Effort Quotes - Page 28

• We had to build a city not for businesses or automobiles, but for children and thus for people. Instead of building highways, we restricted car use. We invested in high-quality sidewalks, pedestrian streets, parks, bicycle paths, libraries; we got rid of thousands of cluttering commercial signs and planted trees. All our everyday efforts have one objective: Happiness.

  Enrique Penalosa

  Children, Cities, People

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• Man's earthly existence is but a test as to whether he will concentrate his efforts, his mind, his soul upon things which contribute to the comfort and gratification of his physical instincts and passions, or whether he will make as his life's end and purpose the acquisition of spiritual qualities

  David O. McKay

  Spiritual, Passion, Men

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• If you're not ready to make the greatest effort, don't even think about the greatest goal

  Paul Twitchell

  Thinking, Goal, Ready

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• It is certainly not a matter of indifference whether I learn something without effort or finally arrive at it myself through my system of thought. In the latter case everything has roots, in the former it is merely superficial.

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  Roots, Matter, Indifference

  "Aphorisms" by Georg C. Lichtenberg, ("Notebook F", F 154), (1776-1779).

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• One difference between those who make it and those who don't--regardless of their field of endeavor--is not the "talent" difference. Those who go over the top have a dream and the dream has them. They make the commitment and pursue that dream with dogged patience and persistence. Commitment produces consistent, enthusiastic effort that inevitably produces greater and greater rewards.

  Zig Ziglar

  Dream, Commitment, Persistence

  Zig Ziglar (1997). “Over the Top: Moving from Survival to Stability, from Stability to Success, from Success to Significance”, p.1, Thomas Nelson Inc

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• I win not because of my own efforts or my own goodness, but rather through the grace, love, and mercy of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He died so that I might win this game of life and live with Him forever.

  Zig Ziglar

  Jesus, Winning, Games

  Zig Ziglar, Dwight "Ike" Reighard (2013). “The One Year Daily Insights with Zig Ziglar”, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

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• Nothing is more inspiring than a person with seemingly mediocre talent rising against the odds to become a champion by way of hard work, effort, and perseverance toward their goals.

  Zig Ziglar

  Perseverance, Hard Work, Odds

  Zig Ziglar, Tom Ziglar (2012). “Born to Win: Find Your Success Code”, p.27, AudioInk

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• I decline the election. It has ever been my rule through life, to observe a proportion between my efforts and my objects. I have never been remarkable for a bold, active, and sanguine pursuit of advantages that are personal to myself.

  Edmund Burke

  Election, Proportion, Pursuit

  Edmund Burke (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of Edmund Burke (Illustrated)”, p.2600, Delphi Classics

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• It is no more effort for a man to be a saint than to be a sinner; it becomes a mere matter of habit.

  Jerome K. Jerome

  Men, Saint, Matter

  Jerome K. Jerome (2017). “Sketches in Lavender, Blue and Green”, p.115, The Floating Press

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• Thee will find out in time that I have a great love of professing vile sentiments, I don't know why, unless it springs from long efforts to avoid priggery.

  Bertrand Russell

  Spring, Long, Great Love

  Bertrand Russell, Nicholas Griffin (2002). “The Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell: The Private Years, 1884-1914”, p.46, Psychology Press

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• I must confess that I am deeply troubled. I fear that human beings are intent upon acting out a vast deathwish and that it lies with us now to make every effort to promote resistance to the insanity and brutality of policies which encompass the extermination of hundreds of millions of human beings.

  Bertrand Russell

  Lying, Insanity, Acting

  Bertrand Russell (1967). “The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell”

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• Perhaps the chief requirement of [the conductor] is that he be humble before the composer; that he never interpose himself between the music and the audience; that all his efforts, however strenuous or glamorous, be made in the service of the composer's meaning - the music itself, which, after all, is the whole reason for the conductor's existence.

  Leonard Bernstein

  Humble, Requirements, Reason

  "The Cambridge Companion to Conducting". Book by José Antonio Bowen (p. 16), November 20, 2003.

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• In a general way, the literature of the twentieth century is essentially psychological; and psychology consists of describing states of the soul by displaying them all on the same plane, without any discrimination of value, as though good and evil were external to them, as though the effort toward the good could be absent at any moment from the thought of any man.

  Simone Weil

  Men, Evil, Soul

  "On Science, Necessity, and the Love of God". Book by Simone Weil, Translated by R. Rees, "The responsibility of writers," p. 168, 1968.

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• I always think I'm lazy, maybe I could do better, I could make more effort and I always have the feeling that there is a glass wall that I cannot get through. But maybe when I get through, then it's over.

  Karl Lagerfeld

  Wall, Thinking, Glasses

  "Karl Lagerfeld: 'I always think I'm lazy, maybe I could do better'" by Imogen Fox, www.theguardian.com. March 25, 2014.

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• Even if I'd stayed [in the US to finish 'The Magnificent Ambersons'] I would've had to make compromises on the editing, but these would've been mine and not the fruit of confused and often semi-hysterical committees. If I had been there myself I would have found my own solutions and saved the pictures in a form which would have carried the stamp of my own effort.

  Orson Welles

  Confused, Editing, Fruit

  "This is Orson Welles". Book by Orson Welles and Peter Bogdanovich, 1992.

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• If it required some effort to go from today to tomorrow, some people would always remain in yesterday.

  Evan Esar

  Yesterday, People, Today

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• It is all very well and good for Linda Lovelace, the star of the movie, to advocate sexual freedom; but the energy she brings to her role is less awesome than discouraging. If you have to work this hard at sexual freedom, maybe it isn't worth the effort.

  Roger Ebert

  Stars, Energy, Roles

  Roger Ebert's review of "Deep Throat", www.rogerebert.com. March 6, 1973.

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• At one with the power of the American landscape, and renowned for the patient skill and timeless beauty of his work, photographer Ansel Adams has been visionary in his efforts to preserve this country's wild and scenic areas, both in film and on Earth. Drawn to the beauty of nature's monuments, he is regarded by environmentalists as a monument himself, and by photographers as a national institution. It is through his foresight and fortitude that so much of America has been saved for future Americans.

  Ansel Adams

  Country, Skills, America

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• There is, however, no advantage in reflections on the past further than may be of service to the present. For the future we must provide by maintaining what the present gives us and redoubling our efforts; it is hereditary to us to win virtue as the fruit of labour, and you must not change the habit, even though you should have a slight advantage in wealth and resources; for it is not right that what was won in want should be lost in plenty.

  Thucydides

  Reflection, Winning, Past

  Thucydides, T. E. Wick (1982). “The Peloponnesian War”, McGraw-Hill Companies

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• A magical portal opened inside my mind and conducted me into an astonishing world. [...] Before this moment I had divined but had never known with such positiveness that the world is extremely large and that suffering and toil are the companions and fellow warriors not only of Cretan, but of every man. [...] That by means of poetry all this suffering and effort could be transformed into dream; no matter how much of the ephemeral existed, poetry could immortalize it by turning it into song.

  Nikos Kazantzakis

  Dream, Song, Mean

  "Report to Greco". Book by Nikos Kazantzakis, transl. by P. A. Bien, Faber and Faber Limited, "Naxos", Ch. 11, p. 96, 1973.

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• I should have liked to get married, but over many decades I have lived essentially alone. I go to sleep when I'm tired, get up when I wake up, have my food prepared when I'm hungry. I can't bear the thought that I'd have to coincide, make an effort.

  Felix Dennis

  Sleep, Tired, Should Have

  "What I know about women". Interview with Oliver Marre, www.theguardian.com. December 3, 2006.

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• I am convinced the most unfortunate people are those who would make an art of love. It sours other effort. Of all artists, they are certainly the most wretched.

  Norman Mailer

  Love, Art, People

  Norman Mailer (1992). “Advertisements for Myself”, p.181, Harvard University Press

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• In countries where there is a mild climate, less effort is expended on the struggle with nature and man is kinder and more gentle.

  Anton Chekhov

  Country, Struggle, Men

  "Uncle Vanya". Ply by Anton Chekhov, 1897.

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• Thus the brave and aspiring life of one man lights a flame in the minds of others of like faculties and impulse; and where there is equally vigorous effort, like distinction and success will almost surely follow. Thus the chain of example is carried down through time in an endless succession of links--admiration exciting imitation, and perpetuating the true aristocracy of genius.

  Samuel Smiles

  Men, Light, Flames

  Samuel Smiles (2009). “Self-Help: With Illustrations of Character and Conduct”, p.528, The Floating Press

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• The knowledge and experience which produce wisdom can only become a man's individual possession and property by his own free action; and it is as futile to expect these without laborious, painstaking effort, as it is to hope to gather a harvest where the seed has not been sown.

  Samuel Smiles

  Wisdom, Men, Action

  Samuel Smiles (1861). “Self-help: With Illustrations of Character and Conduct”, p.32

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