quotations and passages about determination

The cynic says, "One person can't
do anything." I say, "Only one
person can do anything."

John Gardner

You can surmount the obstacles in your path if you are determined, courageous and hard-working. Never be fainthearted. Be resolute, but never bitter. . . . Permit no one to dissuade you from pursuing the goals you set for yourselves. Do not fear to pioneer, to venture down new paths of endeavor. Ralph J. Bunche

If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, try for eight, sixteen, thirty-two, and so on. Eventually, one discovers that it is not boring, but very interesting. unattributed

How many years you have to keep on doing, until you know what to do and how to do! Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Unlimited power is available to those men and women who have the wisdom and determination to submerge individual personalities and individual interests through the blending of their minds in harmony towards a specific purpose. Thomas D. Willhite I'm a little wounded, but I am not slain; I will lay me down to bleed a while. Then I'll rise and fight again. John Dryden

The great thing, and the hard thing, is to stick to things
when you have outlived the first interest, and not yet
got the second, which comes with a sort of mastery.

Janet Erskine Stuart

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Never stop. One always stops as soon as something is about to happen.

Peter Brook

We can do anything we want to do if we stick to it long enough.

Helen Keller

Don't worry about genius. Don't worry about being clever.
Trust to hard work, perseverance, and determination. And
the best motto for a long march is, "Don't grumble. Plug on!"

Frederick Treves

Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never—in nothing,
great or small, large or petty—never give in, except to convictions of
honour and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the
apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

Winston Churchill

Emotional maturity is the ability to stick to a job and to struggle through
until it is finished, to endure unpleasantness, discomfort and frustration.

Edward A. Strecker

The first and final thing you have to do in this world
is to last in it, and not be smashed by it.

Ernest Hemingway

No one ever did anything worth doing
unless they were prepared to go on with
it long after it became something of a bore.

Douglas V. Steere

I just kept on doing what everyone starts out doing.
The real question is, why did other people stop?

William Stafford

I realized early on that success was tied to not giving up.
Most people in this business gave up and went on to
other things. If you simply didn't give up, you would
outlast the people who came in on the bus with you.

Harrison Ford

Are you desperate or determined? With desperation comes frustration.
With determination comes purpose, achievement, and peace.

James A. Murphy

Articles and book excerpts on determination:

Lessons from a Spider Asoka Selvarajah

With ordinary talent and extraordinary perseverance, all things are possible.

Thomas Foxwell Buxton

It had long since come to my attention that people of
accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen
to them. They went out and happened to things.

Leonardo da Vinci

I have discovered in life that there are ways of getting
almost anywhere you want to go, if you really want to go.

Langston Hughes

The person who removed the mountain began by carrying away small stones.

Chinese proverb

Determine that the thing can and shall be done and then find the way.

Abraham Lincoln

Desire is the key to motivation, but it’s determination and commitment
to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal--a commitment to excellence--that
will enable you to attain the success you seek.

Mario Andretti

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determination - perseverance

With all the infinite possibilities of spiritual life before you,
do not settle down on a little patch of dusty ground at the mountain's foot
in restful content. Be not content until you reach the mountain's summit.

J.R. Miller

If we want a free and peaceful world, if we want to make the deserts bloom
and people grow to greater dignity as human beings--we can do it.

Eleanor Roosevelt

Some people give up their designs when they have almost reached their goal;
while others, on the contrary, obtain a victory by exerting at the
last moment, more vigorous effort than before.

Polybius

Being strong-willed is not enough, however. You also have to be
hard on yourself. Someone who was strong-willed but self-indulgent
would not be called determined. Determination implies
your willfulness is balanced by discipline.

Paul Graham

Enclose your heart in times of need with the steel of your determination
and your strength. In doing this, all things will be bearable.

Lora Leigh
Broken Wings

What! Would I be turned back from doing a thing that I had determined
to do, and that I knew to be right, by the airs and interference of such a
person, or any person I may say? No, I have no idea of being so easily
persuaded. When I have made up my mind, I have made it.

Jane Austen
Persuasion