Real excellence does not come cheaply. A certain price must be paid in terms of practice, patience, and persistence—natural ability notwithstanding.
- Topic: Excellence, Patience, Persistence, Practice
More Quotes from Stephen Covey
We are the creative force of our life, and through our own decisions rather than our conditions, if we carefully learn to do things, we can accomplish those goals.
Be patient with yourself. Self-growth is tender; it’s holy ground. There’s no greater investment.
Almost every significant breakthrough is the result of a courageous break with traditional ways of thinking.
Admission of ignorance is often the first step in our education.
More on These Topics
I am not remotely interested in just being good.
Desire is the key to motivation, but it’s the determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal—a commitment to excellence—that will enable you to attain the success you seek.
The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential…these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.
All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.
Excellence is not a gift, but a skill that takes practice. We do not act ‘rightly’ because we are ‘excellent’, in fact we achieve ‘excellence’ by acting ‘rightly’.
Badness you can get easily, in quantity: the road is smooth, and it lies close by. But in front of excellence the immortal gods have put sweat, and long and steep is the way to it, and rough at first. But when you come to the top, then it is easy, even though it is hard.
How excellent is thy name in all the earth.
If happiness is activity in accordance with excellence, it is reasonable that it should be in accordance with the highest excellence.
If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been owning more to patient attention, than to any other talent.
Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.
No thing great is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.
Be patient with yourself. Self-growth is tender; it’s holy ground. There’s no greater investment.
Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.
Many people resented my impatience and honesty, but I never cared about acceptance as much as I cared about respect.
Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.
Persistence guarantees that results are inevitable.
You have to be burning with an idea, or a problem, or a wrong that you want to right. If you're not passionate enough from the start, you'll never stick it out.
We can do anything we want to if we stick to it long enough.
The secret of success is conviction and persistence.
Against all odds and despite all the obstacles, we are going to make it.
Four steps to achievement: Plan purposefully. Prepare prayerfully. Proceed positively. Pursue persistently.
To be able to practice five things everywhere under the heaven constitutes perfect virtue. . . gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness and kindness.
