When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,

When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,

When the funds are low and the debts are high

And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit,

Rest! If you must-but never quit.

Life is queer, with its twists and turns,

As every one of us sometimes learns,

And many a failure turns about

When he might of won if he'd stuck it out;

Stick to your task, though the pace seems slows-

You may succeed with one more blow.

Success is failure turned inside out-

The silver tint of the clouds of doubt-

And you may never can tell how close you are,

It may be near when it seems afar;

So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit-

It's when things seem worse that YOU MUSN'T QUIT.

~Anon.

You Musn't Quit

In all human affairs there are efforts, and there are results, and the strength of effort is the measure of the results.

~James Allen

When the thunder rumbles,

Now the age of gold is dead.

When the dreams we've clung to

Trying to stay young,

Have left us parched and old instead.

When my courage crumbles,

When I feel confused and frail,

When my spirit falters on decaying altars

And my illusions fail --

I go on right then.

I go on again.

I go on to say I will celebrate another day.

I go on.

If tomorrow tumbles

And everything I love is gone,

I will face regret all my days, and yet

I will still go on.

~ Leonard Bernstein

from Leonard Bernstein's Mass

Impossible is a word only to be found in the dictionary of fools.

~ Napoleon Bonaparte

Firmness in enduring and exertion is a character I always wish to possess. I have always despised the whining yelp of complaint and cowardly resolve.

~ Robert Burns

You can do what you have to do, and sometimes you can do it even better than you think you can.

~ Jimmy Carter

The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure , the process is its own reward.

~ Robyn Davidson

No man can fight his way to the top and stay at the top without exercising the fullest measure of grit, courage, determination, resolution. Every man who gets anywhere does so because he has first firmly resolved to progress in the world and then has enough stick-to-it-tiveness to transform his resolution into reality. Without resolution, no man can win any worthwhile place among his fellow men.

~ B. C. Forbes

An invincible determination can accomplish almost anything and in this lies the great distinction between great men and little men.

~ Thomas Fuller

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.

~ Samuel Johnson