Endeavour Quotes
More Endeavour Quotes
Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom, in the pursuit of truth as in the endeavour after a worthy manner of life.
bertrand russell— An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish (1943), 23.
My most neglected wife, till you are a much respected widow,I find you will scarce be a contented woman, and to say no more than the plain truth, I do endeavour so fairly to do you that last good service.
Rochester, John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of— c.1677 Letter to his wife, 20 Nov. InTheLetters ofJohnWilmot, Earl of Rochester, edited byJeremyTreglown (1980).
All the business of war, and indeed all the business of life, is to endeavour to find out what you don't know by what you do; that's what I called "guessing what was at the other side of the hill."
1st duke of wellington— Statement in conversation with John Crocker and Crocker's wife (4 September 1852), as quoted in The Croker Papers: The Correspondence and Diaries of the Late Right Honourable John Wilson Croker, LL.Dm F.R.S, Secretary of the Admiralty from 1809 to 1830 (1884), edited by Louis J. Jennings, Vol.III, p. 276.
Thus it comes about that the endeavour of primitive people to make a clean sweep of all their troubles generally takes the form of a grand hunting out and expulsion of devils and ghosts. They think that if they can only shake off these their accursed tormentors, they will make a fresh start in life, happy and innocent; the tales of Eden and the old poetic golden age will come true again.
james frazer— Chapter 56, The Public Expulsion of Evils
The division created by the English educated scholars who separate the Vedas and the Upanishads from the Puranas and thus make a distinction between the Vedic dharma and the Puranic dharma is a mistake born of ignorance . The Puranas are accepted as an authority on the Hindu dharma because they explain the knowledge contained in the Veda and the Upanishads to the average man, comment upon it, discuss it at great length and endeavour to apply it to the commonplace details of life .
— Sri Aurobindo, in "Sri Aurobindo Writings in Bengali Translated into English".
I am bound by my own definition of criticism: a disinterested endeavour to learn and propagate the best that is known and thought in the world.
Matthew Arnold— 1865 Essays in Criticism First Series,'The Function of Criticism at the Present Time'.
Men are grown mechanical in head and in the heart, as well as in the hand. They have lost faith in individual endeavour, and in natural force of any kind.
thomas carlyle— 1829 Signs of the Times.
Nihil nos conari, velle, appetere, neque cupere, quia id bonum esse judicamus; sed contra, nos propterea aliquid bonum esse judicare, quia id conamur, volumus, appetimus, atque cupimus. We endeavour, wish, desire, or long for nothing because we deem it good; but on the other hand, we deem a thing good because we endeavour, wish for, desire, or long for it.
Baruch also known as Benedict de Spinoza Spinoza— 1677 Ethics, bk.3, prop.9, note.
I will endeavour to put the word sex in capital letters on the cover of every issue of the Literary Review under my editorship, regardless of its actual contents? My purpose is simply to embolden booksellers.
Auberon Alexander Waugh— 1986 In the DailyTelegraph, 9 May.
All thebusiness of war, and indeedall thebusiness of life, isto endeavour to find out what you don't know by what you do; that's what I call 'guessing what was at the other side of the hill'.
— Quoted inJohnWilson Croker The Croker Papers (edited by Bernard Pool,1885), vol.3, ch.28.
Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience; but as blind obedience is ever sought for by power, tyrants and sensualists are in the right when they endeavour to keep women in the dark, because the former only want slaves, and the latter a play-thing.
— 1792 AVindication of the Rights ofWoman, pt.1, ch.2.
Our noisy years seem moments in the being Of the eternal silence: truths that wake, To perish never: Which neither listlessness, nor mad endeavour, Nor man nor boy, Nor all that is at enmity with joy, Can utterlyabolish or destroy! Hence in a season of calm weather, Though inland far we be, Our souls have sight of that immortal sea Which brought us hither, Can in a moment travel thither, And see the children sport upon the shore, And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore.
william wordsworth— c.1802-1803 'Ode. Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood', stanza 9 (published1807).
I regretted I was not the head of a clan; however, though not possessed of such an hereditary advantage, I would always endeavour to make my tenants follow me.
james boswell— (31 August 1773
We all wear some disguise — make some professions — use some artifice to set ourselves off as being better than we are; and yet it is not denied that we have some good intentions and praiseworthy qualities at bottom, though we may endeavour to keep some others that we think less to our credit as much as possible in the background…
william hazlitt— "On Cant and Hypocrisy"
Marketing, and the whole firm, should devote extraordinary endeavour towards delighting, keeping for ever and expanding the sales to the 20 per cent of customers who provide 80 per cent.
richard koch— p. 103 (The 80/20 principle: the secret of achieving more with less (1999))
I shall endeavour to discharge my duty to society, considering myself only as the citizen, moved by the melancholy necessity of taking up arms for the public safety.
— Letter to James Duane (1775), quoted in The Memoirs of Aaron Burr, ed. Matthew L. Davis (1837), vol. 1 [1]
I do not desire to give myself any fresh political label. Though the formation of the Union of Democratic Control it has been possible for me to work in close co-operation with several of your leaders and this joint effort on the part of the Labour members and radicals is having I think a very beneficial effect. I do not desire to alienate myself from any of my former political associates but rather to endeavour to urge them along the same path which I myself am treading.
arthur ponsonby— Letter to Herbert Bryan (19 May 1916)
Sweet Mercy! to the gates of Heaven This minstrel lead, his sins forgiven; The rueful conflict, the heart riven With vain endeavour, And memory of earth's bitter leaven Effaced forever.
william wordsworth— Thoughts Suggested on the Banks of the Nith, st. 10.
Thinking that it was time to bring down the Monarch from his raptures to the level of common sense, I determined to endeavour to open up to him some glimpses of the truth, that is to say of the nature of things in Flatland.
edwin abbot— Chapter 14. How I Vainly Tried to Explain the Nature of Flatland
Let it be our endeavour, let it be our task, to keep alight the torch of imperial patriotism, to hold fast the affection and the confidence of our kinsmen across the seas; so that in every vicissitude of fortune the British Empire may present an unbroken front to all her foes, and may carry on even to distant ages the glorious traditions of the British flag.
joseph chamberlain— Speech entitled 'The True Conception of Empire' to the Royal Colonial Institute (31 March, 1897).
"How then shall they have the play-games you allow them, if none must be bought for them?" I answer, they should make them themselves, or at least endeavour it, and set themselves about it. ...And if you help them where they are at a stand, it will more endear you to them than any chargeable toys that you shall buy for them.
john locke— Sec. 130 (Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693))
With useless endeavour Forever, forever, Is Sisyphus rolling His stone up the mountain!
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow— The Masque of Pandora, Chorus of the Eumenides, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
How can you hope to build up a nation by fragmenting its politics into opposing camps? Whatever one group builds, the other will endeavour to destroy.
muhammad reza pahlavi— As quoted in Asadollah Alam (1991), The Shah and I: The Confidential Diary of Iran's Royal Court, 1968-77, page 552
It is, of course, clear that a country with a large foreign population must endeavour, through its schools, to assimilate the children of immigrants. It is, however, unfortunate that a large part of this process should be effected by means of a somewhat blatant nationalism.
bertrand russell— Ch. 10: Modern Homogeneity.
In the Gospels, for instance, we sometimes find the kingdom of heaven illustrated by principles drawn from observation of this world rather than from an ideal conception of justice; ... They remind us that the God we are seeking is present and active, that he is the living God; they are doubtless necessary if we are to keep religion from passing into a mere idealism and God into the vanishing point of our thought and endeavour.
george santayana— Interpretations of Poetry and Religion (1900), p. 54
And I read the moral A brave endeavour To do thy duty, whate'er its worth, Is better than life with love forever, And love is the sweetest thing on earth.
— James J. Roche, Sir Hugo's Choice.
I shall always as far as I can by law endeavour to support the common law of the land and that excellent method of trial by juries, upon which all our lives, liberties and properties depend; and I shall endeavour as far as I can to prevent the encroachment of any jurisdiction whatever that proceeds by another law and another method of trial.
— Willes, Lord Chief Justice, Welles v. Trahern (1740), Willes' Rep. 241.
Although American decisions are not binding on us in this country, I have always found those on insurance law to be based on sound reasoning and to be such as ought to be carefully considered by us and with an earnest desire to endeavour to agree with them.
— Brett, L.J., Cory r. Burr (1882), L. R. 9 Q. B. D. i69.
