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That you must master the secret for yourselves lay implicit in our bargain, and you were never promised that a writer's training would be easy.
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“That you must master the secret for yourselves lay implicit in our bargain, and you were never promised that a writer's training would be easy.”

Arthur Quiller-Couch

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Source
On the Art of Writing
Date
1916
Meaning

Meaning of “That you must master the secret for yourselves…”

Learning to write is presented as demanding practice rather than a shortcut: difficulty belongs to the training and does not by itself signal failure.

Source context

Where does it come from?

On the Art of Writing, Lecture XII, “On Style,” Project Gutenberg #17470; excerpted from Quiller-Couch’s reminder that students must master craft for themselves.

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ArtCreativityDiscipline Quotes About Habits, Practice & ConsistencyEffortFailureGrowthGrowth MindsetHard WorkHope Quotes About Possibility in Uncertain TimesInspirational Quotes About Hope, Courage & PossibilityLearning Quotes About Curiosity, Study & ExperienceLifeLife AdviceLife LessonsMindsetMotivation For LifeMotivational Quotes for Action, Effort & PersistenceNever Give UpPatiencePerseverance Quotes About Sustained EffortSelf ImprovementSelf-Control Quotes About Restraint & JudgmentSuccessWritingDeterminationProfessionalismStruggle
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“The more you draw, the better. Draw everything you can.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett · The Lost Prince · 1915
Voice: Fictional character · Loristan
Meaning & context

Repeated drawing is treated as the route to improvement, making practice and quantity of attempts part of developing a useful skill.

Source details

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We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success.
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“We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success.”

Samuel Smiles · Self-Help · 1859
Meaning & context

Failure can expose what does not work and force closer observation, turning setbacks into information that uncomplicated success may never reveal.

Source details

Self-Help, Chapter XI, “Self-Culture—Facilities and Difficulties,” Project Gutenberg #935. The passage follows Charles James Fox’s contrast between early success and perseverance after failure, then leads into examples of discoveries and learning produced through mistakes and failed attempts.

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The majority of successful men are persons who have had difficulties to overcome, problems to master; and, in overcoming those difficulties and mastering those problems, they have gained strength of mind and a clearness of vision that few persons who have lived a life of ease have been able to attain.
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“The majority of successful men are persons who have had difficulties to overcome, problems to master; and, in overcoming those difficulties and mastering those problems, they have gained strength of mind and a clearness of vision that few persons who have lived a life of ease have been able to attain.”

Booker T. Washington · My Larger Education · 1911
Meaning & context

Difficulty can train judgment when it has to be actively mastered; the claimed benefit comes from the capacities developed while solving problems, not from hardship being desirable in itself.

Source details

My Larger Education, Chapter I, “Learning from Men and Things”; Project Gutenberg #73923. Washington connects repeated problem-solving with strength of mind and clearer judgment, contrasting developed capacity with an untested life of ease.

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The worth of work with the hands
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“The worth of work with the hands”

Booker T. Washington · Working With the Hands · 1904
Meaning & context

Washington opens the book by treating manual work as capable of contributing to education, dignity and practical development rather than merely supplying labor.

Source details

Working With the Hands, Chapter I, opening sentence; Project Gutenberg #64504. This deliberately short excerpt is presented with its educational context.

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Sweet are the uses of adversity.
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“Sweet are the uses of adversity.”

William Shakespeare · As You Like It · c. 1599
Voice: Fictional character · Duke Senior
Meaning & context

Adversity is presented as capable of yielding insight or value even when the experience itself is unwelcome.

Source details

As You Like It, Act II, Scene 1, Duke Senior; 1919 Yale Shakespeare edition edited by Jack R. Crawford, printed page 24 / Wikisource scan leaf 36. “Sweet are the uses of adversity” occurs in Duke Senior’s Forest of Arden reflection on exile, winter and the lessons he claims to find outside court life. It remains fictional dramatic speech rather than Shakespeare’s autobiographical advice or a modern psychological claim about hardship.

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