Resilience & Perseverance quotes for UPSC & State PCS

Slow and steady wins the race.

Man errs as long as he strives.

The word impossible is not French.

The beginnings of all things are small.

What cannot be eschewed must be embraced

What does not kill me, makes me stronger.

I am a slow walker, but I never walk back.

I will be conquered; I will not capitulate.

Escape brings not the victory and the crown!

Our patience will achieve more than our force.

Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.

All the great speakers were bad speakers at first.

A man used to vicissitudes is not easily dejected.

Things ’twas hard to bear ’tis pleasant to recall.

Do not look back upon what has been done. Go ahead!

We must not say that every mistake is a foolish one.

Men do not stumble over mountains, but over molehills

Man needs difficulties; they are necessary for health.

France has lost a battle, but France has not lost the war.

A journey of a thousand [miles] starts with a single step.

It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.

You get tragedy where the tree, instead of bending, breaks.

We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated.

Endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty.

They who in trouble untroubled are Will trouble trouble itself.

The strongest of all warriors are these two — Time and Patience.

Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken.

I was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy.

Every adversity has the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit.

If you shed tears when you miss the sun, you also miss the stars.

Nothing happens to anyone that he can't endure. (Hays translation)

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

All becoming and growing—all that guarantees a future—involves pain.

Oh, but you know, you do not achieve anything without trouble, ever.

If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished?

Come what come may, Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.

The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it.

Light finds her treasure of colours through the antagonism of clouds.

The only man who makes no mistakes is the man who never does anything.

The only lost cause is one we give up on before we enter the struggle.

Man needs his difficulties because they are necessary to enjoy success.

Life could not change the sun or water the desert, so it changed itself.

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.

That the situation is hopeless should not prevent us from doing our best.

This world is the great gymnasium where we come to make ourselves strong.

A happy life consists not in the absence, but in the mastery of hardships.

I am not ready to die because it requires infinitely higher courage to live.

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

It is man's consolation that the future is to be a sunrise instead of a sunset.

Setbacks in trying to realize the ideal do not prove that the ideal is at fault.

No circumstance is ever so desperate that one cannot nurture some spark of hope.

There are victories of the soul and spirit. Sometimes, even if you lose, you win.

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope.

For myself I am an optimist — it does not seem to be much use being anything else.

Only after Winter comes do we know that the pine and the cypress are the last to fade.

Believe in life! Always human beings will progress to greater, broader, and fuller life.

Even in the most uneventful of our lives, we are called upon to choose our battles (p165)

Life is never fair, Robert. And perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that is is not.

If you are wholly perplexed and in straits, have patience, for patience is the key to joy.

Where there's hope, there's life. It fills us with fresh courage and makes us strong again.

It's the great mystery of human life that old grief passes gradually into quiet tender joy.

Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.

In great dangers, the small hope of overcoming them draws desperate strength from the spirit.

In order not to be astonished at obtaining victories, one ought not to think only of defeats.

Take up an idea, devote yourself to it, struggle on in patience, and the sun will rise for you.

The greater the calamity, [he once wrote] the tougher the fibre. It is tragedy that makes a man.

No one should be discouraged, Theaetetus, who can make constant progress, even though it be slow.

Dostoevsky was made by being sent to Siberia. Writers are forged in injustice as a sword is forged.

Translation: It is not miserable to be blind; it is miserable to be incapable of enduring blindness.

You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.

Never measure the height of a mountain until you have reached the top. Then you will see how low it was.

What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight — it's the size of the fight in the dog.

The most desirable quality in a soldier is constancy in the support of fatigue; valor is only secondary.

The meaning and design of a problem seem not to lie in its solution, but in our working at it incessantly.

How many seemingly impossible things have been accomplished by resolute men because they had to do, or die.

I do not know whether I shall make progress; but I should prefer to lack success rather than to lack faith.

Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

Where we find a difficulty we may always expect that a discovery awaits us. Where there is cover we hope for game.

Perhaps we cannot raise the winds. But each of us can put up the sail, so that when the wind comes we can catch it.

A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still.

It is the cheerful mind that is persevering. It is the strong mind that hews its way through a thousand difficulties.

Remember that the storm is a good opportunity for the pine and the cypress to show their strength and their stability.

Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.

This life is a hard fact; work your way through it boldly, though it may be adamantine; no matter, the soul is stronger.

Great undertakings are always fraught with many obstacles. It is these obstacles which knock and shape great characters.

He is happy, whose circumstances suit his temper; but he is more excellent, who can suit his temper to any circumstances.

To be like the rock that the waves keep crashing over. It stands unmoved and the raging of the sea falls still around it.

Struggle is everywhere, without struggle no life, and if we want to go on living, we must be ready for further struggles.

We must keep moving. If you can't fly, run; if you can't run, walk; if you can't walk, crawl; but by all means keep moving.

Everyone can rise above their circumstances and achieve success if they are dedicated to and passionate about what they do.

Yet I argue not Against Heav'n's hand or will, nor bate one jot Of heart or hope; but still bear up, and steer Right onward.

Prison itself is a tremendous education in the need for patience and perseverance. It is above all a test of one's commitment.

Admire the diamond that can bear the hits of a hammer. Many deceptive preachers, when critically examined, turn out to be false.

You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I'll rise.

The remedy for weakness is not brooding over weakness, but thinking of strength. Teach men of strength that is already within them.

The older I get, the greater power I seem to have to help the world; I am like a snowball — the further I am rolled the more I gain.

Don't judge the future of a person based on his present conditions, because time has the power to change black coal to shiny diamond.

We must overcome difficulty by constant practice. We must learn that nothing can happen to us unless we make ourselves susceptible to it.

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.

Let us be firm, pure and faithful; at the end of our sorrow, there is the greatest glory of the world, that of the men who did not give in.

I honestly believe that history will be kinder to me than the contemporary media, or for that matter, the Opposition parties in Parliament.

To hope means to be ready at every moment for that which is not yet born, and yet not become desperate if there is no birth in our lifetime.

All birds find shelter during a rain, but eagle avoids rain by flying above the clouds. Problems are common, but attitude makes the difference.

The cucumber is bitter? Then throw it out. There are brambles in the path? Then go around them. That's all you need to know. (Hays translation)

I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life; I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.

This discipline and rough treatment are a furnace to extract the silver from the dross. This testing purifies the gold by boiling the scum away.

Failure is a state of mind. It’s like one of those sand traps an ant lion digs. You keep sliding back. Takes one hell of a jump to get out of it.

Hard is it to be in the world, free, yet living the life of ordinary men; but because it is hard, therefore it must be attempted and accomplished.

If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death.

Impatience is a great obstacle to success; he who treats everything with brusqueness gathers nothing, or only immature fruit which will never ripen.

When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.

Difficulties in your life do not come to destroy but to help you realize your hidden potential and power. Let difficulties know that you too are difficult.

So next time someone complains that you have made a mistake, tell him that may be a good thing. Because without imperfection, neither you nor I would exist.

When life is too easy for us, we must beware or we may not be ready to meet the blows which sooner or later come to everyone, rich or poor. (23 February 1940)

Try to exclude the possibility of suffering which the order of nature and the existence of free-wills involve, and you find that you have excluded life itself.

Very often when we have found ourselves forever separated from what we had intended to achieve, we have already, on our way, found something else worth desiring.

So remember this principle when something threatens to cause you pain: the thing itself was no misfortune at all; to endure it and prevail is great good fortune.

In every attempt there will be one set of men who will applaud, and another who will pick holes. Go on doing your own work, what need have you to reply to any party?

There are times when we must sink to the bottom of our misery to understand truth, just as we must descend to the bottom of a well to see the stars in broad daylight.

I never lose an opportunity of urging a practical beginning, however small, for it is wonderful how often in such matters the mustard-seed germinates and roots itself.

Sober perseverance is more effective than enthusiastic emotions, which are all too capable of being transferred, with little difficulty, to something different each day.

There never has been security. No man has ever known what he would meet around the next corner; if life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor.

The art of life is more like the wrestler's art than the dancer's, in respect of this, that it should stand ready and firm to meet onsets which are sudden and unexpected.

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.

Difficulties break some men but make others. No axe is sharp enough to cut the soul of a sinner who keeps on trying, one armed with the hope that he will rise even in the end.

It is a waste of time to be angry about my disability. One has to get on with life and I haven't done badly. People won't have time for you if you are always angry or complaining.

But no wall can be erected against Fortune which she cannot take by storm; let us strengthen our inner defences. If the inner part be safe, man can be attacked, but never captured.

There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.

A time when all such good things will be for all men may be coming more nearly than we think. Each one who believes that brings the good time nearer; each heart that fails delays it.

Always fall in with what you're asked to accept. Take what is given, and make it over your way. My aim in life has always been to hold my own with whatever's going. Not against: with.

Who best Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best: his state Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed, And post o'er land and ocean without rest; They also serve who only stand and wait.

Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.

Let my skin and sinews and bones dry up, together with all the flesh and blood of my body! I welcome it! But I will not move from this spot until I have attained the supreme and final wisdom.

The abolition of the evil is not impossible; it ought never therefore to be despaired of. Every plan should be adopted, every experiment tried, which may do something towards the ultimate object.

Because I remember, I despair. Because I remember, I have the duty to reject despair. I remember the killers, I remember the victims, even as I struggle to invent a thousand and one reasons to hope.

The suffering man ought really 'to consume his own smoke'; there is no good in emitting smoke till you have made it into fire, — which, in the metaphorical sense too, all smoke is capable of becoming!

...what really counts is not the immediate act of courage or of valor, but those who bear the struggle day in and day out — not the sunshine patriots but those who are willing to stand for a long period of time.

If only we arrange our life according to that principle which counsels us that we must hold to the difficult, then that which now still seems to us the most alien will become what we most trust and find most faithful.

The victim should have the right to end his life, if he wants. But I think it would be a great mistake. However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. While there's life, there is hope.

Meanwhile, hold fast to this thought, and grip it close: yield not to adversity; trust not to prosperity; keep before your eyes the full scope of Fortune’s power, as if she would surely do whatever is in her power to do.

Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained.

You may never be able to come back to the place you have left, nor can you undo the wrongs that you have done. But you can always begin again. You can cleanse the heart, you can remake your life, you can rebuild character.

...undefiled by pleasures, invulnerable to any pain, untouched by arrogance, unaffected by meanness, an athlete in the greatest of all contests—the struggle not to be overwhelmed by anything that happens. (Hays translation)

Need and struggle are what excite and inspire us; our hour of triumph is what brings the void. Not the Jews of the captivity, but those of the days of Solomon's glory are those from whom the pessimistic utterances in our Bible come.

Perhaps its destruction has been brought about only that it may be raised up again to a better destiny. Oftentimes a reverse has but made room for more prosperous fortune. Many structures have fallen only to rise to a greater height.

I fervently wish no misery ever came near anyone; yet it is that alone that gives us an insight into the depths of our lives, does it not? In our moments of anguish, gates barred forever seem to open and let in many a flood of light.

Isn't it the moment of most profound doubt that gives birth to new certainties? Perhaps hopelessness is the very soil that nourishes human hope; perhaps one could never find sense in life without first experiencing its absurdity. . .

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.

To remain indifferent to the challenges we face is indefensible. If the goal is noble, whether or not it is realized within our lifetimes is largely irrelevant. What we must do, therefore, is to strive and persevere and never give up.

Temporary defeat should mean only one thing, the certain knowledge that there is something wrong with your plan. Millions of men go through life in misery and poverty, because they lack a sound plan through which to accumulate a fortune.

Whence come the highest mountains? I once asked. Then I learned that they came out of the sea. The evidence is written in their rocks and in the walls of their peaks. It is out of the deepest depth that the highest must come to its height.

O light! This is the cry of all the characters of ancient drama brought face to face with their fate. This last resort was ours, too, and I knew it now. In the middle of winter I at last discovered that there was in me an invincible summer.

If thou think defeat is the end of thee, then go not forth to fight, even though thou be the stronger. For Fate is not purchased by any man nor is Power bound over to her possessors. But defeat is not the end, it is only a gate or a beginning.

The strongest oak tree of the forest is not the one that is protected from the storm and hidden from the sun. It’s the one that stands in the open where it is compelled to struggle for its existence against the winds and rains and the scorching sun.

It is seldom that we find either men or places such as we expect them. ... Yet it is necessary to hope, though hope should always be deluded, for hope itself is happiness, and its frustrations, however frequent, are yet less dreadful than its extinction.

The day may dawn when fair play, love for one's fellow men, respect for justice and freedom, will enable tormented generations to march forth triumphant from the hideous epoch in which we have to dwell. Meanwhile, never flinch, never weary, never despair.

Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer. You have only to persevere to save yourselves, and to save all those who rely upon you. You have only to go right on, and at the end of the road, be it short or long, victory and honor will be found.

No matter how dark the cloud, there is always a thin, silver lining, and that is what we must look for. The silver lining will come, if not to us then to next generation or the generation after that. And maybe with that generation the lining will no longer be thin.

Black holes ain't as black as they are painted. They are not the eternal prisons they were once thought. Things can get out of a black hole, both to the outside, and possibly to another universe. So if you feel you are in a black hole, don't give up. There's a way out.

We have been troubled about the world, and had almost lost faith in man; it helps to think about the long history of the earth, and of how life came to be. And when we think in terms of millions of years, we are not so impatient that our own problems be solved tomorrow.

Not to feel exasperated, or defeated, or despondent because your days aren't packed with wise and moral actions. But to get back up when you fail, to celebrate behaving like a human--however imperfectly--and fully embrace the pursuit that you've embarked on. (Hays translation)

I am struck by the incredible role played by the interplay of chance events with intentional choices. While the turning points themselves are indeed often fortuitous, how we respond to them is anything but so. It is this very quality of how we respond systematically to chance events that is crucial.

We know that progress can always be reversed, and that positive change is achieved not through passion alone, but through patient and persistent effort. But we’ve seen things change for the better in this region and around the world because of the effort of ordinary people, together -- working together.

Self-made men are the men who, under peculiar difficulties and without the ordinary helps of favoring circumstances, have attained knowledge, usefulness, power and position and have learned from themselves the best uses to which life can be put in this world, and in the exercises of these uses to build up worthy character.

Strength is Life, Weakness is death.

Character is the virtue of hard times.

The work of creation is never without travail.

The crisis of yesterday is the joke of to-morrow.

Dangers await only those who do not react to life.

He who fears being conquered is certain of defeat.

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.

A wise man never loses anything, if he has himself.

Arise, awake and Stop not till the Goal is Reached.

A great pilot can sail even when his canvas is rent.

A scholar who loves comfort is not worthy of the name.

What people see as fearlessness is really persistence.

Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.

The roots of education ... are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.

If we have our own why in life, we shall get along with almost any how.

What's old collapses, times change, And new life blossoms in the ruins.

We make a ladder of our vices, if we trample those same vices underfoot.

There is no resting place for a nation or a people on their onward march.

No right way is easy in this rough world. We must risk our lives to save them.

Never underestimate the role of luck in the fate of individuals or of nations.

One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.

We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed.

Of freedom and of life he only is deserving Who every day must conquer them anew.

Only it takes time to be happy. A lot of time. Happiness, too, is a long patience.

Nothing ever comes to me, that is worth having, except as the result of hard work.

Constant practice devoted to one subject often prevails over both ability and skill.

Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once.

They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea.

There are occasions when it pays better to fight and be beaten than not to fight at all.

At last he rose, and twitched his mantle blue: Tomorrow to fresh woods and pastures new.

Every progress has its bill of costs and only those who pay for it will have that progress.

Difficulty attracts a man of character, for it is by embracing it that he fulfills himself.

Time will be gained, and time usually provides a sweet ending for many bitter difficulties.

Translation: The success of most things depends upon knowing how long it will take to succeed.

Men are quick to praise and quick to blame; so pay no heed to what others speak of you. (1023)

How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

Things are not so painful and difficult of themselves, but our weakness or cowardice makes them so.

It is in the character of growth that we should learn from both pleasant and unpleasant experiences.

Life only demands from you the strength you possess. Only one feat is possible — not to have run away.

Just as a solid rock is not shaken by the storm, even so the wise are not affected by praise or blame.

I forbid you to be cast down or depressed. It is not enough if you do not shrink from work; ask for it.

The man, who in a fit of melancholy, kills himself today, would have wished to live had he waited a week.

The lotus’ stem is as long as the depth of water, So men’s height is just as great as their inner strength.

Choose not to be harmed—and you won't feel harmed. Don't feel harmed—and you haven't been. (Hays translation)

We are all different — but we share the same human spirit. Perhaps it's human nature that we adapt — and survive.

Self-pity in its early stages is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable.

True character stands the test of emergencies. Do not be mistaken, it is weakness from which the awakening is rude.

Flaming enthusiasm, backed up by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success.

Resting on your laurels is as dangerous as resting when you are walking in the snow. You doze off and die in your sleep.

The bitterest tragic element in life to be derived from an intellectual source is the belief in a brute Fate or Destiny.

Just as man cannot live without dreams, he cannot live without hope. If dreams reflect the past, hope summons the future.

All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark.

Have patience awhile; slanders are not long-lived. Truth is the child of time; erelong she shall appear to vindicate thee.

Life is going to give you just what you put in it. Put your whole heart in everything you do, and pray, then you can wait.

The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning. Uncertainty is the very condition to impel man to unfold his powers.

It is the part of cowardice, not of courage, to go and crouch in a hole under a massive tomb, to avoid the blows of fortune.

Great work requires great and persistent effort for a long time. … Character has to be established through a thousand stumbles.

It is the duty of righteous men to make war on all undeserved privilege, but one must not forget that this is a war without end.

Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will stand adversity.

Drop by drop is the water pot filled. Likewise, the wise man, gathering it little by little, fills himself with good. (Verse 122)

The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.

Is life so wretched? Isn't it rather your hands which are too small, your vision which is muddied? You are the one who must grow up.

I keep the subject constantly before me, and wait 'till the first dawnings open slowly, by little and little, into a full and clear light.

Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.

To the question whether I am a pessimist or an optimist, I answer that my knowledge is pessimistic, but my willing and hoping are optimistic.

Of any man at all it is to err, to persist in error is of none except unthinking; for the later thoughts, as they say, are usually the wiser.

The truly good and wise man will bear all kinds of fortune in a seemly way, and will always act in the noblest manner that the circumstances allow.

Some of your hurts you have cured, And the sharpest you still have survived, But what torments of grief you endured From evils which never arrived!

Victory belongs to those who can say 'Victory is mine'. Success belongs to those who can begin saying 'I will succeed' and say 'I have succeed' in the end.

When old words die out on the tongue, new melodies break forth from the heart; and where the old tracks are lost, new country is revealed with its wonders.

In a world, man must create his own essence: it is in throwing himself into the world, suffering there, struggling there, that he gradually defines himself.

Inventors and geniuses have almost always been looked on as no better than fools at the beginning of their career, and very frequently at the end of it also.

Character, courage, industry and perseverance are the four pillars on which the whole edifice of human life can be built and failure is a word unknown to me.

Selma teaches us, as well, that action requires that we shed our cynicism. For when it comes to the pursuit of justice, we can afford neither complacency nor despair.

It is for real that injustice and oppression will not have the last word. There was a time when Hitler looked like he was going to vanquish all of Europe, and where is he now?

Nearly all our problems are made by humans and can be solved by humans. No social convention, no political system, no economic hypothesis, no religious dogma is more important.

Bad times have a scientific value. [...] We learn geology the morning after the earthquake, on ghastly diagrams of cloven mountains, upheaved plains, and the dry bed of the sea.

There is nothing in the world, I venture to say, that would so effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions, as the knowledge that there is a meaning in one’s life.

Socrates thought that if all our misfortunes were laid in one common heap, whence every one must take an equal portion, most persons would be contented to take their own and depart.

But by far the greatest obstacle to the progress of science and to the undertaking of new tasks and provinces therein is found in this — that men despair and think things impossible.

Man achieves in life only by commanding the capabilities nature has given him, or by creating them within himself by education and by knowing how to profit by the difficulties encountered.

The senses, moving toward their appropriate objects, are producers of heat and cold, pleasure and pain, which come and go and are brief and changeable; these do thou endure, O son of Bharata!

It is only by risking our persons from one hour to another that we live at all. And often enough our faith beforehand in an uncertified result is the only thing that makes the result come true.

A violent wind does not outlast the morning; a squall of rain does not outlast the day. Such is the course of Nature. And if Nature herself cannot sustain her efforts long, how much less can man!

All human beings have an innate skill — survival skill. The fact that poor are still alive is a proof of their ability to survive. We do not need to teach them how to survive. They know this already.

Virtue refuses facility for her companion ... the easy, gentle, and sloping path that guides the footsteps of a good natural disposition is not the path of true virtue. It demands a rough and thorny road.

Through failures one becomes intelligent; but the one who has trained himself in this subject so that he can make others wise through their own failures, has used his intelligence. Ignorance is not stupidity.

No doubt the reason is that character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.

In the case of most pains let this remark of Epicurus aid thee, that the pain is neither intolerable nor everlasting, if thou bear in mind that it has its limits, and if thou addest nothing to it in imagination...

The way of the superior man may be compared to what takes place in traveling, when to go to a distance we must first traverse the space that is near, and in ascending a height, when we must begin from the lower ground.

When one is over rated in this way, it is very natural to complain, or to feel disgust at the ingratitude of the world; tho' I believe with you, that to persevere in one's duty and be silent, is the best answer to calumny.

One cannot too soon forget his errors and misdemeanors. To dwell long upon them is to add to the offense. Repentance and sorrow can only be displaced by something better, which is as free and original as if they had not been.

The better a man is, the more mistakes will he make - for the more new things he will try. I would never promote a man into a top level job who had not made mistakes, and big ones at that. Otherwise he is sure to be mediocre.

The pursuit of peace and progress cannot end in a few years in either victory or defeat. The pursuit of peace and progress, with its trials and its errors, its successes and its setbacks, can never be relaxed and never abandoned.

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.

Most of us seldom take the trouble to think. It is a troublesome and fatiguing process and often leads to uncomfortable conclusions. But crises and deadlocks when they occur have at least this advantage, that they force us to think.

If life becomes hard to bear we think of a change in our circumstances. But the most important and effective change, a change in our own attitude, hardly even occurs to us, and the resolution to take such a step is very difficult for us.

We are what we are, because of the vibrations of thought which we pick up and register, through the stimuli of our daily environment. Resolve to throw off the influences of any unfortunate environment, and to build your own life to order.

Personal independence is a virtue and it is the soul out of which comes the sturdiest manhood. But there can be no independence without a large share of self-dependence, and this virtue cannot be bestowed. It must be developed from within.

A world full of happiness is not beyond human power to create; the obstacles imposed by inanimate nature are not insuperable. The real obstacles lie in the heart of man, and the cure for these is a firm hope, informed and fortified by thought.

What I cannot do now is the sign of what I shall do hereafter. The sense of impossibility is the beginning of all possibilities. Because this temporal universe was a paradox and an impossibility, therefore the Eternal created it out of His being.

Patience serves us against insults precisely as clothes do against the cold. For if you multiply your garments as the cold increases, that cold cannot hurt you; in the same way increase your patience under great offences, and they cannot hurt your feelings.

The voice of the intellect is a soft one, but it does not rest until it has gained a hearing. Ultimately, after endlessly repeated rebuffs, it succeeds. This is one of the few points in which it may be optimistic about the future of mankind, but in itself it signifies not a little.

Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and the glory of the climb.

In bitter despair, some people have come to believe that wars are inevitable. With tragic fatalism, they insist that wars have always been, of necessity, and of necessity wars always will be. To such defeatism, men and women of good will must not and can not yield. The outlook for humanity is not so hopeless.

The weakest living creature, by concentrating his powers on a single object, can accomplish something. The strongest, by dispensing his over many, may fail to accomplish anything. The drop, by continually falling, bores its passage through the hardest rock. The hasty torrent rushes over it with hideous uproar, and leaves no trace behind.