Endeavour Quotes - Page 4

• The power, indeed, of every individual is small, and the consequence of his endeavours imperceptible, in a general prospect of the world. Providence has given no man ability to do much, that something might be left for every man to do. The business of life is carried on by a general co-operation; in which the part of any single man can be no more distinguished, than the effect of a particular drop when the meadows are floated by a summer shower: yet every drop increases the inundation, and every hand adds to the happiness or misery of mankind.

  Samuel Johnson

  Summer, Men, Hands

  Samuel Johnson (1810). “The works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With An essay on his life and genius”, p.291

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• One man should not be afraid of improving his posessions, lest they be taken away from him, or another deterred by high taxes from starting a new business. Rather, the Prince should be ready to reward men who want to do these things and those who endeavour in any way to increase the prosperity of their city or their state.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Taken, Men, Cities

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• If we range through the whole territory of nature, and endeavour to extract from each department the rich stores of knowledge and pleasure they respectively contain, we shall not find a more refined or purer source of amusement, or a more interesting and unfailing subject for recreation, than that which the observation and examination of the structure, affinities, and habits of plants and vegetables, afford.

  Joseph Paxton

  Knowledge, Science, Vegetables

  Sir Joseph Paxton (1838). “A Practical Treatise on the Cultivation of the Dahlia”, p.2

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• It makes him contemptible to be considered fickle, frivolous, effeminate, mean-spirited, irresolute, from all of which a prince should guard himself as from a rock; and he should endeavour to show in his actions greatness, courage, gravity, and fortitude; and in his private dealings with his subjects let him show that his judgments are irrevocable, and maintain himself in such reputation that no one can hope either to deceive him or to get round him.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Art, War, Mean

  Niccolo Machiavelli (2015). “The Prince”, p.80, Xist Publishing

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• Why does man regret, even though he may endeavour to banish any such regret, that he has followed the one natural impulse, rather than the other; and why does he further feel that he ought to regret his conduct? Man in this respect differs profoundly from the lower animals.

  Charles Darwin

  Regret, Science, Animal

  Charles Darwin (2003). “On the Origin of Species”, p.531, Broadview Press

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• Set aside all involvements and let the myriad things rest. Zazen is not thinking of good, not thinking of bad. It is not conscious endeavour. It is not introspection. Do not desire to become a buddha; let sitting or lying down drop away. Be moderate in eating and drinking. Be mindful of the passing of time, and engage yourself in zazen as though you are saving your head from fire.

  Dogen

  Lying, Drinking, Thinking

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• [My Book] will endeavour to establish the principle[s] of reasoning in ... [geology]; and all my geology will come in as illustration of my views of those principles, and as evidence strengthening the system necessarily arising out of the admission of such principles, which... are neither more nor less than that no causes whatever have from the earliest time to which we can look back, to the present, ever acted, but those now acting; and that they never acted with different degrees of energy from that which they now exert.

  Charles Lyell

  Book, Science, Views

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• The unconscious - that is to say, the 'repressed' - offers no resistance whatever to the efforts of the treatment. Indeed, it itself has no other endeavour than to break through the pressure weighing down on it and force its way either to consciousness or to a discharge through some real action.

  Sigmund Freud

  Real, Break Through, Effort

  Sigmund Freud (2015). “Beyond the Pleasure Principle”, p.13, Courier Corporation

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• Programming is legitimate and necessary academic endeavour.

  Donald Knuth

  Academic, Programming

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• The history of science, like the history of all human ideas, is a history of irresponsible dreams, of obstinacy, and of error. But science is one of the very few human activities-perhaps the only one-in which errors are systematically criticized and fairly often, in time, corrected. This is why we can say that, in science, we often learn from our mistakes, and why we can speak clearly and sensibly about making progress there. In most other fields of human endeavour there is change, but rarely progress ... And in most fields we do not even know how to evaluate change.

  Karl Popper

  Dream, Mistake, Learning

  1960 Conjectures and Refutations (published1963), ch.10.

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• First and foremost an artist should pay homage to grandness, honour and bow to it, and not try to extinguish the fierce flames of such, in an attempt to have his own feeble light shine brighter. When one isn't able to acknowledge greatness, I would really want to know how he endeavours to make me experience it.

  Felix Mendelssohn

  Artist, Greatness, Light

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• The entire function of man is to survive. The outermost limit of endeavour is creative work. Anything less is too close to simple survival until death happens along. So I am engaged in
  striving to maintain equilibrium sufficient to at least realize survival in a way to astound the gods.

  L. Ron Hubbard

  Simple, Men, Creative

  A letter to his wife Polly in October 1938. "Bare-faced Messiah: The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard" by Russell Miller, p. 81, 1987.

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• The facts which have caused us to believe in the dominance of the pleasure principle in mental life also find expression in the hypothesis that the mental apparatus endeavours to keep the quantity of excitation present in it as low as possible or at least to keep it constant.

  Sigmund Freud

  Believe, Expression, Principles

  Sigmund Freud (2015). “Beyond the Pleasure Principle”, p.2, Courier Corporation

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• Real meaningful endeavours, the biggies in human existence, often require the sacrifice of others.

  Andrew Schneider

  Meaningful, Real, Sacrifice

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• If children had teachers for judgment and eloquence just as they have for languages, if their memory was exercised less than their energy or their natural genius, if instead of deadening their vivacity of mind we tried to elevate the free scope and impulse of their souls, what might not result from a fine disposition? As it is, we forget that courage, or love of truth and glory are the virtues that matter most in youth; and our one endeavour is to subdue our children's spirits, in order to teach them that dependence and suppleness are the first laws of success in life.

  Luc de Clapiers

  Teacher, Children, Memories

  "Reflections and Maxims". Book by Luc de Clapiers, translated by E. Lee, pp. 185-186, 1903.

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• I was by birth a gentleman, living neither in any considerable height, nor yet in obscurity. I have been called to several employments in the nation - to serve in parliaments, - and ( because I would not be over tedious ) I did endeavour to discharge the duty of an honest man in those services, to God, and his people's interest, and of the commonwealth; having, when time was, a competent acceptation in the hearts of men, and some evidence thereof.

  Oliver Cromwell

  Heart, Men, People

  Oliver Cromwell (1901). “Speeches, 1644-1658”

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• The epoch of doubt and transition during which the Greeks passed from the dim fancies of mythology to the fierce light of science was the age of Pericles, and the endeavour to substitute certain truth for the prescriptions of impaired authorities, which was then beginning to absorb the energies of the Greek intellect, is the grandest movement in the profane annals of mankind, for to it we owe, even after the immeasurable progress accomplished by Christianity, much of our philosophy and far the better part of the political knowledge we possess.

  Lord Acton

  Philosophy, Light, Political

  Lord Acton (2016). “The History of Freedom: Great Event”, p.7, VM eBooks

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• The student who would build his knowledge on solid foundations, and proceed by just degrees to the pinnacles of truth, is directed by the great philosopher of France to begin by doubting of his own existence. In like manner, whoever would complete any arduous and intricate enterprise, should, as soon as his imagination can cool after the first blaze of hope, place before his own eyes every possible embarrassment that may retard or defeat him. He should first question the probability of success, and then endeavour to remove the objections that he has raised.

  Samuel Johnson

  Eye, Imagination, Doubt

  Samuel Johnson (1825). “The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752”, p.77

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• It is, of course, clear that a country with a large foreign population must endeavour, through its schools, to assimilate the children of immigrants. It is, however, unfortunate that a large part of this process should be effected by means of a somewhat blatant nationalism.

  Bertrand Russell

  Country, Children, Mean

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “In Praise of Idleness and Other Essays”, p.135, Psychology Press

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• It is always my endeavour however in making a picture that it should be without a companion in the world. At least such should be a painters ambition.

  John Constable

  Ambition, World, Should

  John Constable (1966). “John Constable's Correspondence”

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• Desire is everything, not talent. It's the degree of one's desire that will dictate the extent of one's success, in any endeavour.

  Ken Danby

  Desire, Degrees, Talent

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• With useless endeavour Forever, forever, Is Sisyphus rolling His stone up the mountain!

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Forever, Mountain, Useless

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Masque Of Pandora”

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• All things that God would have us do are hard for us to do--remember that--and hence, he oftener commands us than endeavours to persuade.

  Herman Melville

  God, Remember, Command

  Herman Melville (1952). “Moby Dick: Or, The Whale”

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• Criticism is the endeavour to find, to know, to love, to recommend, not only the best, but all the good, that has been known and thought and written in the world.

  George Saintsbury

  Criticism, World, Knows

  George Saintsbury, Foreword By Mohit K. Ray (2004). “History Of English Criticism”, p.535, Atlantic Publishers & Dist

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• Men who profess a state of neutrality in times of public danger, desert the common interest of their fellow subjects; and act with independence to that constitution into which they are incorporated. The safety of the whole requires our joint endeavours. When this is at stake, the indifferent are not properly a part of the community; or rather are like dead limbs, which are an encumbrance to the body, instead of being of use to it.

  Joseph Addison

  Men, Safety, Community

  Joseph Addison (1868). “The Works of Joseph Addison”, p.194

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