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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

“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

Related topics

doubt achievement science life trust courage success time understanding leaving invention seriousness virtue guilt sex value beginning writing ingratitude good

Related authors

Karl Marx (2)
Rainer Maria Rilke (2)
William Shakespeare (1)
John Green (1)
George Eliot (1)
Arthur Conan Doyle (1)
Adam Smith (1)
Confucius (1)
Martin Luther (1)
René Descartes (1)
Marcus Tullius Cicero (1)
Arnold Schwarzenegger (1)
Samuel Johnson (1)
Richard Branson (1)
Stephen King (1)
Mao Zedong (1)
Isaac Asimov (1)
Baruch Spinoza (1)

Related sources

Das Kapital (2)
Letters to a Young Poet (2)
Macbeth (1)
Middlemarch (1)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1)
The Wealth of Nations (1)
Analects (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)
Screw It, Let's Do It (1)
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (1)
Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (1)
Foundation (1)
Ethics (1)
Paper Towns (1)