Staunch.

Rabbits (says Mr. Lockley) are like human beings in many ways. One of these is certainly their staunch ability to withstand disaster and to let the stream of their life carry them along, past reaches of terror and loss. They have a certain quality which it would not be accurate to describe as callousness or indifference. It is, rather, a blessedly circumscribed imagination and an intuitive feeling that Life is Now. A foraging wild creature, intent above all upon survival, is as strong as the grass.

Richard Adams, from Watership Down

Ever-Ongoing.

All my life I used to wonder what I would become when I grew up. Then, about seven years ago, I realized that I was never going to grow up—that growing is an ever-ongoing process.

M. Scott Peck

Thanks, Steve.

Learn.

A PSALM of LIFE

What The Heart Of The Young Man Said To The Psalmist.

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,

   Life is but an empty dream!

For the soul is dead that slumbers,

   And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!

   And the grave is not its goal;

Dust thou art, to dust returnest,

   Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,

   Is our destined end or way;

But to act, that each to-morrow

   Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,

   And our hearts, though stout and brave,

Still, like muffled drums, are beating

   Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world’s broad field of battle,

   In the bivouac of Life,

Be not like dumb, driven cattle!

   Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant!

   Let the dead Past bury its dead!

Act,— act in the living Present!

   Heart within, and God o’erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us

   We can make our lives sublime,

And, departing, leave behind us

   Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,

   Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,

A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,

   Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,

   With a heart for any fate;

Still achieving, still pursuing,

   Learn to labor and to wait.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Darkens.

Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens. 

J.R.R. Tolkien

On.

Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer. You have only to persevere to save yourselves, and to save all those who rely upon you. You have only to go right on, and at the end of the road, be it short or long, victory and honor will be found.

Sir Winston Churchill, Guildhall, September 4, 1914

Everything.

If he give me credit for being a plodder he will describe me justly. Anything beyond that will be too much. I can plod. I can persevere in any definite pursuit. To this I owe everything.

William Carey

Strength.

Crespi, Niccolò Machiavelli, 1623

All courses of action are risky, so the right thing is not in avoiding danger (it's impossible), but calculating risk and acting decisively. Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer.

Niccolò Machiavelli

Determined.

I had made up my mind to find that for which I was searching even if it required the remainder of my life. After innumerable failures I finally uncovered the principle for which I was searching, and I was astounded at its simplicity. I was still more astounded to discover the principle I had revealed not only beneficial in the construction of a mechanical hearing aid but it served as well as means of sending the sound of the voice over a wire. Another discovery which came out of my investigation was the fact that when a man gives his order to produce a definite result and stands by that order it seems to have the effect of giving him what might be termed a second sight which enables him to see right through ordinary problems. What this power is I cannot say; all I know is that it exists and it becomes available only when a man is in that state of mind in which he knows exactly what he wants and is fully determined not to quit until he finds it.

Alexander Graham Bell

Singlehandedly.

After years of failed lobbying for a road to be built to the isolated village of Arnish on the Isle of Raasay, 56-year-old Calum Macleod picked up an engineering manual, shovel, pick, and wheelbarrow and almost singlehandedly constructed the stunning stretch of island infrastructure that now bears his name.

CONNECT

The BBC's documentary on Calum and his heroic road ...

Irresistible.

What am I in the eyes of most people — a nonentity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person — somebody who has no position in society and will never have; in short, the lowest of the low. All right, then — even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart. That is my ambition, based less on resentment than on love in spite of everything, based more on a feeling of serenity than on passion. Though I am often in the depths of misery, there is still calmness, pure harmony and music inside me. I see paintings or drawings in the poorest cottages, in the dirtiest corners. And my mind is driven towards these things with an irresistible momentum. 

Vincent Van Gogh

Make.

Mountains like these and travelers in the mountains and events that happen to them here are found not only in Zen literature but in the tales of every major religion. This allegory of a physical mountain for the spiritual one that stands between each soul and its goal is an easy and natural one to make. Like those in the valley behind us, most people stand in sight of the spiritual mountains all their lives and never enter them, being content to listen to others who have been there and thus avoid the hardships. Some travel into the mountains accompanied by experienced guides who know the best and least dangerous routes by which they arrive at their destination. Still others, inexperienced and untrusting, attempt to make their own routes. Few of these are successful, but occasionally some, by sheer will and luck and grace, do make it. Once there they become more aware than any of the others that there's no single or fixed number of routes. There are as many routes as there are individual souls.

Robert M. Pirsig, from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values

Zeal.

Revolution doesn't have to do with smashing something, it has to do with bringing something forth. If you spend all your time thinking about that which you are attacking, then you are negatively bound to it ...

You have to find the zeal in yourself and bring that out.

Joseph Campbell

Accomplishes.

My observations are those of a beginner.

 As they are completely fresh in my mind and concern the first difficulties

 a beginner encounters, they may be more useful to beginners

 making their first ascents than treatises written by professionals.

 

 These are no doubt more methodical and complete,

 but are intelligible only after a little preliminary experience. 

The entire aim of these notes is to help the beginner

 acquire this preliminary experience a little faster. 

 

....

 

Keep your eye fixed on the way to the top,

 but don't forget to look right in front of you. 

 

The last step depends on the first. 

Don't think you're there just because you see the summit. 

 

Watch your footing, be sure of the next step,

 but don't let that distract you from the highest goal.

 

 The first step depends on the last.

 

 ....

 

When you take off on your own, leave some trace 

of your passage that will guide your return: 

one rock set on top of another, some grass pierced by a stick.

 

 But if you come to a place you cannot cross or that is dangerous,

 remember that the trace you have left might lead the people 

following you into trouble. So go back the way you came

 and destroy any traces you have left. 

 

This is addressed to anyone who wants to leave traces 

of his passage in this world. And even without wanting to, 

we always leave traces. 

 

Answer to your fellow men for the traces you leave behind.

 

 ....

 

If you slip or have a minor spill, don’t interrupt your momentum

 but even as you right yourself recover the rhythm of your walk.

 

Find your pace again the moment you get up.

 In your mind take careful note of the circumstances of your fall, 

but don’t let your body linger over what happened. 

 

The body constantly tries to draw attention to itself by its shiverings, 

its breathlessness, its palpitations, its shudders and sweats and cramps;

 but it reacts quickly to any scorn and indifference in its master. 

 

Once it senses that he is not taken in by its jeremiads, 

once it understands that it will inspire no pity for it that way,

 then it comes into line and obediently accomplishes its task.

René Daumal 

Continuous.

Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential.

Sir Winston Churchill

Forward.

There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Sixth-graders rule!

Up.

“Go back?" he thought. "No good at all! Go sideways? Impossible! Go forward? Only thing to do! On we go!" So up he got, and trotted along with his little sword held in front of him and one hand feeling the wall, and his heart all of a patter and a pitter.

J.R.R. Tolkien, from The Hobbit

Soars.

No bird soars in a calm.

Wilbur Wright

Ever-improving.

Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.

Sir Winston Churchill

Resolution.

Isham Reavis, Esq. Springfield,
My dear Sir: Novr. 5- 1855

I have just reached home, and found your letter of the 23rd. ult. I am from home too much of my time, for a young man to read law with me advantageously. If you are resolutely determined to make a lawyer of yourself, the thing is more than half done already. It is but a small matter whether you read with any body or not. I did not read with any one. Get the books, and read and study them till, you understand them in their principal features; and that is the main thing. It is of no consequence to be in a large town while you are reading. I read at New-Salem, which never had three hundred people living in it. The books, and your capacity for understanding them, are just the same in all places. Mr. Dummer is a very clever man and an excellent lawyer (much better than I, in law-learning); and I have no doubt he will cheerfully tell you what books to read, and also loan you the books.

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing. Very truly Your friend

A. LINCOLN

Determination.