Difference between revisions of "Perseverance"

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Perseverance is the quality of continuing in a course of action without regard to discouragement, opposition or previous failure.

Bible and Christian Quotes

The waters wear the stones. Job 14:19 (KJV)

Quotes

• Water continually dropping will wear hard rocks hollow.
  • Plutarch, Of the Training of Children.

• We should never despair, our Situation before has been unpromising and has changed for the better, so I trust, it will again. If new difficulties arise, we must only put forth New Exertions and proportion our Efforts to the exigency of the times.
  • George Washington, letter to Major General Philip Schuyler, July 15, 1777. — The Writings of George Washington, ed. John C. Fitzpatrick, vol. 8, p. 408 (1933). This letter concerns the loss of Fort Ticonderoga.

• Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another.
  • Walter Elliott, in The Spiritual Life : Doctrine and Practice of Christian Perfection (1918).

• What destiny sends, bear! Whoever perseveres will be crowned.
  • Johann Gottfried Herder, as quoted in Beautiful Thoughts from German and Spanish Authors (1868) by C.T. Ramage (Craufurd Tait Ramage).

• The soft droppes of rain perce the hard marble; many strokes overthrow the tallest oaks.
  • John Lyly, Euphues, p. 81. Arber's Reprint (1579).

• So Satan, whom repulse upon repulse
  Met ever, and to shameful silence brought,
  Yet gives not o'er, though desperate of success.
  • John Milton, Paradise Regained (1671), Book IV, line 21.

• Gutta cavat lapidem non vi, sed sæpe cadendo.
  • The drop hollows out the stone not by strength, but by constant falling.
  • Quoted in the Menagiana, 1713. Probably first to use it was Richard, Monk of S. Victor; Paris.

• Attempt the end and never stand to doubt;
  Nothing's so hard, but search will find it out.
  • Robert Herrick, Seeke and Finde.

• When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
  When the road you're trudging seems all up hill,
  … When care is pressing you down a bit,
  Rest, if you must—but don't you quit.
  … Often the goal is nearer than
  It seems to a faint and faltering man,
  Often the struggler has given up
  When he might have captured the victor's cup.
  • Author unknown, "Don't Quit". Reported in Hazel Felleman, The Best Loved Poems of the American People (1936, reprinted 1957), p. 113–14.

• Diamonds are only chunks of coal,
  That stuck to their jobs, you see.
  • Minnie Richard Smith, "Stick to Your Job," lines 1–2. Christian F. Kleinknecht, Poor Richard's Anthology of Thoughts on Success (1947), p. 44.

• By perseverance the snail reached the ark.
  • Proverb, published by Charles Spurgeon in The Salt-cellars : Being a Collection of Proverbs, Together with Homely Notes Thereon (1889), p. 89.

• Victory belongs to the most persevering.
  • Napoleon I of France, as quoted in Treasury of Thought: Forming an Encyclopædia of Quotation from Ancient and Modern Authors (1894) by Maturin Murray Ballou.

• I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.
  • Christopher Reeve, in Still Me (1999), p. 267.

• Many strokes, though with a little axe,
  Hew down and fell the hardest-timber'd oak.
  • William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part III (c. 1591), Act II, scene 1, line 54.

• Invariably will you find perseverance exemplified as the radical principle in every truly great character. It facilitates, perfects, and consolidates the execution of the plan conceived, and renders profitable its results when attained. By continuing to advance steadily in the same way, light constantly increases, obstacles disappear, efficient habits are confirmed, experience is acquired, the use of the best means is reduced to easy action, and success becomes more sure.
  • Elias Lyman Magoon, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 450.

• We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
  • John F. Kennedy, Address at Rice University on the Nation's Space Effort, Houston, Texas (12 September 1962).

See Also

• Forgiveness

References