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But I kept at it
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“But I kept at it”

Booker T. Washington

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Source
Working With the Hands
Date
1904
Meaning

Meaning of “But I kept at it”

The short phrase summarizes Washington’s response to repeated failure while learning demanding household work under Mrs. Ruffner’s supervision.

Source context

Where does it come from?

Working With the Hands, Chapter I; Project Gutenberg #64504. This is an autobiographical fragment whose surrounding paragraph describes repeated attempts before improvement.

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Themes

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ConsistencyCourage Quotes About Acting Despite FearDiscipline Quotes About Habits, Practice & ConsistencyEffortFailureHard TimesHope Quotes About Possibility in Uncertain TimesNever Give UpPatiencePerseverance Quotes About Sustained EffortResilience Quotes About Recovery & AdaptationSelf-Control Quotes About Restraint & JudgmentShortStrengthSuccessCharacterDetermination
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His motto was 'Persevere!'
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“His motto was 'Persevere!'”

Samuel Smiles · The Life of George Stephenson and of his Son Robert Stephenson · 1868
Meaning & context

Smiles condenses Stephenson’s response to repeated engineering and institutional obstacles into a single governing principle of continued effort.

Source details

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.

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Yet I did hope for success, and persisted in the undertaking.
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“Yet I did hope for success, and persisted in the undertaking.”

Frederick Douglass · My Bondage and My Freedom · 1855
Meaning & context

Douglass links hope with continued effort: uncertainty about the outcome does not prevent him from persisting in a difficult undertaking.

Source details

My Bondage and My Freedom; Douglass is recounting one of the practical struggles through which persistence accompanied his pursuit of greater freedom and independence.

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His efforts were long, laborious, and sometimes apparently hopeless.
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“His efforts were long, laborious, and sometimes apparently hopeless.”

Samuel Smiles · Men of Invention and Industry · 1884
Meaning & context

Smiles emphasizes the duration and difficulty of John Harrison’s work before success, making perseverance visible as sustained labor rather than instant inspiration.

Source details

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.

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There was no help for it, however, but to go on.
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“There was no help for it, however, but to go on.”

Samuel Smiles · The Life of George Stephenson and of his Son Robert Stephenson · 1868
Voice: Quoted historical voice · George Stephenson
Meaning & context

During the Chat Moss crisis, continuing became the practical choice after heavy investment and discouraging expert opinion had narrowed the alternatives.

Source details

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.

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Does the road wind up-hill all the way? Yes, to the very end.
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“Does the road wind up-hill all the way? Yes, to the very end.”

Christina Rossetti · Up-Hill — Christina Rossetti · 1862
Meaning & context

The compact dialogue makes the difficulty of the road explicit while also committing to continuing all the way to its end.

Source details

“Up-Hill,” in Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862); Project Gutenberg #16950. The road is a spiritual-life allegory, so the line is not reduced to literal travel advice.

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