Quotes About Effort

Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure.

The only failure which lacks dignity is the failure to try.

To know that one has never really tried - that is the only death.

If you're not failing, you're not trying anything.

Those who try and fail are much wiser than those who never try for fear of failure.

You don't always win your battles, but it's good to know you fought.

Many a man never fails because he never tries.

Half the things that people do not succeed in are through fear of making the attempt.

I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure: try to please everybody.

The difference between failure and success is doing a thing nearly right and doing a thing exactly right.

Failure is usually the line of least persistence.

Who would not rather flounder in the fight than not have known the glory of the fray?

There is no such thing as a pretty good omelette.

With stupidity the gods themselves struggle in vain.

Trouble is only opportunity in work clothes.

Friends are like melons. Shall I tell you why? To find one good, you must a hundred try.

You will find yourself refreshed by the presence of cheerful people. Why not make earnest effort to confer that pleasure on others?...Half the battle is gained if you never allow yourself to say anything gloomy.

Before I was a genius I was a drudge.

Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration.

Gift, like genius, I often think only means an infinite capacity for taking pains.

The first step is the hardest.

If you miss the first buttonhole, you will not succeed in buttoning up your coat.

Wisdom is harder to do than it is to know.

Optimism, unaccompanied by personal effort, is merely a state of mind, and not fruitful.