Well, maybe a few of them you will.

But when I look for quotations, or do a search on a phrase (as happened last week with “plateau”) I’m often doing it not for motivation in my work life, but as inspiration for a story I’m working on around a particular theme. It gets me thinking. I try to find the quirky and humorous insights, and some of the darker threads, as well. I also strive for an equal number of quotations from men and women. In the world we live in, that takes some doing.

In addition to the regular quotation sites, I also peruse Goodreads, which gives my lists a literary bent. Though please please PLEASE Goodreads, do something about people who type EVERY SINGLE SENTENCE OF THEIR BOOK in as a separate quotation and then use 50 tags for each one. This sort of desperation marketing seems to be particularly common with people who write motivational books. If you ever want to prove that every word you write is not pure gold, use this technique.

At any rate, after an afternoon of sift and save, these are the quotations I like best.

If you’re having a writing block – or any other kind of block – perhaps one of these will, in fact, motivate or inspire – or at least hit home.

1.

Thankfully, perseverance is a great substitute for talent.  Steve Martin, Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life

2.

There is no faster way to harden my determination than to assume I will fail at it.  Marie Brennan, The Tropic of Serpents

3.

In the realm of ideas, everything depends on enthusiasm. … In the real world, all rests on perseverance.  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

4.

There was another thing bigger than the tiredness -and this was the strong crew purpose.  Carson McCullers, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

5.

Me and Call have always liked to get where we started for, even if it don’t make a damn bit of sense.  Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove

6.

A 41-inch bust and a lot of perseverance will get you more than a cup of coffee – a lot more. Jayne Mansfield

7.

We will either find a way or make one. Hannibal

8.

Nothing great is ever achieved without much enduring.  Catherine of Siena

9.

Success is a little like wrestling a gorilla. You don’t quit when you’re tired. You quit when the gorilla is tired.  Robert Strauss

10.

Does the road wind up-hill all the way? Yes, to the very end.  Christina Rossetti

11.

If we walk far enough, says Dorothy, we shall sometime come to someplace.  L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

12.

My courage and my resolution is firm; but my hopes fluctuate, and my spirits are often depressed.  Mary Shelley

13.

Let me tell your something. I’m from Chicago. I don’t break.  Barack Obama

 

14.

They outnumbered me, and I was worsted and under their feet; but, as yet, I was not dead.  Charlotte Brontë, Villette

15.

Brag is a good dog, but Holdfast is a better.  Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

16.

You don’t have to be strong to survive a bad situation; you simply need a plan.  Shannon L. Alder

17.

The Marine Corps teaches you how to be miserable. This is invaluable for an artist.   Steven Pressfield

18.

Maybe someday, if I succeed at something, I’ll stop saying, It isn’t fair about everything else.  Lois Lowry, A Summer to Die

19.

If you are going through hell, keep going. Winston Churchill

20.

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 must be attained. Marie Curie

21.

Perseverance – a lowly virtue whereby mediocrity achieves an inglorious success. Ambrose Bierce

22.

I was taught to strive not because there were any guarantees of success but because the act of striving is in itself the only way to keep faith with life.  Madeleine K. Albright, Madam Secretary: A Memoir

23.

To bathe a cat takes brute force, perseverance, courage of conviction – and a cat. The last ingredient is usually hardest to come by. Stephen Baker

24.

I believe that I am very lucky to have close friends who are faithful. From my friends, I have learned the importance of perseverance. Julia Cameron

25.

It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer. Albert Einstein

26.

I need a teacher quite as much as Helen. I know the education of this child will be the distinguishing event of my life, if I have the brains and perseverance to accomplish it. Anne Sullivan

27.

Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.  Henri Cartier-Bresson

28.

When you have a great and difficult task, something perhaps almost impossible, if you only work a little at a time, every day a little, suddenly the work will finish itself. Isak Dinesen

29.

The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won’t. Henry Ward Beecher

30.

Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure. George Eliot

31.

All of old. Nothing else ever. Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.  Samuel Beckett, Worstward Ho

32.

When you’re tired, sleep. Don’t watch stupid tv or play games on your phone. Sleep, and then get up early, and do the stuff you hope you’ll be known for after you die.  Maggie Stiefvater

33.

I promise I shall never give up, and that I’ll die yelling and laughing, and that until then I’ll rush around this world I insist is holy and pull at everyone’s lapel and make them confess to me and to all.  Jack Kerouac

34.

The drums of Africa still beat in my heart. They will not let me rest while there is a single Negro boy or girl without a chance to prove his worth.  Mary McLeod Bethune

 

35.

By perseverance the snail reached the ark. Charles Spurgeon

36.

Hardships make or break people.  Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind

37.

A dog teaches a boy fidelity, perseverance, and to turn around three times before lying down. Robert Benchley

38.

You go on. You set one foot in front of the other, and if a thin voice cries out, somewhere behind you, you pretend not to hear, and keep going. Geraldine Brooks, March

39.

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.  Martin Luther

40.

They are girls to whom things happen, and they take it hard. But I bear myself as more than a silly girl. I am the daughter of a water goddess. I am a woman with water in her veins and power in her breeding. I am a woman who makes things happen, and I am not defeated yet. I am not defeated by a boy with a newly won crown, and no man will ever walk away from me certain that he won’t walk back.  Philippa Gregory, The White Queen

41.

Few of us would regret the years it takes to complete an education or master a crucial skill. So why complain about the perseverance needed to become a well-balanced and truly compassionate human being?  Matthieu Ricard

 

42.

The only courage that matters is the kind that gets you from one moment to the next. Mignon McLaughlin

43.

Entrepreneurship: you put one dumb foot in front of the other while the world throws bricks at your head.  Peter Thiel

44.

There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.  Beverly Sills

45.

Only a weakling gives up when he’s becalmed! A strong man sails by ash breeze!  Jean Lee Latham, Carry On Mr. Bowditch

46.

You rarely win, but sometimes you do.  Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird.

47.

I’ve written for the waste basket so often that we’ve become friends. He writes too, but it’s mostly garbage.  Ryan Lilly

48.

Perseverance and audacity generally win.  Madame Dorothée De Luzy

49.

What is the victory of a cat on a hot tin roof? I wish I knew… Just staying on it, I guess, as long as she can…  Tennessee Williams, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

50.

You got up off the bathroom floor. That’s a start. Now, just stay off the floor  Sarah Spann, Wildflowers Come Back

51.

If you can quit, then quit. If you can’t quit, you’re a writer.  R.A. Salvatore

 

52.

Of course, in fairness, I must remind you of this: that we writers are the most lily-livered of all craftsmen. We expect more, for the most peewee efforts, than any other people.  Brenda Ueland, If You Want to Write

53.

Act out being alive, like a play. And after a while, a long while, it will be true.  John Steinbeck, East of Eden

 

What are your favorite quotations about perseverance and determination? Feel free to add to my list in the comments.