Men talk as if victory were something fortunate. Work is victory.
Interpretation
Victory comes from hard work rather than mere luck.
In this quote, Ralph Waldo Emerson emphasizes that true success and victory are the results of consistent effort and diligence, rather than mere chance or fortune. He suggests that individuals should find value and glory in the work they put into their endeavors, as this is the essence of achieving meaningful accomplishments.
In practice
During a graduation speech to inspire students about the value of hard work.
It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.
Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.
Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations
Tis the good reader that makes the good book; a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakeably meant for his ear.
The world belongs to the energetic.
Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
One of my great breaks is I have only done work I wanted to do.
We know it well that none of us acting alone can achieve success.
I think my constant fiddling and meddling with the status quo may have been one of my biggest contributions to the later success of Wal-Mart.
Success in investing doesnβt correlate with I.Q. Once you are above the level of 25; once you have ordinary intelligence, what you need is the temperament to control the urges that get other people into trouble in investing.
Set a goal to become a millionaire for what it makes of you to achieve it. Do it for the skills you have to learn and the person you have to become.
Creating opportunities means looking where others are not.
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