#perseverance

This is a world where things move at their own pace, including a tiny lift Fortey and I shared with a scholarly looking elderly man with whom Fortey chatted genially and familiarly as we proceeded upwards at about the rate that sediments are laid down. When the man departed, Fortey said to me: "That was a very nice chap named Norman who's spent forty-two years studying one species of plant, St. John's wort. He retired in 1989, but he still comes in every week." "How do you spend forty-two years on one species of plant?" I asked. "It's remarkable, isn't it?" Fortey agreed. He thought for a moment. "He's very thorough apparently." The lift door opened to reveal a bricked over opening. Fortey looked confounded. "That's very strange," he said. "That used to be Botany back there." He punched a button for another floor, and we found our way at length to Botany by means of back staircases and discreet trespass through yet more departments where investigators toiled lovingly over once-living objects. ↗

— Bill Bryson

#research #science #love

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 Macy

#brains #child #distinguishing #education #event

What it is saying is that someone who was a world champion and who takes care of himself with a 17-year rest and applies the proper training techniques and perseverance could be successful. ↗

— Mark Spitz

#care #champion #could #himself #perseverance

You never know what's around the corner. It could be everything. Or it could be nothing. You keep putting one foot in front of the other, and then one day you look back and you've climbed a mountain. ↗

— Tom Hiddleston

#goals #life #mountain #path #perseverance

Just because you fail once doesn't mean you're gonna fail at everything. ↗

— Marilyn Monroe

#failure #marilyn-monroe #perseverance #courage

Go back?" he thought. "No good at all! Go sideways? Impossible! Go forward? Only thing to do! On we go!" So up he got, and trotted along with his little sword held in front of him and one hand feeling the wall, and his heart all of a patter and a pitter. ↗

— J.R.R. Tolkien

#moving-forward #perseverance #courage

So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their endings. ↗

— J.R.R. Tolkien

#dragon #endurance #hobbit #inspiration #perseverance

I go dreaming into the future, where I see nothing, nothing. I have no plans, no idea, no project, and, what is worse, no ambition. Something – the eternal ‘what’s the use?’ – sets its bronze barrier across every avenue that I open up in the realm of hypothesis. ↗

— Gustave Flaubert

#depression #despair #perseverance #dreams

When your only regret is if anyone thinks you regret anything - that is the definition of conviction. ↗

— Criss Jami

#certainty #confidence #conviction #definition #faith

What our Heavenly Father wants us to do about our spiritual failures is like what our earthly father wants us to do about our earthly failures. When we fall off the horse, or the bike, or the high road to Heaven, we must simply climb on again as soon as we are aware of the fact that we have fallen off, rather than sitting there stewing in self-pity or self-hatred. ↗

— Peter Kreeft

#faith #god #humilty #perseverance #trust