Undertakings Quotes

• Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.

  Samuel Johnson

  Life, Motivational, Confidence

  Samuel Johnson (1804). “The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland: And a Criticism on Their Works”, p.500

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• The beginnings and endings of all human undertakings are untidy.

  John Galsworthy

  New Beginnings, Self Help, Humans

  John Galsworthy (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of John Galsworthy (Illustrated)”, p.4361, Delphi Classics

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• I finally figured out the only reason to be alive is to enjoy it.

  Rita Mae Brown

  Life, Eulogy, Alive

  Rita Mae Brown (1982). “Southern discomfort”, Harpercollins

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• The fact is that writing, like any creative undertaking, carries with it both pain and great joy. The pain is often inherent in the most fertile subject matter; the joy lies in transforming that subject matter and thus moving through it in a way that helps us grow while we create something of value to others.

  Judith Barrington

  Pain, Lying, Moving

  Judith Barrington (2002). “Writing the Memoir”

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• It is a precarious undertaking to say anything reliable about aims and intentions.

  Albert Einstein

  Say Anything, Statistics, Intention

  Albert Einstein (2016). “The Albert Einstein Collection: Essays in Humanism, The Theory of Relativity, and The World As I See It”, p.37, Open Road Media

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• I think the Lewis and Clark Expedition was the greatest undertaking in American History. I think landing a man on the moon pales next to it.

  Kathryn Lasky

  Moon, Men, Thinking

  "An Interview with Kathryn Lasky about The Journal of Augustus Pelletier: The Lewis and Clark Expedition". Interview with Richard F. Abrahamson, www.scholastic.com.

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• This position will not be disputed so long as it is admitted that the desire of reward is one of the strongest incentives of human conduct, or that the best security for the fidelity of mankind is to make their interest coincide with their duty. Even the love of fame, the ruling passion of the noblest minds... would on the contrary deter him from the undertaking, when he foresaw that he must quit the scene before he could accomplish the work.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Passion, Long, Mind

  "The Federalist: A Commentary on the Constitution of the United States".

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• Clearly it is not reason that has failed. What has failed-as it has always failed-is the attempt to achieve certainty, to reach an absolute, to find the course of human events to a final end. It is not reason that has promised to eliminate risk in human undertakings; it is the emotional needs of men.

  Allen Wheelis

  Men, Emotional, Risk

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• When you've got kids, it's a big undertaking. It's like doing four movies in a row.

  Scott Raab

  Kids, Four, Bigs

  Source: www.esquire.com

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• Useful undertakings which require sustained attention and vigorous precision in order to succeed often end up by being abandoned, for, in America, as elsewhere, the people move forward by sudden impulses and short-lived efforts.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Moving, America, Order

  "Democracy in America". Book by Alexis de Tocqueville. Chapter V, 1835.

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• It's very clear, under anyone's scenario, that it's a massive, extensive undertaking regardless of where you might ultimately draw the line as to when the nuisance is abated.

  Jack McConnell

  Nuisance, Lines, Might

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• Marriage is a fight to the death, before which the wedded couple ask a blessing from heaven, because it is the rashest of all undertakings to swear eternal love; the fight at once commences and victory, that is to say liberty, remains in the hands of the cleverer of the two.

  Honore de Balzac

  Couple, Fighting, Blessing

  Honore de Balzac (1925). “The Physiology of Marriage”, p.29, Library of Alexandria

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• The common willing of a common world is an eminently practical undertaking and not in the least abstract.

  Daniel Kemmis

  World, Common, Abstract

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• There is no undertaking more challenging, no responsibility more awesome, than that of being a mother.

  Gerald R. Ford

  Mother, Responsibility, Challenges

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• Above the pyramid on the great seal of the United States it says in Latin: "God has favored our undertaking." God will not favor everything that we do. It is rather our duty to divine His will.

  Lyndon B. Johnson

  Latin, Pyramids, America

  Address to a Joint Session of Congress on Voting Legislation, delivered 15 March 1965, Washington, D.C.

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• Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid. In the past, whenever I had fallen short in almost any undertaking, it was seldom because I had tried and failed. It was because I had let fear of failure stop me from trying at all.

  Arthur Gordon Webster

  Life, Past, Trying

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• Centralization at the national capital or within a business undertaking always glorifies the importance of pieces of paper This dims the sense of reality.

  David Lilienthal

  Reality, Government, Pieces

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• The board is currently undertaking what could be its most important task, ... We are confident that we're going to make a choice that is in the best interest of the company, shareholders and others.

  George J. Mitchell

  Choices, Important, Tasks

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• When great assurance accompanies a bad undertaking, such is often mistaken for confiding sincerity by the world at large.

  Juvenal

  World, Sincerity, Assurance

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• I think what i've also learned, is that doing Kickstarter and Steam Early Access before you've got something which is defined and playable is a hugely risky undertaking that can be very destructive to the final quality of the game.

  Peter Molyneux

  Thinking, Games, Quality

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• Compassion should be our animating principle when undertaking instruction with children and adults, since they are made in God's image.

  Catherine McAuley

  Children, Compassion, Adults

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• I think there is a potential civic culture in Arab countries that can lead to democratic institutions and I think Iraq is probably the best place to put that proposition to the test Well, you're going to find a disproportionate number of Jews in any sort of intellectual undertaking.

  Richard Perle

  Country, Thinking, Iraq

  "Richard Perle: The Making of a Neoconservative". "Think Tank" with Ben Wattenberg, www.pbs.org. November 14, 2002.

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• Surely to root politics out of art is a highly necessary undertaking: for the freedom of art, like that of science, depends entirely upon its objectivity and non-practical, non-partisan passion.

  Wyndham Lewis

  Art, Passion, Objectivity

  Wyndham Lewis (1929). “The Diabolical Principle and The Dithyrambic Spectator”, p.40, Ardent Media

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• Anybody who knows how to make a good movie, knows that it's a collaborative undertaking. To deny that its really dangerous.

  Claire Danes

  Good Movie, Deny, Dangerous

  "Steve Martin and Claire Danes". Interview with Jeff Otto, www.ign.com. October 19, 2005.

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• There are moments in life where the question of knowing whether one might think otherwise than one thinks and perceive otherwise than one sees is indispensable if one is to continue to observe or reflect... What is philosophy today... if it does not consist in, instead of legitimizing what we already know, undertaking to know how and how far it might be possible to think otherwise?

  Michel Foucault

  Philosophy, Thinking, Knowing

  "Discipline and Punish". Book by Michel Foucault, 1977.

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