SHTICK
Includes: Perseverance.
Related Topics: Patience, Perseverance, Conviction/Compromise, Diligence in Business, Success/Failure.
1. Often GENIUS is just another way of spoiling perseverance.
2. Stick to your job until one of you is through.
3. Perseverance is the result of a strong will.
Obstinacy is the result of a strong "won't."
4. Some men may succeed because they are destined to, but most men succeed because they are determined to.
5. The secret of success is to start from scratch & keep on scratching.
6. The last time you failed, did you stop trying because you failed--or did you fail because you stopped trying?
7. Many of life's failures are men who did not realise how close they were to success when they gave up.
8. Failing down doesn't make you a failure, but staying down does.
9. Giving it another try is better than an alibi.
10. How good a red-hot idea is depends on how much heat it loses when somebody throws cold water on it.
11. The man who wins may have been counted out several times, but he didn't hear the referee.
12. A German officer, talking to a senior member of the British Embassy in Berlin in 1933, made the odd remark that the British are gentlemen, but the French are not. Asked what he meant, he explained:
"One day in 1920, some of the Military Control Commission under a French & a British officer, came to the barracks of which I had charge. They said they had reason to believe that I had a store of rifles concealed behind a brick wall, contrary to the terms of the Peace Treaty. I denied this.
'I give you my word of honour as a German officer,' I said, 'that we have no rifles concealed in the barracks.' Well, your British officer was a gentleman. He accepted my word of honour & went away. But the French officer was not a gentleman. He would not accept my word of honour. He pulled down the brick wall. And he took away my rifles."
13. "Many are called, but few are chosen" might well be the motto emblazoned above the doors of the Hollywood casting directors. One hopeful young actor was turned down time & again by the same company. Despairing, yet determined, he made a final effort. Approaching one film director, he said, "It's now or never, if you want me in one of your pictures, I now have many companies after me."
"You have?" asked the director, his interest aroused by this statement. "What companies?"
"Well," said the actor seriously, "there's the telephone company, the electric & gas companies, the milk company ..." The director laughed--the actor got a job.
14. The executive was taken down a peg. "You may well feel proud of yourself, young fellow," he said to the life insurance agent, "I've refused to see seven insurance men today."
"I know," said the agent, "I'm them."
15. At the "blab school," Lincoln formed a habit that clung to him all his life: he forever read aloud everything he wished to remember. Each morning, as soon as he reached his law office in Springfield, he spread himself out on the couch, hooked one long, ungainly leg over a neighboring chair, and read the newspaper audibly. "He annoyed me," said his partner, "almost beyond endurance. I once asked him why he read in this fashion. This was his explanation: "When I read aloud, two senses catch the idea: first, I see what I read; second, I hear it, and therefore I can remember it better."
His memory was extraordinarily retentive. "My mind," he said, "is like a piece of steel--very hard to scratch any thing on it, but almost impossible, after you get it there, to rub it out."
16. The smartest person is not the one who is quickest to see through a thing. Rather it is a person who will see a thing through.
17. Tough times never last ... but tough people do.
18. By gnawing through a dyke even a rat may drown a nation.--Edward Burke
19. Nothing in the World, including talent, genius & education, can take the place of persistence.
20. The man who removed the mountain began by carrying away small stones.
21. It's the daily grind that gives you the edge.
22. When you come to the end of your rope--tie a knot & hold on.
23. Courage is holding on five minutes longer.
24. Edison tried more than 200 different substances in attempting to find a filament for his incandescent bulb. Someone once said to him, "You have failed more than 200 times; why don't you give up?"
His answer was, "Not at all. I have discovered more than 200 things that will not work. I will soon find one that will".
25. Your key for personal success is persistence, for persistence produces power. Let me tell you the story about one of America's most outstanding failures.
In 1831 he failed in business.
In 1832 he was defeated for the Legislature.
In 1833 he again failed in business.
In 1834 he was elected to the Legislature. In 1838 he was defeated for Speaker;
in 1840 defeated for Elector;
in 1843 defeated for Congress;
in 1846 elected to Congress; in 1855 defeated for Senate;
in 1856 defeated for Vice-President,
in 1858 defeated for Senate--in 1860 elected to President of the U.S.
His name? Abraham Lincoln.
26. To have been once brave men is not sufficient; it is harder to hold what you have gained than to gain it.
27. We cannot command our final perseverance, but must ask it from God.--St. Thomas Aquinas
28. Never give in! Never give in! Never, never, never, never--in anything great or small, large or petty--never give in except to convictions of honour & good sense.--Sir Winston Churchill
29. Even the woodpecker owes his success to the fact that he uses his head & keeps pecking away until he finishes the job the starts.
30. He greatly deceives himself who thinks that prayer perfects one without perseverance & obedience.
31. Though perseverance does not come from our power, yet it comes within our power.
32. Anyone can carry his burden, however hard, until nightfall. Anyone can do his work, however hard, one day. Anyone can live sweetly, patiently, lovingly, until the sun goes down. And this is all that life really is.--Robert Louis Stevenson