Quotes About Effort

It's not getting it right the first time--it's learning to do it right and then not getting lazy.

him. "This isn't the only item I questioned," he said. "I want to taste the others, too." "Try this first," she said, making no effort to conceal her certainty. "Taste it and weep. I'm going to step back a little so you'll have room to come crawling to me." Yeah, right. She'd served fish and chips. How good could

potential is meaningless until you do something worthwhile. The world is filled with sad people who had potential.

So it can be done, if you're willing to work at it. There's no magic, there's just believing.

you did what needed doing, regardless of how you felt, the day generally went better.

Sisyphus, I. I cling to my rock, you don't have to chain me. Stand back! I roll it up—up, up. And … down we go. I knew that would happen. See, I'm on my feet again. See, I'm starting to roll it up again. Don't try to talk me out of it. Nothing, nothing could tear me away from this rock.

Thank the Lord you have a man as hardworking as Stijn. Work is love made plain, whether man's or woman's work, and you're a fool if you don't recognize it.

Page 357 - if the mountain was smooth, you couldn't climb it.

No, a home is not where your heart is, it's where your effort is. It's where you cook and eat and sleep and take pains to decorate. It's where your memories are made and kept. It's the photos on the mantel, the artwork on the walls, the blankets that you snuggle under, the trees and flowers that you plant and care for.

The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing. —Marcus Aurelius

Luck, Nana made a tsking sound. That kind of thinking is naive. A monumental love and a great marriage don't simply happen, like winning the lottery. You have to build it and nurture it, and quite often, it's hard work.

I remember everything about it—with an effort. I see it all, as divers see what is going on above them, through a medium, dense, rippling, but transparent.

Growing up in an old city, you learn history's one true lesson: that history fades. Nothing sticks together for very long without immense effort. His own strong house is in a constant process of disintegration. He calls workmen to come repair the roof, paint the porches, replace sills; but even this work has no permanence, it will have to be done again in four or five years. Is this noble activity for a man? Patching, gluing, temporizing, begging for time?

One of the rarest things that a man ever does, is to do the best he can.

The wicked often work harder to go to hell than the righteous do to enter heaven.

One of rarest things that a man ever does is to do the best he can.

While Martha's skins fell off her tomatoes like a silk slip off a supermodel, our skins got caught in the deep folds and stuck stubbornly. It was like trying to peel leather pants off of a sweaty, hairy, fat guy.

One thing I've noticed about getting older, it takes twice as much work to get half the results one formerly achieved by falling out of bed.

There will be nothing learned from any challenge in which we don't try our hardest.

The road to success is not easy or else everyone would be the greatest at what they do—we need to be psychologically prepared to face the unavoidable challenges along our way, and when it comes down to it, the only way to learn how to swim is by getting in the water.

Danny's mom can help him internalize a process-first approach by making her everyday feedback respond to effort over results. She should praise good concentration, a good day's work, a lesson learned.

It is rarely a mysterious technique that drives us to the top, but rather a profound mastery of what may well be a basic skill set.

The fact of the matter is that there will be nothing learned from any challenge in which we don't try our hardest. Growth comes at the point of resistance. We learn by pushing ourselves and finding what really lies at the outer reaches of our abilities. *

there are clear distinctions between what it takes to be decent, what it takes to be good, what it takes to be great, and what it takes to be among the best. If your goal is to be mediocre, then you have a considerable margin for error. You can get depressed when fired and mope around waiting for someone to call with a new job offer. If you hurt your toe, you can take six weeks watching television and eating potato chips.