Quotes About Effort

Can't you function unless you're losing?

Moon felt as if the conversation was a weight he had to drag along on the end of a rope.

Like friendship, hatred needed more than physical intimacy; it wanted creativity and hard work to sustain itself.

Before the cook arrived when she stood in a space no wider than a bench is long, back behind and to the left of the milk cans. Working dough. Working, working dough. Nothing better than that to start the day's serious work of beating back the past.

She spent her days, her tendril, sap-green days, walking up and down, up and down, her head jerking to the beat of a drummer so distant only she could hear. Elbows bent, hands on shoulders, she flailed her arms like a bird in an eternal, grotesquely futile effort to fly.

Take no heed of good looks , but rather of callused hand. Old Maori saying: Choose a husband for his work, not his appearance.

Pish-posh, just doing my lot for the future of the world, you know. I'll sign off by saying, you know where to find me...

Why did it take me so long to figure out that my special talent was trying?

If life were easy, it wouldn't be difficult.

It's the most talented, not the least talented, who are continually trying to improve their dialogue skills. As is often the case, the rich get richer.

practice doesn't make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect.

Sometimes your best isn't good enough

We really did try hard to overcome her resentment and get her to like us—but it was no use. (Okay, maybe we didn't try all that hard.) And by now we'd given up the attempt. What was it Lottie was always saying? Call out into the forest, and the same sound comes echoing back. Or anyway, she had a proverb along those lines. We were part of a pissed-off forest, anyway, or at least Mia and I were.

Be like a duck. Calm on the surface, but always paddling like the dickens underneath." MICHAEL CAINE

But true friends make an effort to stick together, even as it gets harder, even as they move in opposite directions.

Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard

He said that if you climb into the ring hell-bent on knocking the other chap into the middle of next week, chances are you're going to come unstuck. But if, on the other hand, you concentrate on winning the fight, simply focus on doing your job, well, you might just knock him into the middle of next week anyway.

Inspiration is one thing and you can't control it, but hard work is what keeps the ship moving. Good luck means, work hard. Keep up the good work.

Do the fucking work. Don't bitch about it along the way. Shortcuts are for suckers. That's my motto: "Shortcuts are for suckers." Let me take the hard way. So many more benefits from the hard way. So many more benefits and education from the hard way. I want what's earned, not given.

i worked hard in order to get lucky

In the road to greatness, practice is always essential.

The man who has no problems is out of the game.

There is an asymmetry in the work needed to generate a good question versus the work needed to absorb an answer.

newfound freedom in the Kindles and Fires. As I read a book I can (with some trouble) highlight a passage I would like to remember. I can extract those highlights (with some effort today) and reread my selection of the most important or memorable parts.