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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

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Source
Men of Invention and Industry
Date
1884
Meaning

Meaning of “His efforts were long, laborious, and sometimes apparently…”

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

Source context

Where does it come from?

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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Themes

Ideas connected with this quotation

ConsistencyCourage Quotes About Acting Despite FearDiscipline Quotes About Habits, Practice & ConsistencyEffortHard TimesHope Quotes About Possibility in Uncertain TimesInspirational Quotes About Hope, Courage & PossibilityMotivational Quotes for Action, Effort & PersistenceNever Give UpPatiencePerseverance Quotes About Sustained EffortResilience Quotes About Recovery & AdaptationSelf-Control Quotes About Restraint & JudgmentShortStrengthSuccessDeterminationInnovationMotivation For WorkStruggleWork Ethic
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Source identified
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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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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