Quotes & Sayings About Laurels

The laurels of victory are at the point of the enemy bayonets. They must be plucked there ; they must be carried by a hand-to-hand fight if one really means to conquer. — Ferdinand Foch

I don't want to be remembered for my activities of my past, but for what I am doing today. By that I mean, I don't want to rest on my laurels satisfied by my past deeds. I want to contribute to the advancement of our Folk each and everyday. — Richard Kemp

Many are so used to laurels and presume that they are real winners. — Dejan Stojanovic

Isn't it true that when some couple celebrates their tenth or fifteenth anniversary they seem far from triumphant? In fact they seem duped while dirty Uncle Harry, the rake, seems to wear the laurels. — John Cheever

Yield, ye arms, to the toga; to civic praise, ye laurels. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

[Fringe] was just about doing the job, or trying to do the job, properly. It was never a job that you could rest on your laurels. It was a very challenging 43 minutes of television that we were shooting, every week. — John Noble

Even though I've had the body of work I've had, and the success I've had, I do not rest on my laurels whatsoever. — Jonathan Rhys Meyers

Never look back, except for an occasional glance, look ahead and plan for the future. Success is not built on past laurels, but rather on a continuous activity. Keep busy searching out new ideas and, experimentally, keep ahead of the times, or at least up with them. — Dorothy Draper

Yet once more, O ye laurels, and once more Ye myrtles brown, with ivy never sere, I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude, And with forced fingers rude Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year. — John Milton

You can't rest on your laurels. You have to continue to innovate; you have to continue to be different. — Keith Belling

You see, a laurel needs to grow. I can't do much about that. But I can keep the rain off a few musicians heads, can't I?" A sly smile wound it's way onto his face. "So God will tend the laurels and keep them wet. And I will tend the players and keep them dry. And wiser minds than mine will decide when to bring the two together." -Count Threpe — Patrick Rothfuss

All my laurels you have riven away, and my roses; yet in spite of you, there is one crown I bear away with me ... One thing without stain, unspotted from the world, in spite of doom mine own! And that is ... my white plume. — Edmond Rostand

I don't know all the reasons for these achievements, but I know that I love what I do and I have never wanted to rest on my laurels. — Ahmed H. Zewail

do you reckon to win the everlasting laurels without a conflict? — Charles Haddon Spurgeon

If you wish to collect complimentary material for a record of yourself, never appeal to your relations. They may be proud of you as an asset to the family name, but they have a gift for remembering your gawky period privately, the follies and faults you committed and have forgotten. You may have come up in the world with a laurel on your brow, but if you go back home forty years later wearing two laurels on your brow, and a noble expression, they will miss the point. — Corra May Harris

Let war yield to peace, laurels to paeans. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Nothing wilts faster than a laurel rested upon. — Mary Kay Ash

I don't rest on my laurels and start getting lazy. It makes me just wanna keep working. — Andre Ward

As entrepreneurs, we must continue to ask ourselves 'What's next?' It takes humility to realize that we don't know everything, not to rest on our laurels and know that we must keep learning and observing. — Cher Wang

Nothing wilts faster than laurels that have been rested upon. — Percy Bysshe Shelley

I must leave others to wear the laurels that I have sown. — John Adams

Yea, he who is a true king of men, will not say to himself, 'Lo! I am worthy to be crowned with laurels;' but rather will he say to himself, 'What more is there that I may do to make the world the better because of my endeavors? — Howard Pyle

We did a lot of press for the last film and now for this one. We don't rest on our laurels. — Shawn Wayans

As far as I'm concerned, Miss Kenton, my vocation will not be fulfilled until I have done all I can to see his lordship through the great tasks he has set himself. The day his lordship's work is complete, the day he is able to rest on his laurels, content in the knowledge that he has done all anyone could ever reasonably ask of him, only on that day, Miss Kenton, will I be able to call myself, as you put it, a well-contented man. — Kazuo Ishiguro

The laurels of an orator who is not a master of literary art wither quickly. — Thomas Bailey Aldrich

I'm always hungry for the next thing. I'm never resting on my laurels. — Constance Wu

For the city, his city, stood unchanging on the edge of time: the same burning dry city of his nocturnal terrors and the solitary pleasures of puberty, where flowers rusted and salt corroded, where nothing had happened for four centuries except a slow aging among withered laurels and putrefying swamps. In winter sudden devastating downpours flooded the latrines and turned the streets into sickening bogs. In summer an invisible dust as harsh as red-hot chalk was blown into even the best-protected corners of the imagination by mad winds that took the roofs off the houses and carried away children through the air. — Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Deathless laurel is the victor's due. — John Dryden

Scars do not bother me. They are the laurels of the survivor. — Patricia Briggs

But at the same time you can't assume that making a difference 20 years ago is going to allow you to sort of live on the laurels of those victories for the rest of your life. — Angela Davis

The people who help us grow toward true self offer unconditional love, neither judging us to be deficient nor trying to force us to change but accepting us exactly as we are. And yet this unconditional love does not lead us to rest on our laurels. Instead, it surrounds us with a charged force field that makes us want to grow from the inside out - a force field that is safe enough to take the risks and endure the failures that growth requires. — Parker J. Palmer

Challenge is the opportunity for greatness. People do their best when there is an opportunity to change how things currently stand. Maintaining the status quo facilitates mediocrity. Those who embrace this practice do not wish to rest on their laurels. They motivate others to exceed their limits and look for innovative ways to improve the organization. — James M. Kouzes

I have been accused of being a very simplistic, very lyrical player, and that's okay. That just comes from the blues, which is my background. But every day you wake up and transcend. You can't ever rest on your laurels. — Carlos Santana

Georgia is in an enviable position today, but we can't rest on our laurels. — Roy Barnes

When the course of events shall have removed you to distant scenes of action where laurels not nurtured with the blood of my country may be gathered, I shall urge sincere prayers for your obtaining every honor and preferment which may gladden the heart of a soldier. — Thomas Jefferson

T is sweet to win, no matter how, one's laurels,
By blood or ink; 't is sweet to put an end
To strife; 't is sometimes sweet to have our quarrels,
Particularly with a tiresome friend:
Sweet is old wine in bottles, ale in barrels;
Dear is the helpless creature we defend
Against the world; and dear the schoolboy spot
We ne'er forget, though there we are forgot.
But sweeter still than this, than these, than all,
Is first and passionate Love - it stands alone,
Like Adam's recollection of his fall;
The Tree of Knowledge has been plucked - all 's known
And Life yields nothing further to recall
Worthy of this ambrosial sin, so shown,
No doubt in fable, as the unforgiven
Fire which Prometheus filched for us from Heaven. — George Gordon Byron

These are uncertain times. We cannot be content to rest on yesterday's laurels. These are times when we must strengthen rather than let down those standards which have stood in such good stead in crises that are past. Baseball cannot be selfish, or irresponsible, or lax. Neither can the men who operate it. — Branch Rickey

But I think the one thing that I can say about us is that we're very consistent about certain things and part of that is our desire to do the very best work that we can and not rest on our laurels, or not allow formula to come into what we do. — Michael Stipe

But there was no time to rest on my laurels. — Talal Abu-Ghazaleh

Yes I have done it all. Tested the shallow waters, swam through the dangerous tides, met strangers, seen friends turn strangers, taken risks to achieve my goals, persevered to out do myself each time, rose high, fell hard, learned to climb, learned to dream and in dreaming learned to relate to reality.
I have earned respect, achieved things very young, believed in my potential, questioned it too but through it all I have never stopped to aspire. I am a human and I must adapt to the changing seasons, learn new skills and master them all.
Now as I stand and look up, I see a heap of laurels yet to achieve and chest of mysteries yet to resolve. I am not one in the crowd. I'll forever be the one whom they could never be — Adhish Mazumder

I'm not very good at resting on my laurels. I am a bit of a workaholic, and I like to keep busy and active, so I think that's what drives me. — Tricia Helfer

Memories and hope are not so different; one is "having done" the other is "to do." Neither constitutes action. You are what you do; thus, if you do nothing, you are nobody. If you once did great things, you think you are great. You coast along on dead, preserved laurels, lifeless and wasting away. — Mark Twight

I have a talent for silence and brevity. I can keep silent when it seems best to do so, and when I speak I can, and do usually, quit when I am done. This talent, or these two talents, I have cultivated. Silence and concise, brief speaking have got me some laurels, and, I suspect, lost me some. No odds. Do what is natural to you, and you are sure to get all the recognition you are entitled to. — Rutherford B. Hayes

And once you've found success, don't stop. It's not about being insatiable; it's about not resting on your laurels. — Sophia Amoruso

Cover them over with beautiful flowers, Deck them with garlands, those brothers of ours, Lying so silent by night and by day Sleeping the years of their manhood away. Give them the meed they have won in the past; Give them the honors their future forcast; Give them the chaplets they won in the strife; Give them the laurels they lost with their life. — Will Carleton

You will learn, but you have to act. You will be given, but you have to receive. Stretch your hands and take up your laurels by the power put in you! — Israelmore Ayivor

To be a real entrepreneur you always have to be looking forward. The moment you rest on your laurels is the moment your competition overtakes you. — Richard Branson

Oh, talk not to me of a name great in story; The days of our youth are the days of our glory; And the myrtle and ivy of sweet two-and-twenty Are worth all your laurels, though ever so plenty. — Lord Byron

Alas, if our children lose the crown of life, it will be but a small consolation that they have won the laurels of literature or art. — Charles Spurgeon

John D. MacDonald is by any standards a better writer than Saul Bellow, only MacDonald writes thrillers and Bellow is a human-heart chap, so guess who wears the top-grade laurels? — Kingsley Amis

The half-hour before dinner has always been considered as the great ordeal through which the mistress, in giving a dinner-party, will either pass with flying colours, or lose many of her laurels. — Isabella Beeton

You win the lasting laurels with your laughter. — Joni Mitchell

With racing, you never rest on your laurels, and there are no counterfeits. — Julie Krone

When you rest on your laurels is right when you have the risk. It exists for every company, no matter how big. — David Sze

Every world crowns its own kings, laurels it own gods. A Hans Anderson book cover opens its worlds: the snowqueen, bluewhite as ice, flies in a sleigh through her snow-thick air: our hearts are ice. Always: sludge, offal, shit against palaces of diamond. That man could dream god and heaven: how mud labors. We burn in our own fire. — Sylvia Plath

No matter what we are, and what we sing, Time finds a withered leaf in every laurel — Edwin Arlington Robinson

The property adjoined the bay, and when the tide came in it was possible to go kayaking, which some of the residents not yet disabled by their infirmities were happy to do. This is how I would like to live, thought Irina, taking deep breaths of the sweet aroma of pines and laurels. — Isabel Allende

Too much success gets you resting on your laurels and creates a kind of quicksand that you can't get out of. — Colin Wilson

You see, a laurel needs rain to grow. I can't do much about that. But I can keep that rain off a few musician's heads, can't I?" A sly smile wound its way onto his face. "So God will tend the laurels and keep them wet. And I will tend the players and keep them dry. And wiser minds than mine will decide when to bring the two together. — Patrick Rothfuss

I think the fault is more with historicists who have stubbornly failed to develop a good theory of historicity. By simply resting on the feeble laurels of prima facie plausibility ('Jesus existed because everyone said so') and subjective notions of absurdity ('I can't believe Jesus didn't exist!'), the existence of Jesus has largely been taken for granted, even by competent historians who explicitly try to argue for it. — Earl Doherty

I want to give the audience the whole package, and for me, the whole package is to give them something fresh as well. It's not as much fun resting on your laurels. — Al Jarreau

Tell me, what kind of woman managed to land the most decorated soldier in England?'
'The kind who cares nothing for medals or laurels.'
Giving him a frankly disbelieving glance, Fenwick said, 'How can that be true? Of course she cares about such things. She is now the wife of an immortal.'
Christopher stared at him blankly. 'Pardon?'
' ... warriors are revered. They are never forgotten. — Lisa Kleypas

It was the very worst kind of Banbury-Road house, depressing, with laurels. The front door was opened by a slut. I had never seen a slut before but recognized the genus without difficulty as soon as I set eyes on this one. — Nancy Mitford

Forcing modern speakers of English to not - whoops, not to split an infinitive because it isn't done in Latin makes about as much sense as forcing modern residents of England to wear laurels and togas. — Steven Pinker

I'm always trying to do stuff I haven't done before or challenge myself so I'm not resting on my laurels all of the time because if I just found my little niche and never left it, I'd be pretty boring, I think. — Zooey Deschanel

I've grown tired of resting on my laurels and have decided to start resting on my failures. — Dana Gould

Also, she had been secretary to the soccer coach, an office pretty much without laurels in our own time, but apparently the post for a young girl to hold in Jersey City during the First World War. — Philip Roth

I kind of feel like I have grown as just like a human being as a human being by being able to adapt and adjust and know that like you can't ever rest on your laurels, you have to sort of wake up; you actually have to be present. — Nicole Beharie

I refuse to sit on my laurels. — Patricia Cornwell

There's a lot of guys that just get comfortable with their positions and rest on their laurels. I had to earn my way. — Paul Walker

With a terrible script you hustle and try to make it better. But with a good script it can be trouble because you rest on your laurels, so to speak, you think it's going to translate easily. — Robert Downey Jr.

You'll get no laurel crown for outrunning a burrow. — Martial

Don't rest on your laurels. There's always going to be someone behind you who's going to be better than you. So you need to get out there and keep working. — Sheila Johnson

I refuse to make money out of my science. My laurel is not for sale like so many bales of cotton. — Albert Einstein

We need to look to our laurels a bit with television in this country. I don't think enough risks are being taken in drama television in the U.K., and I think a lot of programme makers are underestimating the intelligence of the viewing public, basing it all on ratings. — Charles Dance

The one thing that I think separates Microsoft from a lot of other people is we make bold bets. We're persistent about them, but we make them. A lot of people won't make a bold bet. A bold bet doesn't assure you of winning, but if you make no bold bets you can't continue to succeed. Our industry doesn't allow you to rest on your laurels forever. I mean, you can milk any great idea. Any idea that turns out to be truly great can be harvested for tens of years. On the other hand, if you want to continue to be great, you've got to bet on new things, big, bold bets. — Steve Ballmer

It's been the work that has carried me and I never wanted to rest on my laurels or go back and do what I done before. — David Cassidy

I gotta say" - Apollo broke the silence - "these kids did okay." He cleared his throat and began to recite: "Heroes win laurels - "
Um, yes, first class," Hermes interrupted, like he was anxious to avoid Apollo's poetry. — Rick Riordan

I just want to leave you with this thought, that it's just been sort of a dress rehearsal, and we're just getting started. So if any of you start resting on your laurels, I mean just forget it, because ... we are just getting started. — Walt Disney Company

If you want to conquer conceit, do not desire praise, laurels, nice garments, respect, favor, but like to be blamed and slandered by people ... — Vladimir Aleksandrovich Antonov

I consider myself lucky that Sheila Johnson, the cofounder of Black Entertainment Television, didn't choose to rest on her very impressive business laurels. Her luscious 100 percent modal scarves, printed with photos she takes all over the world, are gorgeous. Wearing one is like being wrapped in a hug. — Gayle King

I'm actually doing what I want with my life. I do sometime think I could just shut up and rest on my laurels and say: you know what guys, I'll operate out of the pocket you put me in ... but no way! No way I'm gonna do that! I'd just get bored stiff the first minute. — Paul McCartney

Never, ever rest on your laurels. Today's laurels are tomorrow's compost. — Tom Peters

It's funny that because a lot of old jazz is being sampled now, you are finding a lot of young kids, a lot of scenesters and clubgoers, who are getting praise, laurels and dates with women because they listen to people like Herbie Hancock. In my day, listening to Herbie Hancock would have gotten you beaten up. — Brett Milano

You Can't Rest on Your Laurels. Your Own Body of Work Is Yet to Come. — Barack Obama

Actions speak louder than words. In the days to come the Goddess of Victory will bestow her laurels only on those who prepared to act with daring. — Heinz Guderian

It's great to talk about how good things are now. But we can't sit on our laurels and expect that our time will sustain itself if we don't do a better job on issues like education ... It's absolutely the case that the low cost of college tuition that I was able to enjoy and the financial aid I was able to receive made my education possible. — Wendy Davis

In the dust of defeat as well as the laurels of victory there is a glory to be found if one has done his best. — Eric Liddell

I have sometimes dreamt ... that when the Day of Judgment dawns and the great conquerors and lawyers and statesmen come to receive their rewards
their crowns, their laurels, their names carved indelibly upon imperishable marble
the Almighty will turn to Peter and will say, not without a certain envy when He sees us coming with our books under our arms, Look, these need no reward. We have nothing to give them here. They have loved reading. — Virginia Woolf

Platonic England, house of solitudes,
rests in its laurels and its injured stone — Geoffrey Hill

You never want to rest on your laurels. You want to keep doing things that terrify you. — Kate Walsh

You must be conquerors through him who hath loved you, if conquerors at all. Our laurels must grow among his olives in Gethsemane. — Charles Haddon Spurgeon

I look at everything I've done critically - but I think that's the job of an actor. If you ever sit on your laurels or think that you're good - in a way, I don't then think you're pushing yourself. — Nicole Kidman

I've never been the type of person to stick with the same thing or be complacent or rest on my laurels. — Chris Jericho

I don't like to look back, and I'm always worried about the next thing rather than resting on the laurels or the degradations of the last thing. — Steve Martin

The popular scientific books by our scientists aren't the outcome of hard work, but are written when they are resting on their laurels. — Ludwig Wittgenstein

Laurels grow in the Bay of Biscay, I hope a bed of them may be found in the Mediterranean. — Horatio Nelson

It is wonderful how soon a piano gets into a log-hut on the frontier. You would think they found it under a pine-stump. With it comes a Latin grammar, and one of those tow-head boys has written a hymn on Sunday. Now let colleges, now let senates take heed! for here is one who, opening these fine tastes on the basis of the pioneer's iron constitution, will gather all their laurels in his strong hands. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

A lot of people like to live on laurels that happened 20 or 30 years ago, but it's nice to get awards. It's nice to be labeled and things like that, but I'm not sure everybody qualifies. — Tim Conway

There's that talent thing where I can score goals, and there's also that want and ambition to keep doing it and doing it and doing it. I've seen a lot of players do it for a year and then they rest on their laurels, but I've been very driven throughout my career. Without being the most talented, I think I've tried to make the most of it. — Frank Lampard