Perseverance

I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles. ~ Christopher Reeve

Perseverance is the quality of continuing in a course of action without regard to discouragement, opposition or previous failure.

With ordinary talent and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable. ~ Thomas Buxton, 1st Baronet

Sourced

• The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won't.
  • Henry Ward Beecher, as quoted in Proverbial Wisdom : Proverbs, Maxims and Ethical Sentences, of Interest to All Classes of Men. (1903) by Abram N. Coleman, p. 233.

• With ordinary talent and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable.
  • Thomas Buxton, 1st Baronet, as quoted in Frank Leslie's Sunday Magazine Vol. XIX (January - June 1886), p. 89.

• Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another.
  • Walter Elliott, in The Spiritual Life : Doctrine and Practice of Christian Perfection (1918).

• What destiny sends, bear! Whoever perseveres will be crowned.
  • Johann Gottfried Herder, as quoted in Beautiful Thoughts from German and Spanish Authors (1868) by C.T. Ramage (Craufurd Tait Ramage).

• If you're going through hell, keep going.
  • [Winston Churchill]

• We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
  • John F. Kennedy, Address at Rice University on the Nation's Space Effort, Houston, TX (12 September 1962).

• If you want to be successful in a particular field of endeavor, I think perseverance is one of the key qualities.
  • George Lucas. From the George Lucas Interview, ‘A Life Making Movies’, for the Academy of Achievement organization, June 19, 1999, Washington, D.C.

• Perseverance is the master impulse of the firmest souls, the discipline of the noblest virtues, and the guaranty of acquisitions the most invigorating in their use and inestimable in their worth.
  • Elias Lyman Magoon, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 450.

• The practice of perseverance is the discipline of the noblest virtues. To run well, we must run to the end. It is not the fighting but the' conquering that gives a hero his title to renown.
  • Elias Lyman Magoon, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 450.

• Invariably will you find perseverance exemplified as the radical principle in every truly great character. It facilitates, perfects, and consolidates the execution of the plan conceived, and renders profitable its results when attained. By continuing to advance steadily in the same way, light constantly increases, obstacles disappear, efficient habits are confirmed, experience is acquired, the use of the best means is reduced to easy action, and success becomes more sure.
  • Elias Lyman Magoon, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 450.

• Victory belongs to the most persevering.
  • Napoleon I of France, as quoted in Treasury of Thought: Forming an Encyclopædia of Quotation from Ancient and Modern Authors (1894) by Maturin Murray Ballou.

• I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.
  • Christopher Reeve, in Still Me (1999), p. 267.

• Many strokes, though with a little axe,
  Hew down and fell the hardest-timber'd oak.
  • William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part III (c. 1591), Act II, scene 1, line 54.

• Perseverance, dear my lord,
  Keeps honour bright: to have done is to hang
  Quite out of fashion, like a rusty mail
  In monumental mockery.
  • William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida (c. 1602), Act III, scene 3, line 150, Ulysses.

• By perseverance the snail reached the ark.
  • Proverb, published by Charles Spurgeon in The Salt-cellars : Being a Collection of Proverbs, Together with Homely Notes Thereon (1889), p. 89.

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 594.

• Attempt the end and never stand to doubt;
  Nothing's so hard, but search will find it out.
  • Robert Herrick, Seeke and Finde.

• The waters wear the stones.
  • Job, XIV. 19.

• God is with those who persevere.
  • Koran, Chapter VIII.

• For thine own purpose, thou hast sent
  The strife and the discouragement!
  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Christus, The Golden Legend (1872), Part II.

• The soft droppes of rain perce the hard marble; many strokes overthrow the tallest oaks.
  • John Lyly, Euphues, p. 81. Arber's Reprint (1579).

• Gutta cavat lapidem non vi, sed sæpe cadendo.
  • The drop hollows out the stone not by strength, but by constant falling.
  • Quoted in the Menagiana, 1713. Probably first to use it was Richard, Monk of S. Victor; Paris. (Died about 1172. Scotchman by birth.) In his Adnotationes mysticæ in Psalmos he says: "Quid lapide durius, quid aqua mollius? Verumtamen gutta cavat lapidem non vi sed sæpe cadendo." See Migne's Patrologia Latina, Volume CXCVI, p. 389. Said to be by Chœrilus of Samos, by Simplicius—Ad Aristot. Physic. Auscult, VIII. 2, p. 429. (Brand's ed.) Same idea in Lucretius I. 314; also in IV. 1282. Translation of a proverb quoted by Galen, Volume VIII, p. 27. Ed. by Kühn, 1821, Given there: "Gutta cavat lapidem sæpe cadentis aquæ." Quoted by Bion. Also in Ovid—Ex Ponte, IV. X, line 5. Note by Burman states Claudian was earliest user found in MS.

• So Satan, whom repulse upon repulse
  Met ever, and to shameful silence brought,
  Yet gives not o'er, though desperate of success.
  • John Milton, Paradise Regained (1671), Book IV, line 21.

• Water continually dropping will wear hard rocks hollow.
  • Plutarch, Of the Training of Children.

• We shall escape the uphill by never turning back.
  • Christina G. Rossetti, Amor Mundi.