Quotes & Sayings About Achieving Anything

At least I was capable of knowing there was some other kind of life possible, even if I was having trouble achieving it. They believed that the way they were living was the only kind of life that existed. They had no imagination to envision anything else, and no desire to reach it. I felt sorry for them. I still do sometimes, although that doesn't mean their constant idiocy isn't capable of driving me to the brink of madness. They never have learned from their mistakes. It would probably be easier on everyone if I stopped expecting them to. — Damien Echols

But I also want kids who suffer from bullying to know that you can be whoever you want to be in life, including a professional boxer, that anything is possible and that who you are or whom you love should not be impediment to achieving anything in life. — Orlando Cruz

Anything worth achieving is worth overachieving. — Lois McMaster Bujold

It was always a puzzle, given that he spent his days achieving nothing, that he had no time for anything. — Peter F. Hamilton

The truth is, anything worth achieving will cost you something, and quick wins often are detrimental to our long-term success. — Mark A. Sephton

I haven't met anybody who hasn't been able to describe years and years and years of very, very difficult struggle through the whole process of achieving anything whatsoever. And there's no way to sort of get around that. — George Lucas

There are two rules for achieving anything. Rule No. 1: Get started. Rule No. 2: Keep going. — E. Howard Hunt

Never in my life did I think I would be congratulated by Mick Jagger for achieving anything. — Boris Johnson

But until that happens -- and however brief a life, it will take a while -- there is a terrible, hateful interlude that belongs to us alone, and during which we have no alternative but to cope with what we have done or omitted to do and to distract or placate our feelings of guilt, and sometimes the only way of achieving this is to increase that guilt, to heap up new guilt to cover the old, to overshadow or blur or minimize it, until finally all guilt has passed and there isn't a soul in the world who can remember what we did, no quick, wicked tongue to talk about it, not even a tremulous finger to point us out as having been the cause of anything. — Javier Marias

Desire, burning desire, is basic to achieving anything beyond the ordinary. — Joseph B. Wirthlin

I want a military funeral when I die-the bugler, the flag on the casket, the ceremonial firing squad, the hallowed ground ... It will be a way of achieving what I've always wanted more than anything-something I could have had, if only I'd managed to get myself killed in the war ... The unqualified approval of my community. — Kurt Vonnegut

Miles was ... the thing is, he was afflicted with a severe birth injury. He grew up pretty much crippled, so he poured all his frustrated energy into his intellect. Since the Vorkosigan family motto might as well be, Anything worth achieving is worth overachieving, the effect was pretty frightening. And it worked for him, so he did it some more. — Lois McMaster Bujold

Meditation is not a way to enlightenment, Nor is it a method of achieving anything at all. It is peace itself. It is the actualization of wisdom, The ultimate truth of the oneness of all things. — Dogen

To live in the light of the resurrection is to refuse to use the powers that crucified Jesus in the name of achieving justice. Thus the sentence, "Christians are called to be nonviolent not because we believe nonviolence is a strategy to make war less likely, but because in a world of war, as faithful followers of Christ, we cannot imagine being anything else than nonviolent; it is a nonviolence, moreover, that may make the world more violent because the world will use violence rather than have the order it calls peace exposed as violence. — Stanley Hauerwas

When you and I set out to create anything - art, commerce, science, love - or to advance in the direction of a higher, nobler version of ourselves, we uncork from the universe, ineluctably, an equal and opposite reaction. That reaction is Resistance. Resistance is an active, intelligent, protean, malign force - tireless, relentless, and inextinguishable - whose sole object is to stop us from becoming our best selves and from achieving our higher goals. — Anonymous

You want to do a few things really well because you want to come out with a product that is fully baked, even though it may be lacking in a few features or whatever, rather than the one that's all-achieving but not doing anything too well. — Ram Shriram

I think no more than a week after I started writing I ran into the first block. It's hard to describe it in a way that will be understandable to anyone who is not a neurotic. I will try. All my life I have been haunted by the obsession that to desire a thing or to love a thing intensely is to place yourself in a vulnerable position, to be a possible, if not a probable, loser of what you most want. Let's leave it like that. That block has always been there and always will be, and my chance of getting, or achieving, anything that I long for will always be gravely reduced by the interminable existence of that block. — Tennessee Williams

I would like to say I've achieved goals, but really, modeling is all luck. You're not really achieving anything. The least hardworking person with a special face can be huge and have a whole world of success. — Brooklyn Decker

He had no intention of writing. He loved reading, that was all. And he read books that he thought so far beyond anything that he himself could dream of achieving that any thought of writing instantly evaporated into the certainty of failure. — Niall Williams

It was something Brynna had done a report on in school last year. At the time he'd thought it stupid, but he finally got it. Visualization. In order to make something happen, to become something else, you had to see it clearly in your mind. That was the first step of achieving success. Vague dreams never amounted to anything. Only those that were fully seen could manifest. — Sherrilyn Kenyon

When I started out in the profession, it was definitely about proving that I was worthy, but after achieving a certain amount of success, I realized I didn't have to prove anything to anybody. — Naomie Harris

Goals should be difficult to achieve because those achieved with little effort are seldom appreciated, give little personal satisfaction, and are often not very worthwhile. There is a price to be paid for achieving anything of significance. — John Wooden

For every negative,
there's a positive. It's in everything. How you deal with life, outlook, how much energy you put into achieving
something. That's why I detest entitlement. Anything that's worthwhile is going to call for some sacrifice. Nothing
worthwhile will come to you without a price. People think in sports, you have different rules. You really don't. It's
whatever motivates you, — Mario Andretti

Generally certain symptoms appear, among them a peculiar use of language: one wants to speak forcefully in order to impress one's opponent, so one employs a special, "bombastic" style full of neologisms which might be described as "power-words." This symptom is observable not only in the psychiatric clinic but also among certain modern philosophers, and, above all, whenever anything unworthy of belief has to be insisted on in the teeth of inner resistance: the language swells up, overreaches itself, sprouts grotesque words distinguished only by their needless complexity. The word is charged with the task of achieving what cannot be done by honest means. — C. G. Jung

The will, we have, is a very strong force. If we set our minds to get to a goal and focus intensely on it, it's hard for anything to get in the way. — Ufuoma Apoki

Listen to me," he said, "do you really think women are the flower of life? You know, you can get fed up with them after a while ... All they do is stop you achieving anything serious. — Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Can anything be called an achievement if it does not simultaneously enhance the life of someone other than the one who has done the achieving? — Craig D. Lounsbrough

Without effort and willingness to experience pain and anxiety, nobody grows, in fact nobody achieves anything worth achieving. — Erich Fromm

I have tried to keep on with my striving because this is the only hope I have of ever achieving anything worthwhile and lasting. — Arthur Ashe

I've always found that anything worth achieving will always have obstacles in the way and you've got to have that drive and determination to overcome those obstacles on route to whatever it is that you want to accomplish. — Chuck Norris

Realize that the hardest step in achieving anything is making a true commitment. — Tony Robbins

The fundamental challenge of achieving anything you wish is first to convince yourself to do it. Once you are totally convinced of its value, you'll find a way to get it done. — Ralph Marston

I feel capable of achieving anything, for nothing worldly can possibly hold me back from my ambitions now. — Charlie N. Holmberg

If there's anything in life you consider worthwhile achieving - go for it. I was told many times to forget show business - I had nothing going for me. But I pursued it, anyway. Voila! — Isabel Sanford

Technology is helping more and more deaf people hear, but here at Gallaudet, we focus on learning and achieving-not on listening. So I would still say deaf people can do anything, except hear. — I. King Jordan

Most American actors are taught the Stanislavsky method ... Method acting, but I really think that as an actor you have to develop what works for you. There is really not one way of doing anything. There are many ways of achieving the same goal. — Ving Rhames

It is false to speak of realisation. What is there to realise? The real is as it is always. We are not creating anything new or achieving something which we did not have before. The illustration given in books is this. We dig a well and create a huge pit. The space in the pit or well has not been created by us. We have just removed the earth which was filling the space there. The space was there then and is also there now. Similarly we have simply to throw out all the age-long samskaras [innate tendencies] which are inside us. When all of them have been given up, the Self will shine alone. — Ramana Maharshi

And let me tell you something else, my friend," she said in the precise enunciation of a trained nurse talking to a worried patient. "It is all very easy for a man to talk about living in the present. Much more so than for a woman, who is liable to get knocked up higher than a kite every time the man enjoys himself in the present. Thats one thing I dont have to worry about, thank God. But there are a lot of others: such as what I am going to do when my husband kicks me out and then my lover throws me over when he has to support me, and me not being trained for anything but to be somebody's wife and having to do all my politicking and achieving and gain what little success I can by getting behind some stupid man and pushing him. — James Jones

Iknow the bitter fact that most lives are incredibly wasted, that opportunities for developing identity, for receiving pleasure, for achieving a sense of self-worth are limited and, not only underdeveloped, but in most cases not developed at all
because no one thinks that a housewife, or a mother, or a typist has anything to develop. — Irena Klepfisz

Anything worth achieving in life has a dip — Seth Godin

Only those who do not expect anything are never disappointed. Only those who never try, never fail. Anyone who is currently achieving anything in life is simultaneously risking failure. It is always better to fail in doing something than to excel in doing nothing. A flawed diamond is more valuable than a perfect brick. People who have no failures also have few victories. — John Landis Mason

The best way to stop girls achieving anything is to force them to achieve everything. — Laurie Penny

I think you are talented and passionate, Isabella. More than you think and less than you expect. But there are a lot of people with talent and passion, and many of them never get anywhere. This is only the first step for achieving anything in life. Natural talent is like an athlete's strength. You can be born with more or less ability, but nobody can become an athlete just because he or she was born tall, or strong, or fast. What makes the athlete, or the artist, is the work, the vocation and the technique. The intelligence you are born with is just ammunition. To achieve something with it you need to transform your mind into a high-precision weapon. — Carlos Ruiz Zafon

What keeps us from achieving our heart's desires is not anything outside of us, it's the conflict inside. — Iyanla Vanzant

Someone who cannot abandon everything cannot achieve anything. — Hajime Isayama

If you're trying to be miserable, it's important you don't have any goals. No school goals, personal goals, family goals. Your only objective each day should be to inhale and exhale for sixteen hours before you go to bed again. Don't read anything informative, don't listen to anything useful, don't do anything productive. If you start achieving goals, you might start to feel a sense of excitement, then you might want to set another goal, and then your miserable mornings are through. To maintain your misery, the idea of crossing off your goals should never cross your mind. — John Bytheway

Your belief in yourself, is the Secret to Achieving anything you want. — Auliq Ice

Angel Bob: Doctor? Excuse me, hello, Doctor? Angel Bob here, sir.
The Doctor: Ah, there you are, Angel Bob. How's life? Sorry, bad subject.
Angel Bob: The Angels are wondering what you hope to achieve.
The Doctor: Achieve? We're not achieving anything. We're just hanging, it's nice in here: consoles; comfy chairs; a forest ... how's things with you?
Angel Bob: The Angels are feasting, sir. Soon we will be able to absorb enough power to consume this vessel, this world, and all the stars and worlds beyond.
The Doctor: Yeah, but we've got comfy chairs. Did I mention?
Angel Bob: We have no need for comfy chairs.
The Doctor: [amused] I made him say 'comfy chairs'. — Steven Moffat

My activities have never had anything to do with the idea of becoming famous or achieving success. I have always been concerned with getting people to listen to me. In everything I do ... my aim is to make people listen. I want to communicate the things that I love and in which I believe, because I think that people can derive a general benefit from them. What I really want is success in a philosophical sense: I want people to grasp something of the ideas and hopes which I express in painting. — Antoni Tapies

All that we have to do is to send two mujahedeen to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al Qaeda, in order to make generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic and political losses without their achieving anything of note other than some benefits for their private corporations, — Osama Bin Laden

The ultimate goal is victory. And if you refuse to work as hard as you possibly can toward that aim, or if you do anything that keeps you from achieving that goal, then you are just cheating yourself. — Don Shula

There are many who find a good alibi far more attractive than an achievement. For an achievement does not settle anything permanently. We still have to prove our worth anew each day: we have to prove that we are as good today as we were yesterday. But when we have a valid alibi for not achieving anything we are fixed, so to speak, for life.288 — Thomas Sowell

Never undermine the power of passion. You have a very high chance of achieving anything you are passionate about. — Israelmore Ayivor

The downside of attending to the emotional life of groups is that it can swamp the ability to get anything done; a group can become more concerned with satisfying its members than with achieving its goals. Bion identified several ways that groups can slide into pure emotion - they can become "groups for pairing off," in which members are mainly interested in forming romantic couples or discussing those who form them; they can become dedicated to venerating something, continually praising the object of their affection (fan groups often have this characteristic, be they Harry Potter readers or followers of the Arsenal soccer team), or they can focus too much on real or perceived external threats. Bion trenchantly observed that because external enemies are such spurs to group solidarity, some groups will anoint paranoid leaders because such people are expert at identifying external threats, thus generating pleasurable group solidarity even when the threats aren't real. — Clay Shirky

Anything that could ever prevent me from achieving a goal, I put in a box, tape it up, throw it over my shoulder. You aim for a goal and attain it. Then you look to the next one. — Grant Achatz

To be independent of public opinion is the first formal condition of achieving anything great. — Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Just remember that learning is also a form of Maya. It is very valuable, no doubt, but you can still become attached to it, just as you can to any form of Maya.
The force of Maya is so strong during Kali Yuga that it is easy to get caught up in learning and forget to do anything with what you learn. This is where niyama comes in. As long as you make everything you do a sadhana, as long as you direct all your energy to achieving your goal, you will only want to learn those things which will help you progress, and you will use them to help improve your sadhana. If you want to practice Tantra sadhanas, you have to start with an unshakable. niyama. — Robert E. Svoboda

Understand there is a price to be paid for achieving anything of significance. You must be willing to pay the price. — John Wooden

Anything worth achieving will always have obstacles in the way — Chuck Norris

Anything that you are achieving that undermines and threatens systems of power will meet with oppression. Systems of power don't say 'thank you.' What's important is not to focus all your efforts on the oppression, but to continue the constructive work. — Noam Chomsky

You don't have to protect yourself from anything! In fact, an attitude of protection will surely bring you to the vibration of the thing from which you're protecting yourself. Because you can't look at something and say, "Oh no, I'm saying a prayer to protect myself from you," Without achieving vibrational harmony with "you", whatever you are. — Abraham Hicks

My dad is good at sticking with stuff and he has a strong work ethic, which is imbued in me. Growing up, he would constantly ask what I was doing and was I achieving anything. — Pete Cashmore

It is hard to think of anything which more tragically and clearly exemplifies the phenomenon of good political intentions achieving the precise opposite of their aim. — A. N. Wilson

Today that legend is inscribed on the stones that were used to build the walls of the school, and as the water falls out of the sky and over those stones, the words of the legend are carried down from the mountains and into the fields and gardens and orchards of Afghanistan. And as the water and the words rush past, who can fail to turn to his neighbor and whisper, with humility and awe-if this is what the weakest, the least valued, the most neglected among us are capable of achieving, truly is there anything we cannot do? — Greg Mortenson