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Difficulty quotes

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“Writing fiction, especially a long work of fiction, can be a difficult, lonely job; it’s like crossing the Atlantic Ocean in a bathtub. There’s plenty of opportunity for self-doubt.” Stephen King, “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft” - 2000

“It is so hard to leave — until you leave. And then it is the easiest goddamned thing in the world.” John Green, “Paper Towns” - 2008

“What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult to each other?” George Eliot, “Middlemarch” - 1872

“Come what come may, time and the hour runs through the roughest day.” William Shakespeare, “Macbeth” - 1623

“where the willingness is great the difficulties cannot be great” Niccolò Machiavelli, “The Prince” - 1532

“Every noble work is at first impossible.” Thomas Carlyle, “Past and Present” - 1843

“the merit in all things consists in the difficulty.” Alexandre Dumas, “The Three Musketeers” - 1844

“There is nothing more stimulating than a case where everything goes against you.” Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Hound of the Baskervilles” - 1902

“The man whose whole life is spent in performing a few simple operations, of which the effects, too, are perhaps always the same, or very nearly the same, has no occasion to exert his understanding, or to exercise his invention, in finding out...” Adam Smith, “The Wealth of Nations” - 1776

“The man of virtue makes the difficulty to be overcome his first business, and success only a subsequent consideration;— this may be called perfect virtue.” Confucius, “Analects”

“It is easy enough to do good once or twice, but to keep on doing good without getting disgusted with the ingratitude of those whom we have benefited, that is not so easy.” Martin Luther, “Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians” - 1535

“There is no royal road to science, and only those who do not dread the fatiguing climb of its steep paths have a chance of gaining its luminous summits.” Karl Marx, “Das Kapital” - 1867

“Every beginning is difficult, holds in all sciences.” Karl Marx, “Das Kapital” - 1867

“The first was never to accept anything for true which I did not clearly know to be such; that is to say, carefully to avoid precipitancy and prejudice, and to comprise nothing more in my judgement than what was presented to my mind so clearly and...” René Descartes, “Discourse on the Method” - 1637

“But the greater the difficulty, the greater the glory; for no occasion arises that can excuse a man for being guilty of injustice.” Marcus Tullius Cicero, “On Duties” - 44 BC

“I didn’t mind basic training. It taught me that something that seems impossible at the start can be achieved.” Arnold Schwarzenegger, “Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story” - 2012

“Many things difficult to design prove easy to performance.” Samuel Johnson, “The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia” - 1759

“It made me aware that hard-won things are more valuable than those that come too easily.” Richard Branson, “Screw It, Let's Do It” - 2006

“In times of difficulty we must not lose sight of our achievements, must see the bright future and must pluck up our courage.” Mao Zedong, “Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung” - 1964

“It has been my philosophy of life that difficulties vanish when faced boldly, and I have never turned my back upon one yet.” Isaac Asimov, “Foundation” - 1951

“We know little, but that we must trust in what is difficult is a certainty that will never abandon us; it is good to be solitary, for solitude is difficult; that something is difficult must be one more reason for us to do it.” Rainer Maria Rilke, “Letters to a Young Poet” - 1929

“Sex is difficult; yes. But those tasks that have been entrusted to us are difficult; almost everything serious is difficult; and everything is serious. ” Rainer Maria Rilke, “Letters to a Young Poet” - 1929

“But all things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.” Baruch Spinoza, “Ethics” - 1677

“But starvation, unfortunately, didn't improve art. It only hindered it.” Charles Bukowski, “Factotum” - 1975

“Stick two different people with two different sets of expectations under one roof and it ain’t always going to be shrimp and grits on Easter.” Nicholas Sparks, “The Lucky One” - 2008

“This hobble of being alive is rather serious, don't you think so?” Thomas Hardy, “Tess of the d'Urbervilles” - 1891

“Men seek rest in a struggle against difficulties; and when they have conquered these, rest becomes insufferable.” Blaise Pascal, “Pensées” - 1670

“If there is anything disagreeable going on men are always sure to get out of it” Jane Austen, “Persuasion” - 1816

“Windmill or no windmill . . . life would go on as it had always gone on—that is, badly.” George Orwell, “Animal Farm” - 1945

“Experience is not worth the getting. It's not a thing that happens pleasantly to a passive you—it's a wall that an active you runs up against.” F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Beautiful and Damned” - 1922

“Sometimes she went so far as to wish that she might find herself some day in a difficult position, so that she should have the pleasure of being as heroic as the occasion demanded.” Henry James, “The Portrait of a Lady” - 1881

Related topics

life doubt work achievement science trust courage success time understanding leaving invention seriousness virtue guilt experience sex value overcoming beginning

Related authors

Karl Marx (2)
Rainer Maria Rilke (2)
William Shakespeare (1)
Jane Austen (1)
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1)
George Orwell (1)
John Green (1)
George Eliot (1)
Arthur Conan Doyle (1)
Adam Smith (1)
Confucius (1)
Thomas Hardy (1)
Thomas Carlyle (1)
Henry James (1)
Martin Luther (1)
René Descartes (1)
Marcus Tullius Cicero (1)
Charles Bukowski (1)
Alexandre Dumas (1)
Arnold Schwarzenegger (1)

Related sources

Das Kapital (2)
Letters to a Young Poet (2)
Macbeth (1)
The Beautiful and Damned (1)
Middlemarch (1)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1)
The Wealth of Nations (1)
Analects (1)
Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1)
The Portrait of a Lady (1)
Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians (1)
Discourse on the Method (1)
On Duties (1)
Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story (1)
The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1)
Pensées (1)
The Lucky One (1)
Screw It, Let's Do It (1)
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (1)
Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (1)