Effort quotes

Effort

3.6K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.

3.6K quotes

Explore further

Browse quotes that often appear alongside effort — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.

Quote collection

Effort quotes (page 45 of 179)

Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.

Marcel Proust Novelist
Effort

"What we have not had to decipher, to elucidate by our own efforts, what was clear before we looked at it, is not ours. From ourselves comes only that which we drag forth from the obscurity which lies within us, that which to others is unknown."

Read quote 3 likes
Harper Lee Novelist
Effort

"The remainder of my schooldays were no more auspicious than the first. Indeed, they were an endless Project that slowly evolved into a Unit, in which miles of construction paper and wax crayon were expended by the State of Alabama in its well-meaning but fruitless efforts to teach me Group Dynamics."

Read quote 3 likes
Nelson Mandela Political Leader
Effort

"We succeeded to take our last steps to freedom in conditions of relative peace. We commit ourselves to the construction of a complete, just and lasting peace. We have triumphed in the effort to implant hope in the breasts of the millions of our people."

Read quote 3 likes
Nhat Hanh Zen Master, Author
Effort

"The only answer to fear is more understanding. And there is no understanding if there is no effort to look more deeply to see what is there in our heart and in the heart of the other person."

Read quote 3 likes
Margaret Fuller Transcendentalist, Writer
Effort

"The highest ideal man can form of his own powers, is that which he is destined to attain. Whatever the soul knows how to seek, it cannot fail to obtain. This is the law and the prophets. Knock and it shall be opened, seek and ye shall find. It is demonstrated; it is a maxim."

Read quote 3 likes
Jakob Dylan Musician
Effort

"Artists are not going to put somebody new in the president's chair. It's all worth the effort; it all needs to be done. But I don't look at songwriting as having the ability to necessarily do that today."

Read quote 3 likes
Effort

"Some people can work their butts off and never get what they're aiming for while others can get it without any effort at all."

Read quote 3 likes
Effort

"You have to make an effort to always look at the good side, always think about the good things. Then you've got nothing to be afraid of. If something bad comes up, you do more thinking at that point."

Read quote 3 likes
Effort

"Me, I've seen 45 years and I've only figured out one thing. That's this: if a person would just make the effort, there's something to be learned from everything. From even the most ordinary, commonplace things, there's always something you can learn. I read somewhere that they said there's even different philosophies in razors. Fact is, if it weren't for that, nobody'd survive."

Read quote 3 likes
George Bernard Shaw Playwright, Critic
Effort

"Social questions are too sectional, too topical, too temporal to move a man to the mighty effort which is needed to produce greatpoetry. Prison reform may nerve Charles Reade to produce an effective and businesslike prose melodrama; but it could never produce Hamlet, Faust, or Peer Gynt."

Read quote 3 likes
George Carlin Comedian, Actor
Effort

"I'm not a person who thinks they can have it all, but I certainly feel that with a bit of effort and guile I should be able to have more than my fair share."

Read quote 3 likes
Effort

"Friendship among nations, as among individuals, calls for constructive efforts to muster the forces of humanity in order that an atmosphere of close understanding and cooperation may be cultivated."

Read quote 3 likes
Leo Tolstoy Novelist, Philosopher
Effort

"I asked: 'What is the meaning of my life, beyond time, cause, and space?' And I replied to quite another question: 'What is the meaning of my life within time, cause, and space?' With the result that, after long efforts of thought, the answer I reached was: 'None'."

Read quote 3 likes
Leo Tolstoy Novelist, Philosopher
Effort

"The more mental effort he made the clearer he saw that it was undoubtedly so: that he had really forgotten and overlooked one little circumstance in life - that Death would come and end everything, so that it was useless to begin anything, and that there was no help for it, Yes it was terrible but true"

Read quote 3 likes
George Sand Novelist, Memoirist
Effort

"When mental sickness increases until it reaches the danger point, do not exhaust yourself by efforts to trace back to original causes. Better accept them as inevitable and save your strength to fight against the effects."

Read quote 3 likes