Perseverance is keeping going after the reasons to stop have piled up. These quotes are less about grit for its own sake than about what makes it possible to continue.
Some are about the decision itself. Winston Churchill tells his old school to “never give in,” with one exception: “except to convictions of honour and good sense.” Lincoln asks his listeners to “dare to do our duty as we understand it,” “to the end.” Sachin Tendulkar’s father put it in terms an 11-year-old could carry: “The path might be difficult, but don’t give up.” And Madam C. J. Walker, born to parents freed from slavery, describes rising from “the cotton fields of the South” to the washtub and the kitchen, and then: “I promoted myself into the business.”
Some are about how the work feels while you’re in it. Thomas Edison, after thousands of failed experiments, says he has “gotten a lot of results”: “I know several thousand things that won’t work.” Vincent van Gogh says “the great doesn’t happen through impulse alone, and is a succession of little things that are brought together.” Auguste Rodin asks for “the patience of water that eats away the rock drop by drop.”
Two show what kept great artists going when it was hardest. Beethoven, going deaf, chose “Patience for my guide” and hoped the resolve would hold, “steadfastly to persevere.” Haydn, when “my powers both of body and mind failed,” kept working because his music might give the weary “a few moments’ rest and refreshment.”
Read together, they make perseverance less about toughness than about reasons: a decision made in advance, a way of counting progress, or someone the work is for.
The gift is nothing without the will to make it worth while. The artist must have the patience of water that eats away the rock drop by drop.
Often when contending with the obstacles of every sort opposed to my work, often when my powers both of body and mind failed, and I felt it a hard matter to persevere in the course I had entered on, a secret feeling within me whispered, 'There are but few contented and happy men here below; everywhere grief and care prevail, perhaps your labours may one day be the source from which the weary and worn or the man burdened with affairs may derive a few moments' rest and refreshment.' What a powerful motive to press onwards!
I am a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. From there I was promoted to the washtub. From there I was promoted to the cook kitchen. And from there I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations.
For the great doesn't happen through impulse alone, and is a succession of little things that are brought together.
Vincent van Gogh, Letter 274, to his brother Theo, The Hague (translated by the Van Gogh Museum and Huygens ING), 22 October 1882
Meaning and context
Never give in, never give in, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.
