This continuation page contains additional source-backed quotations not shown in the initial 70-quotation overview. Return to the topic guide and browse collection.
“Achievement, of whatever kind, is the crown of effort, the diadem of thought.”
Allen presents achievement as the visible result of sustained effort guided by deliberate thought.
As a Man Thinketh, chapter “The Thought-Factor in Achievement.”
“Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves.”
Changing conditions without changing the habits that produce them may leave the underlying problem intact.
As a Man Thinketh, “Effect of Thought on Circumstances.”
“Man is the keeper of his heart; the watcher of his mind; the solitary sentinel of his citadel of life.”
Self-command is pictured as watchfulness: repeated attention to thought matters because neglected patterns can gradually direct conduct without deliberate choice.
Out from the Heart; Allen uses the sentinel image while describing responsibility for guarding and ordering one’s thought.
“Where there are wrong conditions of mind there is bondage and unrest; where there are right conditions of mind there is freedom and peace.”
Allen uses a sharp contrast between mental unrest and peace to argue that repeated inner conditions shape how freedom or bondage is experienced within his conduct-of-life philosophy.
Out from the Heart, “Mental Conditions and Their Effects,” represented New York R. F. Fenno & Company edition, Project Gutenberg #74178. The sentence introduces Allen’s table of harmful and beneficial mental conditions; its moral-philosophical categories are preserved as historical argument rather than modern psychological diagnosis.
“Dispersion is weakness; concentration is power.”
The contrast argues that scattered attention weakens useful effort while concentrated attention increases the force available for a chosen task.
The Mastery of Destiny, opening of “The Power of Purpose”; Wikisource 1909 text. The sentence is Allen’s own framing, not an attributed example.
“Holiness alone is undying peace.”
Allen contrasts lasting peace with temporary comfort or outward victory, then immediately connects the durable state he describes with self-control and an increasing orientation toward wisdom.
The Way of Peace, “The Realization of Perfect Peace,” Project Gutenberg #10740. The sentence follows Allen’s contrast between temporary peace from comfort or worldly victory and what he calls the enduring “Peace of Heaven”; the theological framework is retained rather than recast as clinical advice.
“As you succeed in overcoming self you will begin to see things in their right relations.”
For Allen, clearer perception follows disciplined work on one’s own impulses and biases; self-mastery changes not only conduct but the proportions in which problems are seen.
The Way of Peace; Allen links self-mastery with clearer perception and a less distorted relationship to circumstances and other people.
“Of your own accord you cling to your unrest; of your own accord you can come to abiding peace.”
Within Allen’s spiritual framework, the line emphasizes personal participation in habits of unrest and in the disciplined change he believes can lead toward a more settled inward life.
The Way of Peace, “The Realization of Perfect Peace,” Project Gutenberg #10740. Allen places this sentence in a religious exhortation about surrendering selfish desires and entering what he calls an inward resting-place; it is period spiritual teaching, not a claim that distress is always voluntarily chosen.
“Only the Peace of Heaven endures through all trial, and only the selfless heart can know the Peace of Heaven.”
The peace Allen values is tested by adversity: he associates durability under trial with a heart less dominated by self-centered demand and reactive desire.
The Way of Peace; Allen contrasts temporary comfort with a spiritual peace that he says remains stable through trial.
“To be in the world and yet not of the world is the highest perfection, the most blessed peace, is to achieve the greatest victory.”
Allen defines peace as freedom from being inwardly ruled by surrounding pressures, presenting self-command and spiritual detachment as a deeper victory than external conquest.
The Way of Peace; Allen contrasts inward spiritual independence with being carried along by the impulses and conflicts of the surrounding world.
“Angry people are not always wise.”
Strong emotion can narrow judgment, so being certain while angry is not the same as being correct.
Pride and Prejudice; the line is preserved in the novel’s dialogue about anger, judgment, and the limits of certainty while emotions are high.
“I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.”
The sentence reverses the usual praise of work by making passive observation the narrator’s preferred relationship to labor, creating a durable joke about procrastination.
Three Men in a Boat, Chapter XV; the narrator defends himself while arguing about how the rowing work should be divided.
“To accumulate work has almost become a passion with me: my study is so full of it now, that there is hardly an inch of room for any more.”
Unfinished work is treated like a prized collection, extending the joke by converting avoidance into careful accumulation rather than admitting that tasks have simply not been completed.
Three Men in a Boat, Chapter XV; this follows the narrator’s claim that work fascinates him because he can look at it for hours.
“If he trespass against thee seven times in a day ... thou shalt forgive him.”
Repeated offence makes forgiveness harder, which is exactly the point of the passage: the moral demand is not limited to the first easy opportunity to forgive.
Luke 17:4 in the King James Version; the middle repetition is shortened with an ellipsis while preserving the verse’s instruction.
“Intelligence is the key to freedom in act.”
Effective freedom depends on understanding conditions well enough to form workable plans and act through real constraints, rather than merely asserting an unconstrained will.
Human Nature and Conduct (1922), Part Four, Section III, “What is Freedom?”, printed page 304, Project Gutenberg #41386. Dewey states “Intelligence is the key to freedom in act” while arguing that effective action depends on consulting conditions and forming plans that enlist their cooperation; the following page stresses study, foresight and adaptation. This is historical philosophical / social-psychological argument rather than current neuroscientific or experimentally settled behavioral evidence.
“Character is the interpenetration of habits.”
Dewey describes character as the interaction of repeated habits rather than a collection of isolated acts, emphasizing how established ways of acting continually reinforce or modify one another.
Human Nature and Conduct (1922), Part One, Section II, “Habits and Will,” printed page 38, Project Gutenberg #41386. Dewey says character would not exist if habits operated in insulated compartments; “Character is the interpenetration of habits” summarizes his account of habits continuously modifying and reinforcing one another. This is part of Dewey’s historical philosophical / early social-psychological framework, not a modern clinical definition of personality.
“The mind is its own place.”
The statement emphasizes how mental framing can alter the experience of circumstances, for good or ill.
Paradise Lost (1667), Book I, line 254; retained legacy short extract from the fuller Satan sentence beginning ‘The mind is its own place’ and continuing into line 255. It is the same underlying passage as the longer catalog record, not a separate fifth passage.
“the beauty of Holiness must be in labour as well as in rest.”
Ruskin places moral worth inside chosen labour rather than reserving holiness for worship or repose, reflecting the explicitly Christian framework of this lecture.
Lectures on Art, Lecture III, Project Gutenberg #19164. “Holiness” and the surrounding six-days/seventh-day contrast are explicitly religious.
“life without industry is guilt, and industry without art is brutality”
The deliberately severe formulation joins productive effort with art, arguing that work without humane or creative form is as incomplete as life without useful industry.
Lectures on Art, Lecture III, Project Gutenberg #19164. The sentence is Ruskin’s Victorian moral rhetoric and is not treated as a modern workplace rule.
“the first morality of a painter, as of everybody else, is to know his business”
Ruskin connects artistic integrity with technical competence: good intentions do not excuse neglect of the craft a maker has undertaken to practise.
Lectures on Art, Lecture III, Project Gutenberg #19164. Ruskin makes a normative Victorian claim about workmanship and morality; this collection does not universalize it beyond that context.
“I do not care how slowly you do it, or with how many alterations, junctions, or re-touchings; the one thing I ask of you is, that the line shall be right”
Accuracy is prioritized over speed and first-pass perfection, making revision and careful measurement legitimate parts of learning a creative skill.
Lectures on Art, Lecture VI, Project Gutenberg #19164. Ruskin is giving drawing instruction and immediately specifies measurement as the standard of correctness.
“work is only done well when it is done with a will”
Ruskin links quality with willing engagement: merely being compelled to perform a task is not, in his argument, enough to produce work done with judgment and commitment.
The Crown of Wild Olive, lecture on Work; Project Gutenberg #26716. The sentence occurs in a discussion of how hard work should be organized and chosen; its period labor assumptions remain contextualized.
“Patience is the finest and worthiest part of fortitude,—and the rarest, too.”
Ruskin separates patience from mere persistence: fortitude is not only continuing to act, but also bearing delay, frustration and incomplete results without losing steadiness.
The Ethics of the Dust, Lecture IV, Project Gutenberg #4701. Ruskin immediately contrasts many persevering people with the rarer patient person and later insists that genuine patience is not necessarily passive or idle.
“Work is love made visible.”
Work gains meaning when care is expressed through attention, craft, and service, making effort a visible form of commitment rather than mere obligation.
The Prophet, “On Work,” Project Gutenberg #58585. Almustafa answers a ploughman’s request to speak of work; after linking work, knowledge and love, he says “Work is love made visible” and develops the statement through craft, bread, wine and song imagery. This remains framed poetic-spiritual discourse, not an empirical workplace or productivity rule.
“You work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth.”
Work is presented as participation in life rather than only a transaction for wages or status.
The Prophet, “On Work.”
“When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music.”
Work is imagined as a way of giving form to passing time, connecting effort with participation and expression.
The Prophet, “On Work.”
“Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof.”
Starting matters, but finishing reveals whether effort was sustained through the middle of the work.
Ecclesiastes 7:8 in the King James Version; the verse continues by praising patience over pride.
“A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.”
Tone can change the direction of conflict: a measured response may reduce escalation while harsh speech can intensify it.
Proverbs 15:1 in the King James Version.
“The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness.”
Steady planning and effort are contrasted with haste, making diligence a long-term rather than impulsive strategy.
Proverbs 21:5 in the King James Version; the first clause is quoted here.
“Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”
Guarding inner life is presented as practical because attention and motives influence conduct downstream.
Proverbs 4:23 in the King James Version.
“Gravity is the root of lightness; stillness, the ruler of movement.”
Movement is most stable when it has a quiet center; the aphorism makes composure a governing condition rather than the opposite of effective action.
Tao Teh King, chapter 26, James Legge translation; the chapter applies this relation between gravity and stillness to the conduct of a ruler.
“Who is content needs fear no shame. Who knows to stop incurs no blame.”
Knowing what is enough protects dignity from endless comparison and acquisition; the ability to stop becomes part of self-respect rather than evidence of insufficient ambition.
Tao Teh King, chapter 44, James Legge translation; these compact poetic lines follow a contrast among fame, life, and wealth.
“I cannot ever endure to write anything to you unless with mind at ease and untroubled and free.”
Marcus links intimate correspondence with mental composure: he wants to write to Fronto from an unhurried and settled state rather than forcing a personal letter while distracted or troubled.
Project Gutenberg #2680, correspondence appendix, reference iii. 21. Marcus explains why he had not written earlier while discussing Fronto’s health. This is a personal letter-writing preference in context, not a general productivity prescription.
“The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.”
Retaliation is rejected when it would reproduce the very behavior one condemns.
Meditations 6.6; wording varies by translation.
“Thou must be like a promontory of the sea, against which though the waves beat continually, yet it stands.”
The image recommends steadiness under repeated pressure: external disturbance can arrive continuously without requiring inner collapse.
Meditations, Book IV, section XL, Meric Casaubon translation represented by Project Gutenberg #2680. The promontory image recommends steadiness under repeated disturbance. The frozen catalog wording shortens the represented witness after “yet it”: Gutenberg reads “yet it both itself stands, and about it are those swelling waves stilled and quieted.” This remains translation-mediated Roman Stoic moral philosophy, not a modern clinical resilience finding.
“Very little indeed is necessary for living a happy life.”
The line challenges the assumption that a good life requires constant accumulation or ideal circumstances.
Meditations, Book VII, in George Long’s translation.
“Therefore the mind which is free from passions is a citadel.”
A disciplined mind is compared with a fortress because its judgments provide a place of refuge that external events cannot directly occupy.
Meditations, Book VIII, section 48, George Long translation.
“Mildness and gentleness are more manly than anger and discontent.”
Strength is located in self-command and humane restraint rather than aggression, making gentleness compatible with courage.
Meditations, Book XI; George Long translation, in a reflection on responding to wrongdoing without anger.
“The art of life is more like the wrestler’s art than the dancer’s.”
Life requires readiness for unexpected pressure, closer to maintaining balance in a contest than performing a fully choreographed sequence.
Meditations, Book VII, section 61, George Long translation; the full sentence emphasizes readiness for sudden and unexpected onsets.
“Say nothing more to thyself than what the first appearances report.”
The instruction separates observation from added interpretation, helping prevent an initial event from becoming a larger story of injury or fear.
Meditations, Book VIII, section 49, George Long translation.
“It is in thy power whenever thou shalt choose to retire into thyself.”
A person can create an inward pause even when external conditions are noisy, using reflection to restore order before returning to action.
Meditations, Book IV, in George Long’s translation; this is the central clause of the retreat passage.
“Practise thyself even in the things which thou despairest of accomplishing.”
Practice is offered as an answer to discouragement: inability today does not establish permanent inability when the skill itself can be trained.
Meditations, Book XII, section 6, George Long translation.
“Be cheerful also, and seek not external help nor the tranquillity which others give.”
Marcus places steadiness inside the governing mind rather than in reassurance supplied by other people, emphasizing an internal source of composure while still writing within a larger Stoic ethic of social duty.
Meditations, Book III, section 5, George Long translation; Project Gutenberg #6920/#15877. The sentence immediately precedes “A man then must stand erect, not be kept erect by others,” making the inward-reliance context explicit.
“Take away thy opinion, and then there is taken away the complaint, “I have been harmed.””
The statement asks whether part of suffering is sustained by the story attached to an event rather than by the event alone.
Meditations, Book IV, in George Long’s translation.
“Remember that the ruling faculty is invincible, when self-collected it is satisfied with itself.”
The governing mind becomes difficult to defeat when it can collect itself and choose by reason rather than react automatically to pressure.
Meditations, Book VIII, section 48, George Long translation.
“The mind has formed itself by a special exercise of attention, observing, comparing, and classifying.”
Montessori describes repeated acts of attention and comparison as formative intellectual practice that organizes experience instead of merely supplying memorized content.
Dr. Montessori's Own Handbook, discussion of sensory didactic material. The statement reflects Montessori’s historical theory of mental development and is not labeled as a current neuroscientific finding.
“We call an individual disciplined when he is master of himself, and can, therefore, regulate his own conduct when it shall be necessary to follow some rule of life.”
Discipline is framed as developed self-regulation: the learner becomes capable of governing conduct appropriately rather than depending entirely on external restraint.
The Montessori Method, “Discipline,” Anne E. George translation. Montessori calls this “active discipline” and contrasts it with older coercion to immobility; terminology reflects the educational theory of her period.
“When angry, count four; when very angry, swear.”
The line begins like conventional restraint advice and then breaks its own moral posture, using escalation to turn a familiar self-control formula into a comic admission about anger.
Pudd’nhead Wilson, Chapter X epigraph; a Calendar maxim placed directly after the mortality joke.
“The governing of our temper is truly the business of our whole lives.”
Emotional self-command is not a childhood lesson completed once; it remains a lifelong practice because new circumstances continually test established habits.
Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1787), “The TEMPER,” printed page 62, Project Gutenberg #67466. Wollstonecraft calls governing the temper the business of the whole life while discussing habits of self-command and conduct; the passage is moral-educational argument rather than clinical emotion-regulation advice.
“’Tis my opinion that a man should lend himself to others, and only give himself to himself.”
Montaigne distinguishes participating in other people’s affairs from surrendering one’s whole inward life to them: engagement can be generous without allowing every external demand to possess the will.
Essays of Montaigne, Book III, Chapter X, “Of Managing the Will,” Charles Cotton translation; Project Gutenberg Volume 18 #3598 / Complete Essays #3600. Montaigne describes lending oneself to external affairs without allowing them to possess the whole will.
“The simple truth is that a will strong enough to keep a man continually striving for things not wholly beyond his powers will carry him in time very far toward his chosen goal.”
Marden emphasizes sustained effort toward difficult but attainable aims, making persistence more important than a single burst of enthusiasm.
Architects of Fate, chapter discussion of will and purpose; Project Gutenberg #21622. The wording reflects nineteenth-century success literature.
“What is needed is a habit of cheerfulness, to enjoy every day as we go along.”
Marden treats cheerfulness as a repeated practice of attending to the current day rather than postponing all enjoyment to occasional breaks.
Cheerfulness as a Life Power, Foreword; Project Gutenberg #18394. Claims about health elsewhere in the book are period rhetoric and are not treated as modern medical evidence.
“Yet a habit of happy thought would transform his life into harmony and beauty.”
Marden’s claim reflects the book’s central period philosophy: repeated patterns of attention can alter how a person experiences ordinary life.
Cheerfulness as a Life Power; Project Gutenberg #18394. Context notes distinguish motivational rhetoric from modern psychological evidence.
“It is impossible to overestimate the importance of forming a habit of cheerfulness early in life.”
Marden emphasizes repetition and early habit formation as central to the cheerful disposition promoted throughout the book.
Cheerfulness as a Life Power; Project Gutenberg #18394. This is period self-development advice and is presented as Marden’s historical claim rather than a modern clinical prescription.
“He who has learned the true art of living will not waste his energies in friction, which accomplishes nothing.”
The metaphor treats needless fretting and interpersonal friction as expenditure of energy that produces no useful result.
Cheerfulness as a Life Power; Project Gutenberg #18394. Marden is making a practical-moral argument, not a clinical claim.
“Whatever you do, do it with all your might.”
Barnum argues for wholehearted execution rather than half-effort, especially when a task is important enough to deserve sustained attention.
The Art of Money Getting, section headed “Whatever You Do, Do It With All Your Might.”
“The foundation of success in life is good health.”
Achievement is treated as dependent on the physical capacity to work, think, and sustain effort rather than as a purely financial or professional matter.
The Art of Money Getting; Barnum places health before the business maxims that follow.
“A penny here, and a dollar there, placed at interest, goes on accumulating, and in this way the desired result is attained.”
Small repeated savings are presented as meaningful because accumulation depends on consistency over time rather than only on occasional large financial gains.
The Art of Money Getting, opening economy section; Project Gutenberg #8581. The passage reflects nineteenth-century saving-at-interest advice and is not a promised rate of return.
“Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.”
The sequence emphasizes alertness, steadiness, and strength, presenting courage as sustained conduct rather than one dramatic moment.
1 Corinthians 16:13 in the King James Version.
“Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath.”
The verse acknowledges anger while placing boundaries on what is done with it and how long it is allowed to govern a relationship.
Ephesians 4:26 in the King James Version.
“Let us not be weary in well doing.”
Courage can look like continuing useful work after enthusiasm fades, especially when results are delayed rather than immediately visible.
Galatians 6:9 in the King James Version; opening clause of the verse about perseverance.
“Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”
Good work can require endurance before results appear, so delayed reward is not treated as proof that effort is useless.
Galatians 6:9, King James Version.
“Avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath.”
The instruction interrupts retaliation by asking people not to make personal revenge their response to injury, creating room for restraint and release.
Romans 12:19, King James Version; Paul tells readers not to avenge themselves within a larger sequence about responding to enemies and evil.
“Now I mean by education that training which is given by suitable habits to the first instincts of virtue in children;”
In this account, education forms early habits of feeling and response so that they can later accord with reason. It is an account of moral formation within the dialogue, not an empirical generalization about childhood.
Laws, Book II, Benjamin Jowett English translation. The Athenian Stranger opens a longer definition linking early instincts and pleasure or pain with later rational understanding; this quotation preserves the opening clause and its original semicolon.
“He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding: but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly.”
Slowness to anger creates time for judgment; impulsive anger gives emotion control before understanding has caught up.
Proverbs 14:29, King James Version.
“A wrathful man stirreth up strife: but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife.”
Anger spreads beyond the person feeling it: an uncontrolled response can create conflict, while restraint can reduce conflict for everyone involved.
Proverbs 15:18 in the King James Version.
“He that hath knowledge spareth his words: and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit.”
Restraint in speech is presented as evidence of understanding rather than lack of confidence.
Proverbs 17:27 in the King James Version.
“He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.”
Answering before listening mistakes speed for competence; understanding requires enough restraint to hear the matter before judging it.
Proverbs 18:13 in the King James Version.
“It is the glory of a man to pass over a transgression.”
Not every offence requires escalation. The proverb treats the ability to let some wrongs pass as a form of discretion and dignity rather than weakness.
Proverbs 19:11 in the King James Version; this record uses the concluding clause of the verse.
“The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; and it is his glory to pass over a transgression.”
Discretion is shown through delayed anger and the ability to let some offences pass without converting every injury into an ongoing conflict.
Proverbs 19:11 in the King James Version.
“Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go:”
The proverb treats repeated fury as socially contagious, warning that close association can shape habits and judgment.
Proverbs 22:24 in the King James Version; the next verse warns that a person can learn the ways of the habitually angry.
“Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings.”
Consistent skill and diligence can create opportunities that status alone cannot guarantee.
Proverbs 22:29, King James Version.
“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
Early guidance is treated as formative, emphasizing the long reach that habits and instruction can have across a life.
Proverbs 22:6, King James Version.
“For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again.”
Falling is not treated as final defeat; character appears in the repeated act of getting up and continuing.
Proverbs 24:16, King James Version.
“He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.”
A person without inner restraint is compared with an undefended city, emphasizing how self-command protects judgment and conduct.
Proverbs 25:28 in the King James Version.
“A fool uttereth all his mind: but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards.”
Immediate expression is not always honesty or wisdom; restraint can protect judgment from being replaced by whatever emotion arrives first.
Proverbs 29:11 in the King James Version.
“Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.”
The proverb uses the ant as an example of self-directed preparation, turning observation of repeated practical behavior into a lesson about disciplined habits.
Proverbs 6:6 in the King James Version; the following verses describe the ant preparing food without an overseer.
“Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him.”
Waiting is paired with rest rather than agitation, treating patience as a disciplined refusal to force timing.
Psalm 37:7 in the King James Version; opening clause.
“Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.”
Anger is treated as something to release before it becomes a reason for harmful action.
Psalm 37:8 in the King James Version.
“Hard is it to correct a habit already formed.”
Repeated behavior becomes easier to continue and harder to reverse, which makes early choices about habit formation especially consequential.
The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, maxim 11, in Darius Lyman’s 1856 English rendering; maxim order can vary across editions.
“And it shall be my endeavour to reveal thee in my actions”
Tagore connects devotion with conduct: inward belief is meant to become visible through what a person actually does rather than remain only an interior feeling.
Gitanjali, poem 4, in Tagore’s own prose translations from Bengali; Project Gutenberg #7164. The omitted continuation explicitly attributes the strength to act to the divine addressee, so the line remains religious rather than generic productivity advice.
“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”
Enthusiasm is treated as the emotional force that turns ideas into sustained effort rather than leaving them as passive intentions.
Essay “Circles,” in Essays: First Series; the line closes a passage about energetic action.
“The reward of a thing well done is to have done it.”
Good work can carry its own reward when satisfaction comes from meeting the standard rather than from applause or payment alone.
Lecture “New England Reformers.”
“Do your work, and you shall reinforce yourself.”
Repeated useful work strengthens capacity and identity more reliably than waiting to feel ready first.
Self-Reliance; the sentence follows Emerson’s instruction to let action reveal character.
“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”
Emerson attacks rigid consistency when it prevents people from revising judgment in the light of new thought.
Essay “Self-Reliance”; Emerson criticizes rigid adherence to past opinions when fresh judgment requires revision.
“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.”
Regular reading is compared with physical exercise because repeated intellectual use can strengthen attention, knowledge, and mental capacity over time.
The Tatler No. 147; the comparison presents reading as a form of regular exercise for the mind.
“To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour.”
The value of a journey can lie in purposeful movement and effort rather than only in the moment of arrival.
Essay “El Dorado.”
“If you can wait and not be tired by waiting.”
Patience is portrayed as active endurance: the ability to continue without letting delay become defeat.
If—, first stanza; the line frames patience as sustained conduct under delay.
“If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs.”
Composure under collective panic is treated as a form of practical courage and judgment.
If—, opening line; the next line describes being blamed by those around you.
“If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds’ worth of distance run.”
Time is treated as something to inhabit fully through sustained effort rather than something to merely count.
If—, final stanza; the line joins limited time with sustained effort.
“If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you.”
Composure under social pressure is treated as a mark of maturity, especially when panic and blame are spreading around you.
Poem “If—,” opening lines.
“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same.”
Kipling’s speaker recommends maintaining steadiness toward both success and failure rather than allowing either outcome to determine one’s character or judgment.
“If—,” in Rewards and Fairies, Project Gutenberg #556. The poem presents a period ideal of masculine self-command through a sequence of conditional tests; the stored lines are literary and moral rhetoric, not a requirement to suppress normal emotion.
“Few things are impossible to diligence and skill.”
Persistent effort combined with competence can overcome many barriers, although the wording stops short of claiming that every obstacle is conquerable.
Rasselas, Chapter XVIII; Imlac encourages the prince after acknowledging that strong restraints may still exist.
“there are lower degrees of constancy necessary to common virtue”
Johnson distinguishes heroic steadfastness from the smaller, repeated forms of constancy needed for ordinary moral life.
The Idler, No. 11; this paper is not among the numbers Johnson’s own advertisement excluded from his authorship.
“Pour forth thy Fervours for a healthful Mind, Obedient Passions, and a Will resign'd;”
Johnson’s closing prayer prioritizes soundness of mind, governed passions and a will capable of acceptance over many external forms of success.
The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), explicitly devotional closing movement, Wikisource first-edition scan leaf 41. “Pour forth thy Fervours for a healthful Mind, Obedient Passions, and a Will resign’d” belongs to Johnson’s concluding prayer for inward goods, patience and faith. “Healthful Mind” is preserved as historical religious-moral language and is not presented as modern medical or mental-health advice.
“Not a day passes without its discipline, whether for good or for evil.”
Daily experience is always training something, so ordinary choices can reinforce either constructive habits or patterns that make later self-command harder.
Character, Chapter I, “Influence of Character,” Project Gutenberg #2541. Smiles introduces the sentence while explaining that character is formed by many minute circumstances under partial individual control, so each day contributes discipline for good or ill.
“This was, in truth the secret of his success”
Smiles uses Bianconi’s minute-conscious working habits to illustrate how disciplined use of time contributed to practical business success.
Men of Invention and Industry, Chapter IX, “Charles Bianconi: A Lesson of Self-Help in Ireland”; Project Gutenberg #725. This excerpt is Smiles’s narrative conclusion immediately after an anecdote about saving time.
“His efforts were long, laborious, and sometimes apparently hopeless.”
Smiles emphasizes the duration and difficulty of John Harrison’s work before success, making perseverance visible as sustained labor rather than instant inspiration.
Men of Invention and Industry, Chapter III, “John Harrison: Inventor of the Marine Chronometer”; Project Gutenberg #725. This is Smiles’s biographical narration, not Harrison speaking in first person.
“His motto was 'Persevere!'”
Smiles condenses Stephenson’s response to repeated engineering and institutional obstacles into a single governing principle of continued effort.
The Life of George Stephenson and of his Son Robert Stephenson, Chapter XI, “Chat Moss—Construction of the Railway”; represented 1868 revised edition, Project Gutenberg #46229. The motto appears in Smiles’s surrounding narration immediately after the quoted Chat Moss recollection.
“There was no help for it, however, but to go on.”
During the Chat Moss crisis, continuing became the practical choice after heavy investment and discouraging expert opinion had narrowed the alternatives.
The Life of George Stephenson and of his Son Robert Stephenson, Chapter XI, “Chat Moss—Construction of the Railway”; represented 1868 revised edition, Project Gutenberg #46229. Smiles records Stephenson’s first-person recollection of the directors’ crisis over Chat Moss in quoted speech.
