Every creator painfully experiences the chasm between his inner vision and its ultimate expression. The chasm is never completely bridged. We all have the conviction, perhaps illusory, that we have much more to say than appears on the paper.
—Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902–91) Polish-born American Children’s Books Writer, Novelist, Short Story Writer
Topics: Acceptance, Realistic Expectations, Experience, Writing, Creativity
Eventually, we all need to be willing to face the deepest, darkest beliefs we have about ourselves. Only in this way can we come to know that they are only beliefs, and not the truth about who we are.
—Ezra Bayda
Commerce is a game of skill, which every man cannot play, which few men can play well. The right merchant is one who has the just average of faculties we call commonsense; a man of strong affinity for facts, who makes up his decision on what he has seen. He is thoroughly persuaded of the truths of arithmetic. There is always a reason, in the man, for his good or bad fortune; and so, in making money. Men talk as if there were some magic about this, and believe in magic, in all parts of life. He knows that all goes on the old road, pound for pound, cent for cent-for every effect a perfect cause-and that good luck is another name for tenacity of purpose.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Topics: Perseverance, Purpose, Business, Luck, Good, Life, Economics
When I work fourteen hours a day, seven days a week, I get lucky.
—Armand Hammer
Topics: Luck
Toleration is the greatest gift of the mind; it requires the same effort of the brain that it takes to balance oneself on a bicycle.
—Helen Keller (1880–1968) American Author
When a man feels throbbing within him the power to do what he undertakes as well as it can possibly be done, this is happiness, this is success.
—Orison Swett Marden (1850–1924) American New Thought Writer, Physician, Entrepreneur
Topics: Success, Strength
The way to get things done is not to mind who gets the credit of doing them.
—Benjamin Jowett
A friend is there before you know it, to lend a hand before you ask it, and give you love just when you need it most.
—Unknown
There is hardly any place or any company where you may not gain knowledge, if you please; almost everybody know some one thing, and is glad to talk about that one thing.
—Earl of Chesterfield
Topics: Knowledge
To attain happiness in another world we need only to believe something, while to secure it in this world we must needs do something.
—Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) American Sociologist, Novelist, Short Story Writer, Poet, Feminist
Topics: Happiness, Action, Procrastination, Getting Going, Inaction
The spirit of man communes with Heaven;
the omnipotence of Heaven resides in man.
Is the distance between Heaven and man very great?
—Hong Zicheng
An avowal of poverty is no disgrace to any man; to make no effort to escape it is indeed disgraceful.
—Thucydides
Topics: Poverty
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