Youth eats all the sugared fancy cakes and regards them as its daily bread. But there'll come a time when you'll start asking just for a crust.
Ivan TurgenevRead
If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything is ready, we shall never begin.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Waiting for perfect conditions can prevent us from taking action.
This quote emphasizes the importance of taking initiative and starting tasks even when circumstances aren't ideal. It suggests that if we constantly wait for everything to be perfectly aligned, we may never take the first step towards our goals or projects, thus missing opportunities for growth and achievement.
Themes
ActionInitiativePerfectionismReadinessBeginning
In practice
Example use cases
Encouraging a friend who is hesitant about starting a new project due to fear of failure.
More from Ivan Turgenev
All quotes →To desire and expect nothing for oneself and to have profound sympathy for others is genuine holiness.
Ivan TurgenevRead
So many memories and so little worth remembering, and in front of me - a long, long road without a goal.
Ivan TurgenevRead
Whereas I think: I’m lying here in a haystack... The tiny space I occupy is so infinitesimal in comparison with the rest of space, which I don’t occupy and which has no relation to me. And the period of time in which I’m fated to live is so insignificant beside the eternity in which I haven’t existed and won’t exist... And yet in this atom, this mathematical point, blood is circulating, a brain is working, desiring something... What chaos! What a farce!
Ivan TurgenevRead
Death's an old joke, but each individual encounters it anew.
Ivan TurgenevRead
I walked in the meadows of green grieving for my life.
Ivan TurgenevRead
Similar quotes
Nothing is as important as passion. No matter what you want to do with your life, be passionate. The world doesn’t need any more gray. On the other hand, we can’t get enough color. Mediocrity is nobody’s goal and perfection shouldn’t be either. We’ll never be perfect. But remember these three P’s: Passion + Persistence = Possibility.
Jon Bon JoviRead
What you want will pull like a magnet. Here's the other part. What for? Purpose is stronger than object. It's the 'What for?' that's even more powerful than the object. And the more you can describe in detail to stir the emotion and the intellect and the spirit and the soul, then the more powerful the 'what for' is.
Jim RohnRead
Surround yourself with people who add the fuel of advice and encouragement to your fire.
Dave RamseyRead
To be able to have winning in your blood growing up, whether it was pounding my little brother or trying to beat my dad in something, or just competing on teams with my friends, it was nonstop.
Jordan SpiethRead
It's tough, but you can still find joy in the struggle. Going through a season with a lot of struggles, I got a lot of practice. You have to set yourself up for joy, give yourself the best opportunity to have that going on inside.
Maya MooreRead
At 25, I was in the audience of my first professional speaker, Bob Bales. His presentation got my attention. I had never seen anyone having so much fun 'at work' and getting paid for it!
Zig ZiglarRead