Persistence Quotes

“The devil's happy when the critics run you off.”
― Criss Jami, Venus in Arms

“There is no such thing as helplessness. It's just another word for giving up.”
― Jefferson Smith, Strange Places

“Success doesn't come to you; you go to it.”
― T. Scott McLeod

“Creativity is paradoxical. To create, a person must have knowledge but forget the knowledge, must see unexpected connections in things but not have a mental disorder, must work hard but spend time doing nothing as information incubates, must create many ideas yet most of them are useless, must look at the same thing as everyone else, yet see something different, must desire success but embrace failure, must be persistent but not stubborn, and must listen to experts but know how to disregard them."

[Twelve Things You Were Not Taught in School About Creative Thinking (The Creativity Post, December 6, 2011)]”
― Michael Michalko

“The crazy creatives are the creatives who never go completely mad. They aren't so easily disheartened by the seemingly endless amounts of scrutiny that creative individuals tend to receive because they, like insanity, are the ones who feed off of opposition and negative feedback and manage to continue along with a healthy ambition. It is the crazy that teaches us to use our gifts wisely and own all the attackers.”
― Criss Jami, Diotima, Battery, Electric Personality

“A mans life is interesting primarily when he has failed. I well know. For its a sign that he tried to surpass himself.”
― Georges Clemenceau

“It may take little time to get where you want to be, but if you pause and think for a moment, you will notice that you are no longer where you were. Do not stop—keep going.”
― Rodolfo Costa, Advice My Parents Gave Me: and Other Lessons I Learned from My Mistakes

“If the fire in your heart is strong enough, it will burn away any obstacles that come your way.”
― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

“Your hardest times often lead to the greatest moments of your life. Keep going. Tough situations build strong people in the end.”
― Roy Bennett

“When your only regret is if anyone thinks you regret anything - that is the definition of conviction.”
― Criss Jami, Diotima, Battery, Electric Personality

“One bulb at a time. There was no other way to do it. No shortcuts--simply loving the slow process of planting. Loving the work as it unfolded. Loving an achievement that grew slowly and bloomed for only three weeks each year.”
― Jaroldeen Asplund Edwards, The Daffodill Principle

“You meet dozens of people who tell you you can't do it. Surround yourself with the people who believe you will do it. Seek out and spend time with those rare people who tell you, no BS, why you haven't done it yet, what it takes to do it, and how they could help you do it. Note how this advice works whether 'it' is robbing a bank, opening a gallery, or writing a bestseller. "It" is up to you. But you can't do it alone.”
― Heather Grace Stewart, Three Spaces

“Let the man who has to make his fortune in life remember this maxim. Attacking is his only secret. Dare, and the world always yields: or, if it beat you sometimes, dare again, and it will succumb.”
― William Makepeace Thackeray, Barry Lyndon

“A river cuts through rock, not because of its power, but because of its persistence.”
― James N. Watkins

“The rewrites are a struggle right now. Sometimes I wish writing a book could just be easy for me at last. But when I think about it practically, I am glad it's a struggle. I am (as usual) attempting to write a book that's too hard for me. I'm telling a story I'm not smart enough to tell. The risk of failure is huge. But I prefer it this way. I'm forced to learn, forced to smarten myself up, forced to wrestle. And if it works, then I'll have written something that is better than I am.”
― Shannon Hale

“Really, there was only one sensible thing to do. Stay the course. Pray it through, day by day, minute by minute. The Lord had an answer and it would surely come. (p. 203)”
― Janice Hanna, Love Finds You in Poetry, Texas

“The practice of forgiveness is very much like the practice of meditation. You have to do it often and persist at it in order to be any good.”
― Katerina Stoykova Klemer

“A friend of mine, the most innocuous dreamer who ever lived, once set a forest on fire to see, as he said, if it would catch as easily as people said. The first ten times the experiment was a failure; but on the eleventh it succeeded all too well.”
― Charles Baudelaire, Paris Spleen

“A hundred failures would not matter, when one single success could change the destiny of the world.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey

“Common man's patience will bring him more happiness than common man's power.”
― Amit Kalantri, Wealth of Words

“Sometimes life requires more of you than you have to give & demands you plunge into the reinvention of yourself if you truly wanna live.”
― Curtis Tyrone Jones

“There are tomorrows on their way worth the struggles of today. Never give up.”
― Richelle E. Goodrich, Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year

“Why, Mr. Anderson?, Why, why?.

Why do you do it? Why, why get up?.


Why keep fighting?.


Do you believe you're fighting...for something?.

For more than your survival?.

Can you tell me what it is?.

Do you even know?; Is it freedom?, Or truth?.

Perhaps peace?. Could it be for love?


Illusions, Mr. Anderson.


Vagaries of perception.


Temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose.

And all of them as artificial as the Matrix itself, although... only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love.


You must be able to see it, Mr. Anderson.

You must know it by now, You can't win.

It's pointless to keep fighting.


Why, Mr. Anderson?.


Why?, Why do you persist?.




Agent Smith ( Matrix Revolutions Movie, 2003 ).”
― William Irwin, More Matrix and Philosophy: Revolutions and Reloaded Decoded

“What do you mean? What do you demand of your captain? Are you then so easily turned from your design? Did you not call this a glorious expedition? And wherefore was it glorious? Not because the way was smooth and placid as a southern sea, but because it was full of dangers and terror; because at every new incident your fortitude was to be called forth and your courage exhibited; because danger and death surrounded it, and these you were to brave and overcome. For this was it a glorious, for this was it an honourable undertaking. You were hereafter to be hailed as the benefactors of your species; your names adored as belonging to brave men who encountered death for honour and the benefit of mankind. And now, behold, with the first imagination of danger, or, if you will, the first mighty and terrific trial of your courage, you shrink away, and are content to be handed down as men who had not strength enough to endure cold and peril; and so, poor souls, they were chilly and returned to their warm firesides. Why that requires not this preparation; ye need not have come thus far, and dragged your captain to the shame of a defeat, merely to prove yourselves cowards. Oh! be men, or be more than men. Be steady to your purposes and firm as a rock. This ice is not made of such stuff as your hearts may be; it is mutable and cannot withstand you if you say that it shall not. Do not return to your families with the stigma of disgrace marked on your brows. Return as heroes who have fought and conquered, and who know not what it is to turn their backs on the foe.”
― Mary Shelley

“No age of life is inglorious. Youth has its merits, but living to a ripe old age is the true statement of value. Aging is the road that we take to discern our character. Fame and fortune can elude us, but character is immortal. We must encounter a sufficient variety of experiences including both failures and accomplishments in order to gain nobility of character.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“My priority is not about grades. I seek yearn for knowledge, skills and wisdom.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind

“My father says persistence is a polite way of being annoying.”
― Anthony Marra, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena

“Trees endure the hot sun and rainstorms by sending their roots down deeper. The adversity they face is eventually the source of great stability. The harshness of the elements surrounding them causes them to seek another source of life. They will one day come to the place that even the greatest of windstorms cannot affect their ability to produce fruit.”
― John Bevere, The Bait Of Satan: Living Free from the Deadly Trap of Offense

“Since when is failure more appealing? Never give up.”
― Richelle E. Goodrich, Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, & Grumblings for Every Day of the Year

“Inspiring qualities make some people to feel a little uneasy.”
― Oscar Auliq-Ice