The quote database

The tedium of that work is hard to conceive.

As I look back on my struggle to write that little story, it seems to me that I must have had a prophetic vision of the good that would come of the undertaking, or I should surely have failed.

Children who hear acquire language without any particular effort; the words that fall from others' lips they catch on the wing, as it were, delightedly, while the little deaf child must trap them by a slow and often painful process.

Do not then vainly imagine that you can obtain the heavenly possessions without making an effort.

Idleness and a strong will cannot go together, and procrastination is a total barrier to the acquisition of purposeful action.

Give scrupulous attention to the duty of the present moment.

Responsibility is null when nobody knows who is responsible; nor, even when real, can it be divided without being weakened.

There was a Care on my Mind so to pass my Time, that nothing might hinder me from the most steady Attention to the Voice of the true Shepherd.

Work is love made visible.

The observed worker should be made to realize the purpose and importance of the measurement. The observing should always be done with his full knowledge and hearty coöperation.

These possibilities of mental development are still further increased when the man makes his own records. This leads to closer attention, to more interest in the work, and to a realization of the man as to what the record really means, and what value it represents.

Pride in one's work is aroused as soon as work is functionalized. The moment a man has something to do that he likes to do, and can do well, he takes pride in it.

In rest you go beyond these limits, and beyond what is enough; but in action you do not fill the measure, and remain well within your powers.

the mind can convert and change everything that impedes its activity into matter for its action; hindrance in its work becomes its real help, and every obstruction makes for its progress

Am I equipped for nothing but to lie among the bed-clothes and keep warm?

Others, who love the art that they have made their own, exhaust themselves with labouring at it unwashed and unfed.

You must make up your mind to steady and earnest work. You must be content to get on slowly if you only get on thoroughly.

Shirking responsibility has never been a fault with which colored women might be truthfully charged.

With tireless energy and eager zeal, colored women have, since their emancipation, been continuously prosecuting the work of educating and elevating their race, as though upon themselves alone devolved the accomplishment of this great task.

If we stay in process, within ourselves, in the joy of the doing, we will never choke at the finish line.

The greatest snipers and marksmen in the world don’t aim at the target, they aim on the other side of it.

Most things are more rewarding when you break a sweat to get em.

We do our best when our destinations are beyond the “measurement,” when our reach continually exceeds our grasp, when we have immortal finish lines.

The progressive development of man is vitally dependent on invention.

The past material conditions of life have gone for ever; no will of man can recall them.