#achievements

I have struck out more times than I can count, but I have hit many home runs as well". ~R. Alan Woods {2013] ↗

— R. Alan Woods

#failures #r-alan-woods #home

Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination. ↗

— Jhumpa Lahiri

#imagination

While the astronauts, heroes forever, spent mere hours on the moon, I have remained in this new world for nearly thirty years. I know that my achievement is quite ordinary. I am not the only man to seek his fortune far from home, and certainly I am not the first. Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination." (from "The Third and Final Continent") ↗

— Jhumpa Lahiri

#moon #imagination

We are tempted to believe that certain achievements and possessions will give us enduring satisfaction. We are invited to imagine ourselves scaling the steep cliff face of happiness in order to reach a wide, high plateau on which we will live out the rest of our lives; we are not reminded that soon after gaining the summit, we will be called down again into fresh lowlands of anxiety and desire. ↗

— Alain de Botton

#anxiety #desire #happiness #materialism #possessions

What'll Geoffrey do when you pull off your First, my child?" demanded Miss Haydock. "Well, Eve -- it will be awkward if I do that. Poor lamb! I shall have to make him believe I only did it by looking fragile and pathetic at the viva. ↗

— Dorothy L. Sayers

#academia #academic-degrees #achievements #clichés #double-standards

Resistance is a powerful motivator precisely because it enables us to fulfill our longing to achieve our goals while letting us boldly recognize and name the obstacles to those achievements. ↗

— Derrick A. Bell

#goals #motivation #obstacles #resistance #success

Nearly' only counts in horseshoes and hand-grenades. ↗

— Neil Gaiman

#failure #luck #near-hits #near-misses #nearly

It was very quiet at the hotel, as if there had been a death in the family. When you have quit the Tour, nobody really knows what to say or do. (...) Everything I'd previously achieved meant nothing; all I was now was a pro rider who couldn't finish the Tour de France. ↗

— David Millar

#death #doping #failure #inspirational #life

Getting through high school and college was one of my greatest achievements. ↗

— Ann Bancroft

#college #getting #greatest #high #high school

Our achievements speak for themselves. What we have to keep track of are our failures, discouragements and doubts. We tend to forget the past difficulties, the many false starts, and the painful groping. ↗

— Ethel Barrymore

#difficulties #discouragements #doubts #failures #false