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Persistence

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Also: Perseverence, Steadfastness, Tenacity

Persistence means continuing to work toward a goal even when it takes a long time or things get tough. Without persistence, obstacles stop us; with persistence we learn from our failures – we work with them and use them as stepping stones instead of barriers. Persistence allows us to succeed where otherwise we might fail, because much of what matters in life requires sustained efforts and repeated attempts. The greater the accomplishment we seek, the more likely this is to be true.


Persistence in the service of a higher goal calls out many other virtues in us, because in order to persist we have to push ourselves beyond what is comfortable.

Persistence

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Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence.

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For me, losing a tennis match isn't failure, it's research.

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At first dreams seem impossible, then improbable, then inevitable.

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Success is the process of having a wonderful experience going for, getting, and having what you want.

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Source type: Website
http://geniuscatalyst.com/
Michael Neill
"There's no such thing as success"
http://geniuscatalyst.com/tipofthedaydb.php
Viewed on November 7, 2009
Contribution #3612


On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow.

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In one and the same fire, clay grows hard and wax melts.

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Drop by drop fills the pot.

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Those who would climb to a lofty height must go by steps, not leaps.

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from a letter to Augustine of Canterbury
Contribution #3461


Hope, O my soul, hope. You know neither the day nor the hour. Watch carefully, for everything passes quickly, even though your impatience turns a very short time into a long one.

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Source type: Book
The Way of Perfection
http://
Contribution #3460


The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything.

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Contribution #3442


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.

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No source entered for Contribution #3434


The breeze of grace is always blowing; set your sail to catch that breeze.

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Contribution #3404


Patience and tenacity are worth more than twice their weight of cleverness.

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Take down the stones from the wall and use them to cross the river.

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The companions of God are, in this day, the lump that must leaven the peoples of the world. They must show forth such trustworthiness, such truthfulness and perseverance, such deeds and character that all mankind may profit by their example. Tell him, no one in this world can claim any relationship to Me except those who, in all their deeds and in their conduct, follow My example, in such wise that all the peoples of the earth would be powerless to prevent them from doing and saying that which is meet and seemly.

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Source type: Sacred Text
Excellence in All Things
#3, #4
http://
Contribution #2710


Making your mark on the world is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. But it's not. It takes patience, it takes commitment, and it comes with plenty of failure along the way. The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won't. It's whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.

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speech, Jul. 12, 2006
Contribution #2538


It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get to where we are today, but we have just begun. Today we begin in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today.

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No source entered for Contribution #2528


The teenagers and college students who left their homes to march in the streets of Birmingham and Montgomery; the mothers who walked instead of taking the bus after a long day of doing somebody else's laundry and cleaning somebody else's kitchen — they didn't brave fire hoses and Billy clubs so that their grandchildren and their great-grandchildren would still wonder at the beginning of the 21st century whether their vote would be counted; whether their civil rights would be protected by their government; whether justice would be equal and opportunity would be theirs. . . . We have more work to do.

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Speech at Howard University, September 28, 2007
Contribution #2520


If you're walking down the right path and you're willing to keep walking, eventually you'll make progress.

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Source type: Website
Barack Obama
http://www.quotesandpoem.com/quotes/showquotes/author/barack-obama/20360
Viewed on November 5, 2008
Contribution #2514


We are not born all at once, but by bits. The body first, and the spirit later; and the birth and growth of the spirit, in those who are attentive to their own inner life, are slow and exceedingly painful. Our mothers are racked with the pains of our physical birth; we ourselves suffer the longer pains of our spiritual growth.

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The most successful people are those who are good at plan B.

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Change means movement. Movement means friction. Only in the frictionless vacuum of a nonexistent abstract world can movement or change occur without that abrasive friction of conflict.

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We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.

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It's a shallow life that doesn't give a person a few scars.

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Just don't give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there's love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong.

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Virtues Reflection Cards
http://www.virtuesproject.com
Contribution #2221


Be patient. Perplexity is the beginning of knowledge.

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Source type: Book
The Way of the Master
by trans. Anthony R. Ferris
Page 87
Published by Citadel Press , New York , 1958
http://
Contribution #2152


There is no shortcut to achievement.

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Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, 'Where have I gone wrong?' Then a voice says to me, 'This is going to take more than one night. -- Charlie Brown

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All the great speakers were bad speakers once.

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If you have a job without aggravations, you don't have a job.

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The drive to be useful is encoded in our genes. But when we gather in very large numbers, as in the modern nation-state, we seem capable of levels of folly and self-destruction to be found nowhere else in all of nature. But if we keep at it and keep alive, we are in for one surprise after another. We can build structures for human society never seen before, thoughts never heard before, music never heard before.

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No source entered for Contribution #1787


If our knowledge is, as I believe, only an island in an infinite sea of ignorance, how can we in our short lifetime find satisfaction in exploring our little island? How can we persuade ourselves to be exhilarated by our meager knowledge and yet not be discouraged by the ocean vistas?

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Source type: Book
Living Philosophies
Page "The Amateur Spirit"
http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/amateur/amateur.html
Contribution #1733


A man of clear ideas errs grievously if he imagines that whatever is seen confusedly does not exist; it belongs to him, when he meets with such a thing, to dispel the midst, and fix the outlines of the vague form which is looming through it.

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Source type: Book
Bentham
http://
Contribution #1710


A coin makes a thousand coins in a thousand days.  In time, a rope may saw through a tree, and dripping water can wear away stone. 

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The force of the waves is in their perserverance.

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When you get into a tight place and it seems that you can't go on, hold on--for that's just the place and the time that the tide will turn.

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Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.

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All ancient books which have once been called sacred by man, will have their lasting place in the history of mankind, and those who possess the courage, the perseverance, and the self-denial of the true miner, and of the true scholar, will find even in the darkest and dustiest shafts what they are seeking for,--real nuggets of thought, and precious jewels of faith and hope.

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Source type: Book
Introduction to the Upanishads Vol. II.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/about.htm
Contribution #1372


Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, more intelligently.

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Patience and perseverance at length
Accomplish more than anger or brute strength.

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Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.

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Inside of a ring or out, ain't nothing wrong with going down. It's staying down that's wrong.

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Source type: Website
Muhammad Ali
http://www.ealasaid.com/quotes/a-c.html
Viewed on May 12, 2008
Contribution #1270


We are born in this world to lose as well as to gain, to have happiness as well as misery. Enrich your mind by understanding this and improve, gaining stability thereby.

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Source type: Website
Swami Boomananda Tirtha
http://wiki.seedsofcompassion.org
Contribution #1062


Give the world the best you've got.  It may not be enough.  Do good anyway.

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Source type: Website
Mother Theresa
http://wiki.seedsofcompassion.org
Contribution #1056


What is the use of merely listening to lectures?  The real thing is practice.

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Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.

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Source type: Website
John Quincy Adams
http://www.answers.com/topic/john-quincy-adams
Viewed on April 18, 2008
Contribution #921


Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.

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Source type: Sacred Text
Talmud
http://
Contribution #759


At every crossway on the path that leads to the future, each progressive spirit is opposed by a thousand men appointed to guard the past.  Let us have no fear that the fair towers of former days be sufficiently defended.  The least that the most timid among us can do is not to add to the immense dead weight that nature drags along.

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Nothing can take the place of persistence.

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Children also need opportunities to practice being less than perfect. They can afford to be ill tempered with us because it is our love that is most constant. This is the essence of unconditional love.... Our steadfast love provides a safe haven.

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Source type: Website
Cathy Rinder Tempelson
Viewed on April 11, 2008
Contribution #509


Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.

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