Source-backed quotations about aim, direction, preparation, perseverance, and turning intention into sustained action.
“He who lets the world, or his own portion of it, choose his plan of life for him, has no need of any other faculty than the ape-like one of imitation.”
A life copied from convention leaves important human faculties unused; choosing deliberately requires observation, judgment and firmness.
On Liberty, Chapter III; Mill contrasts imitation with actively choosing one’s own plan of life.
“The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream.”
Large achievements begin before they are visible, as imagined possibilities that must survive long enough to become plans and sustained effort.
As a Man Thinketh, chapter “Visions and Ideals”; Allen follows with natural images of the oak in the acorn and the bird in the egg.
“’Tis the set of the soul that decides its goal and not the calm or the strife.”
The nautical metaphor places direction in the stance a person adopts toward conditions, arguing that purpose can survive both ease and adversity.
Poems of Optimism, “The Winds of Fate,” first published in this collection in 1913; Project Gutenberg #7421. The statement is metaphorical poetry about agency, not a denial of material constraints or unequal circumstances.
“Still achieving, still pursuing, learn to labour and to wait.”
Progress is pictured as a combination of effort and patience rather than nonstop urgency.
A Psalm of Life, final line.
“My sole aim is to insist that every man shall perfect his machine to the best of his powers, not to the best of somebody else's powers.”
Improvement is measured against one’s own capacities rather than another person’s scale; Bennett rejects imitation as the standard for developing character and conduct.
The Human Machine, later discussion of self-training. “Machine” is Bennett’s extended metaphor for the person’s mental and emotional habits; the line is not a biomedical model.
“the true joy of existence comes from living to one's highest.”
The sentence locates fulfillment in trying to live at one’s best level of character and capacity, making aspiration itself part of the purpose of life.
What All The World’s A-Seeking, Part III, “The Unfoldment,” printed page 75 in the represented 1896 page-text witness, cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #14312. Trine says “the true joy of existence comes from living to one’s highest” immediately after urging the reader to “live to your highest.” It remains historical New Thought / conduct-of-life counsel rather than a claim that striving automatically removes hardship or produces happiness in every circumstance.
“In the long run, men hit only what they aim at.”
Aims influence action; without a chosen direction, effort is less likely to converge on a meaningful result.
Walden, Conclusion; the line appears in Thoreau’s argument that chosen aims shape what people are likely to reach.
“The Vision that you glorify in your mind, the Ideal that you enthrone in your heart—this you will build your life by, this you will become.”
Repeatedly honored ideals influence choices and habits, so the picture a person keeps returning to can become a practical standard for action.
As a Man Thinketh, end of “Visions and Ideals”; Allen summarizes the chapter by linking dominant ideals with the life a person builds.
“Purpose is the key-stone in the temple of achievement.”
Allen presents concentrated purpose as the structural element that holds effort together and directs it toward a defined achievement.
The Mastery of Destiny, “The Power of Purpose”; Wikisource 1909 text. This compact sentence follows Allen’s contrast between scattered thought and concentrated purpose.
“he who, forgetting self, makes the object of his life service, helpfulness, and kindliness to others, finds his whole nature growing and expanding”
Trine makes service a life-purpose and predicts personal enlargement through it, connecting outward usefulness with an increasingly generous and developed character.
What All The World’s A-Seeking, Part I, “The Principle,” printed page 29 in the represented 1896 page-text witness, cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #14312. Trine argues that a person who forgets self in service, helpfulness and kindliness finds the self “growing and expanding.” This remains historical conduct-of-life / New Thought moral argument rather than a guaranteed psychological outcome from service.
“Still, wond'rous youth! each noble path pursue, On deathless glories fix thine ardent view:”
Wheatley praises another young Black artist and urges him to continue developing his gifts, linking visual art and poetry through shared creative aspiration.
“To S. M., a Young African Painter, on Seeing His Works,” published in Wheatley’s 1773 Poems and represented by Poetry Foundation. The poem addresses Scipio Moorhead within Wheatley’s explicitly Christian artistic vocabulary; “deathless glories” carries religious as well as artistic meaning.
“It is the open sesame to every portal”
The metaphor presents work as a means of opening opportunities that remain inaccessible to intention alone, within Osler’s larger argument for disciplined professional effort.
The Master-Word in Medicine, 1903. “It” refers to the master-word Work in the immediately preceding passage; the source page preserves that antecedent so the excerpt is not detached from its meaning.
“Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.”
Resolution becomes useful only when followed by execution; the maxim links deliberate standards with the habit of carrying them through.
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Part II, thirteen-virtue table: Resolution. Project Gutenberg #148 (Charles W. Eliot / Harvard Classics, 1909) preserves the represented wording; the reviewed direct locator is Wikisource Section Thirty Six.
“Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.”
Thoreau contrasts work performed only for pay with work connected to genuine interest and purpose, as part of his broader criticism of reducing life to livelihood.
Life Without Principle, first published posthumously in The Atlantic Monthly in October 1863; represented Wikisource text. It derives from Thoreau’s lecture “What Shall It Profit?” and is social criticism, not hiring research.
“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.
“He who has not one and always the same object in life cannot remain one and the same.”
A stable guiding aim can organize choices over time and prevent priorities from changing with every pressure.
Meditations, Book XI, in George Long’s translation; punctuation has been lightly modernized.
“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ’em.”
The sentence distinguishes inherited status, earned achievement, and unexpected responsibility, making greatness look less like one single path.
Twelfth Night, Act II, Scene 5; 1922 Yale Shakespeare edition edited by George Henry Nettleton, printed page 43 / Wikisource scan leaf 55. Malvolio reads “some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them” from Maria’s forged letter written in Olivia’s supposed voice as part of the prank. The maxim remains an embedded deceptive written voice rather than Malvolio’s original saying or Shakespeare’s direct advice about success.
“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”
Wilde separates deliberate individual living from merely passing through existence, making self-realization and chosen purpose part of what it means to live fully.
The Soul of Man under Socialism; Wilde develops individualism as the freedom to form a life from within rather than conform to social expectation.
“If we would make our lives worthy of us, grand and noble, solid and impregnable, we must forsake air-castles of dreaming for strongholds of doing.”
Aspiration has to become action before it can shape a life; Jordan contrasts imagined achievement with concrete work toward a chosen purpose.
The Power of Truth, “People Who Live in Air-Castles.” The military imagery is metaphorical and belongs to a critique of substituting fantasy for execution.
“The only thing that stands in our power to achieve, is to make the most advantageous use possible of the personal qualities we possess”
Within his restrictive view of personality, Schopenhauer still assigns agency to choosing pursuits that use and develop one’s actual capacities rather than leaving them idle or mismatched.
The Wisdom of Life, T. Bailey Saunders translation; Project Gutenberg #10741. The following clause recommends pursuits suited to the development of one’s capacities.
“life is the end and aim of consumption.”
Consumption is judged by what it ultimately does for human life, making economic activity a means rather than an end in itself within Ruskin’s argument.
Unto This Last, fourth essay; Project Gutenberg #36541. The line follows Ruskin’s distinction between production and consumption and retains the nineteenth-century political-economy setting.
“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.
“grudge no expense of trouble, patience, or courage, in the striving to accomplish the hard thing you have set yourselves to do.”
Addressing art students, Morris emphasizes the persistence, patience and courage needed to carry difficult creative work toward the standard the maker has chosen.
Hopes and Fears for Art, lecture “The Art of the People”; Project Gutenberg #3773. The counsel is explicitly directed to people studying or practicing art.
“Something had come to replace his hoard which gave a growing purpose to the earnings, drawing his hope and joy continually onward beyond the money.”
Money changes meaning when it serves a person rather than replacing relationship; caring for Eppie gives Silas’s work a forward-looking purpose that wealth alone had failed to provide.
Silas Marner; Eliot contrasts the former hoard with Eppie, whose needs and future redirect Silas’s earnings toward hope, relationship, and practical care.
“Every action and moral choice, aims, it is thought, at some good.”
Actions and choices are intelligible because they pursue something taken to be good, even when people disagree about what the good actually is.
Nicomachean Ethics, Book I; the opening argument begins from the idea that action aims at a perceived good.
“All that a man can do is to form such resolves as from time to time accord with the circumstances in which he is placed, in the hope of thus managing to advance a step nearer towards the final goal.”
Instead of treating a life plan as fixed in every detail, Schopenhauer describes progress as a series of resolutions adjusted to changing circumstances while preserving a larger direction.
Counsels and Maxims, T. Bailey Saunders translation; Project Gutenberg #10715. The following geometric analogy describes life as the resultant of circumstances and aims.
“Fanaticism consists in redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim.”
Effort becomes self-defeating when intensity replaces reflection about the purpose the effort was supposed to serve.
The Life of Reason; Santayana uses the maxim to distinguish purposeful activity from effort that has lost its governing end.
“He who chooses his plan for himself, employs all his faculties.”
Choosing for oneself exercises observation, reasoning, discrimination, and self-command in ways that passive imitation does not.
On Liberty, Chapter III, in Mill’s discussion of individuality and self-directed choice.
“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.
“Seize the very first possible opportunity to act on every resolution you make.”
The advice links resolution with prompt action, arguing that intentions shape habit more effectively when they are converted into behavior at the first available opportunity.
Talks To Teachers, chapter on Habit; Project Gutenberg #16287. This is the opening clause of James’s third habit-forming maxim; the longer sentence also refers to emotional promptings toward desired habits.
“One man cannot tell another man where the other man wants to go.”
Self-development begins with aims that actually belong to the individual; another person can suggest methods but cannot supply a genuinely personal destination.
Mental Efficiency, opening discussion of self-development. Project Gutenberg #23347. Bennett is distinguishing method from personal purpose, not claiming that advice or collaboration has no value.
“Whoever seeks to work out for himself his destiny, the life-work that all his nature tells him should be his, bravely, calmly and with due consideration of the rights of others and his duties to them, is a reformer.”
Individual vocation is paired with duties to other people: Jordan’s reformer follows a personally meaningful course without treating self-direction as permission to ignore others’ rights.
The Power of Truth, “The Way of the Reformer.” The qualifying language about rights and duties is retained because it prevents the individualist passage from being reduced to purely self-centered advice.
“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.
“Cherish your visions; cherish your ideals; cherish the music that stirs in your heart.”
Sustained ideals can organize attention and effort, giving a person a picture of the kind of life or work they intend to build.
As a Man Thinketh, chapter “Visions and Ideals”; this is an excerpt from Allen’s longer exhortation to remain true to constructive ideals.
“’Tis not too late to seek a newer world.”
The aging speaker refuses to treat reduced time or strength as a reason to stop seeking meaningful work.
Ulysses, in the closing address to the mariners.
“The will to do springs from the knowledge that we can do.”
Belief in possible action strengthens willingness to act, connecting confidence with persistence.
As a Man Thinketh, “Thought and Purpose.”
“Mere energy is not enough, it must be concentrated on some steady, unwavering aim.”
Effort becomes more useful when it is directed consistently toward a defined aim rather than spent in unrelated bursts of activity.
Architects of Fate; Project Gutenberg #21622, in Marden’s discussion of definite purpose and concentrated effort.
“Our plans miscarry because they have no aim.”
Activity without a governing aim scatters effort; clear direction lets choices be judged against something more stable than impulse.
Letter 71 discusses the highest good and the need for a consistent standard behind plans and action.
“you are going to put into this year the hardest and the most earnest work that you have ever done in your life”
Washington turns a broad desire for growth into a concrete commitment to more earnest effort over the coming year.
Character Building, “Growth,” Project Gutenberg #60484. The line is part of an exhortation to Tuskegee students at the beginning of a new period of study.
“The right fulfilment of national power in art depends always on the direction of its aim by the experience of ages.”
Ruskin treats artistic power as inseparable from the ends toward which skill is directed, making purpose and inherited experience part of his account of creative excellence.
Lectures on Art, inaugural lecture, Project Gutenberg #19164. This is Ruskin’s Victorian aesthetic theory about national art, not a measurable law of artistic development.
“I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.”
Achievement is measured against the difficulty of the path, not just the final position, making endurance and progress part of the definition of success.
Up from Slavery, Chapter II, “Boyhood Days,” Project Gutenberg #2376. Washington reflects on the obstacles facing Black youth after slavery and measures success by difficulty overcome rather than by final social position; the historical racial context is kept explicit.
“Let us live up to the fulness of our possibilities each day. Man has only one day of life—to-day.”
Jordan makes development immediate: today is the only day in which ability, responsibility and intention can actually be converted into conduct.
The Power of Truth, “People Who Live in Air-Castles.” The line is a present-action argument within conduct-of-life writing, not a literal denial of memory, planning or future obligations.
“the movement of the hand of a great painter is at every instant governed by a direct and new intention.”
Ruskin emphasizes continual intention inside expert execution, presenting accomplished painting as repeated fresh decisions rather than mechanical hand movement alone.
Lectures on Art, Lecture III, Project Gutenberg #19164. The comparison is part of Ruskin’s discussion of practiced precision in master painters.
“First, do nothing inconsiderately, nor without a purpose.”
Deliberate action begins by knowing why an act is being done instead of moving from impulse, distraction, or social pressure.
Meditations, Book XII, section 20, George Long translation.
“The aim is an inner one, namely, that the child train himself to observe; that he be led to make comparisons between objects, to form judgments, to reason and to decide; and it is in the indefinite repetition of this exercise of attention and of intelligence that a real development ensues.”
The educational objective is not merely completion of an exercise but cultivation of observation, comparison, judgment, reasoning and increasingly independent decision-making.
Dr. Montessori's Own Handbook. The sentence continues by connecting repeated exercises of attention and intelligence with development; it is Montessori’s pedagogical rationale for the material.
“The ambition to live strictly according to the highest common sense during the next twenty-four hours is an ambition that needs a lot of beating.”
Bennett deliberately reduces improvement to the next day: consistently applying sound judgment for twenty-four hours is already a demanding practical aim.
The Human Machine, concluding emphasis on present practice over distant aspiration. The idiom “needs a lot of beating” means the ambition is difficult to surpass, not that it requires violence.
“One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.”
A strong sense of possibility makes deliberate self-limitation difficult to accept, especially when a person knows greater growth is possible.
The Story of My Life; the line appears in material connected with Keller’s ambitions and education.
“He that can have patience can have what he will.”
The proverb presents patience as a practical advantage in goals that require time rather than immediate reward.
Poor Richard’s Almanack.
“The purpose of life is unquestionably unfoldment, growth, advancement”
Trine states his view of purpose directly: life should continue to develop rather than settle into mental or moral stagnation.
The Higher Powers of Mind and Spirit; Project Gutenberg #28163. The surrounding text describes evolution from “lower” to “higher” in spiritual terms; this is Trine’s philosophical-religious position, not a scientific law of human development.
“Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime.”
Examples from other lives can enlarge a person’s sense of what is possible without removing the need for personal effort.
Poem “A Psalm of Life.”
Achievement language is strongest when it connects motivation with specific behaviors: starting, practicing, persisting, choosing standards, and learning from results.
Use the quotations to compare approaches to effort rather than as guarantees of success. The useful question is what a line changes about the next decision, not how intense it sounds.
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Lines connected with action, discipline, effort, habits, work, or perseverance.
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“He who would achieve much must sacrifice much.”
As a Man Thinketh · 1903Read meaning & context →“You can turn over a new leaf every hour if you choose.”
How to Live on 24 Hours a Day · 1908Read meaning & context →“their work is first, their fee second”
The Crown of Wild Olive · 1866Read meaning & context →“Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof.”
King James Bible — Ecclesiastes 7:8 · 1611Read meaning & context →“Hurry never realizes that slow, careful foundation work is the quickest in the end.”
The Majesty of Calmness · 1900Read meaning & context →“Upon the wreckage of thy yesterday design the structure of to-morrow.”
Poems of Progress and New Thought Pastels · 1913Read meaning & context →
