quotations about effort
The reward of a work is to have produced it; the reward of effort is to have grown by it.
ANTONIN SERTILLANGES
The Intellectual Life
The phenomenon of exerting effort is something that virtually everyone experiences every day: from something as basic and mundane as getting out of bed in the morning, to more elaborate and intensive ventures, such as running a business, or completing a marathon (you may be exerting it right now as you force yourself to read this!)
GWEN BRADFORD
Achievement
No one ever drowned in sweat.
UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS
The most enviable power on earth is the power for making efforts.
E. P. DAY
attributed, Day's Collacon
Much effort, much prosperity.
EURIPIDES
The Suppliant Women
When I have tried and failed, I shall have failed.
SOPHOCLES
Antigone
I'm bred for farm work, and for such folk, the only A's you get come from effort. Strife and strain are all the world can offer, and they temper you into something unbreakable because Lord knows they'll try -- without let up -- to break you.
MARY KARR
Lit: A Memoir
Hand plow can't make furrows by itself.
AFRICAN AMERICAN PROVERB
When your efforts run in the face of conventional wisdom and accepted mastery, persistence can look like madness. If you succeed in the end, this extreme originality reformulates into a new level of mastery, sometimes even genius; if you fail in the end, you remain a madman in the eyes of others, and maybe even yourself. When you are in the midst of the journey ... there’s really no way of knowing which one you are.
HILARY AUSTEN
Artistry: A Guide to Pursuing Great Performance in Work and Life
Effort is a species of talent.
J. ALDRICH
attributed, Day's Collacon
Genius is often only the power of making continuous efforts. The line between failure and success is so fine that we scarcely know when we pass it -- so fine that we are often on the line and do not know it. How many a man has thrown up his hands at a time when a little more effort, a little more patience, would have achieved success.
ELBERT HUBBARD
Electrical Review, 1895
Go the extra mile. There are never any traffic jams on the extra mile.
BRIAN TRACY
The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success
It is only through strife, through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, we move on to better things.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
response to a toast at the Lincoln Club Dinner in New York City, February 13, 1899
I've got a theory that if you give 100% all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end.
LARRY BIRD
attributed, A Season in Words
The mode in which the inevitable comes to pass is through effort.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
"Ideals and Doubts,", Collected Legal Papers
Effort is only effort when it begins to hurt.
JOSÉ ORTEGA Y GASSET
attributed, Building a Life of Value
We must adapt our efforts to the express object which we seek to attain.
MARY WILLARD
"The True Spirit of Reform,", Autographs for Freedom
Individual commitment to a group effort - that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.
VINCE LOMBARDI
No one knows what he can do till he tries.
PUBLILIUS SYRUS
Moral Sayings
I'd like to know that I've made the effort. I want to show people the torn sleeve.
NICK HORNBY
A Long Way Down