Quotes about Effort

Being a great writer is not the same as writing great.

It's the truth. It just felt like the whole business was fetching and hauling, all the time trying to hold this mess together she was making all the time.

Remember this your lifetime through: Tomorrow there will be more to do. And failure waits for all who stay With some success made yesterday. Tomorrow you must try once more, And even harder than before.

Success is peace of mind in knowing you did your best.

If you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing anything. I'm positive that a doer makes mistakes.

Remember, results aren't the criteria for success — it's the effort made for achievement that is most important.

Did I win? Did I lose? Those are the wrong questions. The correct question is: Did I make my best effort? That's what matters. The rest of it just gets in the way.

Perfection is what you are striving for, but perfection is an impossibility. However, striving for perfection is not an impossibility. Do the best you can under the conditions that exist. That is what counts.

The heights by great men reached and kept, Were not attained by sudden flight. But they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upward in the night." —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

It's so easy to relax, to cut corners, to let down after you've reached your goal, and begin thinking you can just "turn it on" automatically, without proper preparation. It takes real character to keep working as hard or even harder once you're there.

John Wooden focused almost entirely on improvement in the present moment. He let the score—winning—take care of itself. Don't let yesterday take up too much of today.

You never fail if you know in your heart that you did the best of which you are capable. I did my best. That is all I could do. Are you going to make mistakes? Of course. But it is not failure if you make the full effort.