What does this quote mean?

“I know the goal to high achievement lies through the dull pathway of self-conquest first”

Achievement is pictured as beginning with less glamorous inward work—self-command, small duties and repeated effort—before larger results become possible.

Source note: Poems of Progress and New Thought Pastels, “Time’s Gaze,” represented 1913 edition; Project Gutenberg #3228. This is poetic moral counsel, not a universal formula for achievement.

“’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.

Source note: Ulysses, in the closing address to the mariners.

“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.

Source note: If—, first stanza; the line frames patience as sustained conduct under delay.

“And lose, and start again at your beginnings.”

Starting again after loss is presented as a test of composure rather than as evidence that the earlier effort was meaningless.

Source note: If—, third stanza; the surrounding passage describes losing one’s winnings and beginning again.

“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.

Source note: Ecclesiastes 7:8 in the King James Version; the verse continues by praising patience over pride.

“The will to do springs from the knowledge that we can do.”

Belief in possible action strengthens willingness to act, connecting confidence with persistence.

Source note: As a Man Thinketh, “Thought and Purpose.”