If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.
Interpretation
Determination and perseverance, rather than strength, lead to great accomplishments.
In this quote, Samuel Johnson highlights the importance of determination and hard work in achieving success. He suggests that even when faced with challenges, one should not lose hope because with diligence and skill, most things are attainable. The essence of great achievements lies not in mere physical strength, but in the relentless pursuit and perseverance over time.
In practice
In a motivational speech to inspire students facing exams.
To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example.
He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and obscure sentences, and asks why books are written which cannot be understood.
To let friendship die away by negligence and silence is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to throw away one of the greatest comforts of the weary pilgrimage.
Fly-fishing may be a very pleasant amusement; but angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other.
When any anxiety or gloom of the mind takes hold of you, make it a rule not to publish it by complaining; but exert yourselves to hide it, and by endeavoring to hide it you drive it away.
A fishing rod is a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other.
For those who say you're thinking too big... be smart enough not to listen. For those who say the odds are too small ... be dumb enough to give it a shot. And for those who ask, how can you do that?... look them in the eyes and say, I'll figure it out.
You start in bars and then restaurants, then you want to get into comedy clubs where you feature, then you headline, and once you sell out clubs you're into theaters. I've been able to get there, and it's cool to do that.
If you talk about it, it's a dream, if you envision it, it's possible, but if you schedule it, it's real.
Our task is to become our best selves. One of God's greatest gifts to us is the joy of trying again, for no failure ever need be final.
Human beings are the only creatures who are allowed to fail. If an ant fails, it's dead. But we're allowed to learn from our mistakes and from our failures. And that's how I learn, by falling flat on my face and picking myself up and starting all over again.
Only by coming to grips with difficulty can you realize your full potential.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.