Quotes · Skopia

28 quotes

1858

★ 1.1

Speech

I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life.

Theodore Roosevelt

1899

★ 1.3

Interview

Everybody I have ever known or read about who was really a great artist has worked until they dropped dead.

Arnold Newman

2009

★ 1.8

Religious literature

Whether we consider the manual industry of the poor, or the intellectual exertions of the superior classes, we shall find that diligent occupation, if not criminally perverted from its end, is at once the instrument of virtue and the secret of happiness. Man cannot be safely trusted with a life of leisure.

Hannah More

1813

★ 1.9

Newspaper

The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.

Stubby Currence

1935

★ 1.9

There is always hope in a man that actually and earnestly works; in Idleness alone is there perpetual despair.

Thomas Carlyle

1843

★ 1.9

Interview

Renoir painted his whole life long, down to his very last day. He painted a little still life of fruit, in bed, the day before he died.

Henri Matisse

1941

★ 1.9

Interview

Inspiration is for amateurs-the rest of us just show up and get to work.

Chuck Close

★ 1.9

Autobiography and memoir

There is no substitute for hard work.

Thomas Edison

1932

★ 2.0

Interview · Magazine

Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.

Thomas Edison

1932

★ 2.0

Poem · Magazine

Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Knickerbocker · 1838

★ 2.1

Novel

Diligence is the mother of good fortune, and idleness, its opposite, never led to good intention's goal.

Miguel de Cervantes

Don Quixote · 1615

★ 2.2

Play · Comedy (play)

Thou art not for the fashion of these times, Where none will sweat but for promotion.

William Shakespeare

As You Like It · 1616

★ 2.2

Political literature · Feminist literature

How can a rational being be ennobled by any thing that is not obtained by its own exertions?

Mary Wollstonecraft

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman · 1792

★ 2.9

Scripture · Religious literature

And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.

Colossians 3:23

★ 3.5

Luck, if you will, is something you work for, and the harder you work the more luck you have.

Esther Eberstadt Brooke

1940

★ 3.5

Film · Sports (film) · Comedy drama (film) · Sports · Comedy drama

It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.

Jimmy Dugan

A League of Their Own · 1992

★ 3.6

Discovering the truth about ourselves is a lifetime's work, but it's worth the effort.

Fred Rogers

2003

★ 3.6

Scripture · Religious literature

Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.

Ecclesiastes 9:10

931 BC

★ 3.7

Scripture · Religious literature

All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.

Proverbs 14:23

686 BC

★ 3.7

Play · Problem play

Things won are done; joy's soul lies in the doing.

William Shakespeare

Troilus and Cressida · 1603

★ 3.7

Poem · Satire

All wish to be learned, but no one is willing to pay the price.

Juvenal

Satires · 100

★ 3.8

Letter

No athlete is crowned but in the sweat of his brow.

St. Jerome

374

★ 3.8

Speech · Political speech

Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

First Inaugural Address of Franklin D. Roosevelt · 1933

★ 3.8

Novel

It is not the prize that can make us happy; it is not even the winning of the prize....[It is] the struggle, the long hot hour of the honest fight.... There is no human bliss equal to twelve hours of work with only six hours in which to do it.

Anthony Trollope

Orley Farm · 1862

★ 4.3

Almanac

God helps them that help themselves.

Benjamin Franklin

1736

★ 5.5

Almanac

Diligence is the mother of good luck.

Benjamin Franklin

1736

★ 7.6

Poem · Didactic poem

Between us and excellence, the gods have placed the sweat of our brows.

Hesiod

Works and Days · 700 BC

★ 7.6

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