quotations about effort
Do not attempt to accomplish greater results by a greater effort of your little understanding, but by a greater understanding of your little effort.
WALTER RUSSELL
THINK: IBM Lecture Series
God doesn't require us to succeed; he only requires us to try.
MOTHER TERESA
Rolling Stone, Dec. 1992
If it required some effort to go from today to tomorrow, some people would always remain in yesterday.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
On the wonder wheel I let my thunder peel
I made an effort to get just what I deserve
BECK
"Thunder Peel", Stereopathetic Soulmanure
If there is effort, there is always accomplishment.
JIGORO KANO
attributed, Black Belt: Judo Skills and Techniques
Earnest effort leads to success.
AMERICAN PROVERB
Beautiful objects are wrought by study through effort, but ugly things are reaped automatically without toil.
DEMOCRITUS
attributed, Ancilla to the Pre-Socratic Philosophers
By labor, fire is got out of a stone.
DUTCH PROVERB
Despite the success cult, men are most deeply moved not by the reaching of the goal but by the grandness of effort involved in getting there--or failing to get there.
MAX LERNER
"Man's Belief in Himself,", The Unfinished Country
To rank the effort above the prize may be called love.
CONFUCIUS
Analects
What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Johnsonian Miscellanies
Walls don't fall without effort.
NEAL SHUSTERMAN
Bruiser
To despise all effort is the greatest effort of all.
JOHN FOWLES
The Magus
Elbow grease is the best polish.
ENGLISH PROVERB
Inscribe all human effort with one word,
Artistry’s haunting curse, the Incomplete!
ROBERT BROWNING
The Ring and the Book
In this world, the only easy path is the course of least resistance. This is the path always taken by a stream of water as it seeks lower and lower ground. It will never go over an obstacle, and even when it has to go around one, water will always find the easiest way around, the way that requires as little work as possible. This, you have noticed, is what makes rivers crooked, and it makes men and women crooked too. The easy path never goes anywhere but downward, and spiritually, that is not the direction we want to go. Worthwhile destinations always take extra effort.
GARY HENRY
Reaching Forward
The struggle alone pleases us, not the victory.
PASCAL
Pensées
We must put effort and energy into anything we wish to change.
ERIN MORGENSTERN
The Night Circus
Determination, effort, and practice are rewarded with success.
MARY LYDON SIMONSEN
The Perfect Bride for Mr. Darcy
It is with many enterprises as with striking fire; we do not meet with success except by reiterated efforts, and often at the instant when we despaired of success.
MADAME DE MAINTENON
attributed, Treasury of Thought