dried, chopped and ground, cooked, spoken over, and sung. Even after all that, it can fail, as gods do not. If my herbs are not fresh enough, if my attention falters, if my will is weak, the draughts go stale and rancid in my hands.

I lay on the ground after, breathing with effort. I would be left in peace. Peace. I would have laughed if I were not so ill.

A moment passed, and I looked at her stained hands on the table before me. "And? Are you going to tell me? How goes your witchery?" She smiled her inward smile. "You were right. It is mostly will. Will and work.

I watched her dance, arms curving like wings, her strong young legs in love with their own motion. This was how mortals found fame, I thought. Through practice and diligence, tending their skills like gardens until they glowed beneath the sun.

Así es como los mortales obtienen fama", pensé; mediante la práctica y la diligencia, cuidando sus talentos como si fueran jardines, con la esperanza de verlos resplandecer bajo el sol.

I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it.

The score never interested me, only the game.

Trying your best and feeling good about yourself is more important than winning prizes.

How much more interesting it is, with its frank display of the labour needed to attain the perfection of the finished piece.

when he came off the beach. She would not see him again. She fought like a crazed thing. She fought to live, she fought to come back. She has always wanted to tell him this, in some way. She tried. She would like to say to him, Theo, I tried. I fought because I didn't see how I could leave you. But I lost.

The foolish undertake a trifling act, and soon desist, discouraged; wise men engage in mighty works, and persevere.

Two sources of success are known: wisdom and effort; make them both thine own, if thou wouldst haply rise.

It is the quality of our work which will please God and not the quantity.

You may never know what results come of your action, but if you do nothing there will be no result.

Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.

working the salt-roughened lines. They had

The biggest mistake people make in life is not trying to make a living at doing what they most enjoy.

Those three things - autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward - are, most people will agree, the three qualities that work has to have if it is to be satisfying.

Once a musician has enough ability to get into a top music school, the thing that distinguishes one performer from another is how hard he or she works. That's it. And what's more, the people at the very top don't work just harder or even much harder than everyone else. They work much, much harder.

Hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning. Once it does, it becomes the kind of thing that makes you grab your wife around the waist and dance a jig. (150)

I want to convince you that these kinds of personal explanations of success don't work. People don't rise from nothing....It is only by asking where they are from that we can unravel the logic behind who succeeds and who doesn't.