Source identified
“Little strokes fell great oaks.”
Small repeated efforts can accomplish work that seems too large for a single burst of effort, making consistency itself a practical form of strength.
Source note: Poor Richard’s Almanack; a compact maxim about cumulative effort.
Source identified
“Diligence is the mother of good luck.”
Persistent effort improves the odds of useful results because steady work creates more opportunities for progress than waiting for favorable circumstances.
Source note: Poor Richard’s Almanack; the maxim appears in Franklin’s collected Poor Richard material.
Source identified
“Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.”
Voice: Fictional character · Imlac
Large achievements often depend more on continued effort than on a single burst of power.
Source note: The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia.
Source identified
“My race will succeed in proportion as it learns to do a common thing in an uncommon manner.”
Distinctive success can come from doing ordinary work unusually well, emphasizing thoroughness and indispensable usefulness rather than status.
Source note: Up from Slavery, Chapter XVI, “Europe,” Project Gutenberg #2376. While discussing Henry O. Tanner and recognition for excellent work, Washington restates his Tuskegee principle that advancement depends on doing useful work so thoroughly that its value becomes difficult to ignore.
Source identified
“Ambition, energy, industry, perseverance, are indispensable requisites for success in business.”
The sentence presents business success as a compound result of sustained energy and persistence rather than a single clever idea or fortunate moment.
Source note: The Art of Money Getting, in Barnum’s discussion of thorough work and business effort.
Source identified
“The master-word is Work”
Osler makes sustained work the organizing principle of his address to medical students, emphasizing disciplined practice over brilliance without application.
Source note: The Master-Word in Medicine, address at the opening of the University of Toronto medical faculty buildings, October 1, 1903. This collection treats the line as historical professional rhetoric and not as an endorsement of excessive working hours.