success is the child of drudgery and perseverance. It cannot be coaxed or bribed; pay the price, and it is yours.
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God will not have his work made manifest by cowards.
Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.
I will not follow where the path may lead, but I will go where there is no path, and I will leave a trail.
Wrongly attributed
Universally attributed to Emerson, and it is in none of his essays, journals or letters. It is Muriel Strode, an American writer almost nobody has heard of, in the August 1903 issue of The Open Court. The rewriting is the interesting part: Strode wrote a vow in the first person about herself, and the version that circulates has been turned into an instruction issued to somebody else. Do not go where the path may lead is not what she said. I will not follow is.
If you’re going to do a job, do it right.
It doesn't matter to me any longer how long I live, what matters to me most is how I live.
Every man's first duty is, to improve, to educate, and elevate himself--helping forward his brethren at the same time by all reasonable methods.
There is a dignity in the very effort to save with a worthy purpose, even though the attempt should not be crowned with eventual success.
Perhaps there is no more important component of character than steadfast resolution.
Bodily vigor is good, and vigor of intellect is even better, but far above both is character.
It is never wrong to do the right thing.
How you do anything is how you do everything.
If a man knows the wherefore of his existence, then the manner of it can take care of itself.
Wrongly attributed
Usually quoted as Frankl's own: he who has a why to live can bear almost any how. Frankl never claimed it. He quotes Nietzsche in Man's Search for Meaning, and the line is Nietzsche's, from Twilight of the Idols in 1888. The familiar English wording matches no published translation of the period; Ludovici's 1911 rendering is the one above.
Do, every day, all that you can do that day, and do each act in an efficient manner.
So, if you want to change the world, don’t back down from the sharks.
When once a decision is reached and execution is the order of the day, dismiss absolutely all responsibility and care about the outcome.
Imperturbability means coolness and presence of mind under all circumstances, calmness amid storm, clearness of judgment in moments of grave peril, immobility, impassiveness, or, to use an old and expressive word, phlegm.
Let the day's work suffice; live for it, regardless of what the future has in store, believing that to-morrow should take thought for the things of itself.