#accomplishment — Public Fediverse posts

A quotation from The Talmud

It is not yours to finish the task, but neither are you free to set it aside.
 
לֹא עָלֶיךָ הַמְּלָאכָה לִגְמֹר, וְלֹא אַתָּה בֶן חוֹרִין לִבָּטֵל מִמֶּנָּה.

The Talmud (AD 200-500) Collection of Jewish rabbinical writings
Mishnah, Pirkei Avot [Ethics of the Fathers; פִּרְקֵי אָבוֹת] 2:16

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/talmud/35632/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #talmud #mishnah #accomplishment #aspiration #completion #duty #endeavor #finish #ideal #keeptrying #labor #obligation #quest #success #task #work

A quotation from Robert Louis Stevenson

In the life of the artist there need be no hour without its pleasure. I take the author, with whose career I am best acquainted; and it is true he works in a rebellious material, and that the act of writing is cramped and trying both to the eyes and the temper; but remark him in his study, when matter crowds upon him and words are not wanting — in what a continual series of small successes time flows by; with what a sense of power as of one moving mountains, he marshals his petty characters; with what pleasures, both of the ear and eye, he sees his airy structure growing on the page; and how he labours in a craft to which the whole material of his life is tributary, and which opens a door to all his tastes, his loves, his hatreds, and his convictions, so that what he writes is only what he longed to utter. He may have enjoyed many things in this big, tragic playground of the world; but what shall he have enjoyed more fully than a morning of successful work? Suppose it ill paid: the wonder is it should be paid at all. Other men pay, and pay dearly, for pleasures less desirable.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1888-09), “A Letter to a Young Gentleman Who Proposes to Embrace the Career of Art,” Scribner’s Magazine, Vol. 4, No. 3

More about this quote: wist.info/stevenson-robert-lou…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #robertlouisstevenson #accomplishment #art #artist #author #creativity #creator #enjoyment #hardwork #inthezone #pleasure #satisfaction #writer #writing

The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it.

#OvercomingChallenges #Victory #Accomplishment #HardWorkPaysOff #Resilience #Achievement #Pride #Quotes #ShareInspireQuotes

A quotation from Eric Hoffer

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. Moreover, when we have an alibi for not writing a book, painting a picture, and so on, we have an alibi for not writing the greatest book and not painting the greatest picture. Small wonder that the effort expended and the punishment endured in obtaining a good alibi often exceed the effort and grief requisite for the attainment of a most marked achievement.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 181 (1955)

More about this quote: wist.info/hoffer-eric/29470/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #erichoffer #accomplishment #achievement #alibi #effort #excellence #excuse #failure #goals #justification #personaleffort #selfdefeating

A quotation from Eric Hoffer

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. Moreover, when we have an alibi for not writing a book, painting a picture, and so on, we have an alibi for not writing the greatest book and not painting the greatest picture. Small wonder that the effort expended and the punishment endured in obtaining a good alibi often exceed the effort and grief requisite for the attainment of a most marked achievement.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 181 (1955)

More about this quote: wist.info/hoffer-eric/29470/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #erichoffer #accomplishment #achievement #alibi #effort #excellence #excuse #failure #goals #justification #personaleffort #selfdefeating

A quotation from Eric Hoffer

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. Moreover, when we have an alibi for not writing a book, painting a picture, and so on, we have an alibi for not writing the greatest book and not painting the greatest picture. Small wonder that the effort expended and the punishment endured in obtaining a good alibi often exceed the effort and grief requisite for the attainment of a most marked achievement.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 181 (1955)

More about this quote: wist.info/hoffer-eric/29470/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #erichoffer #accomplishment #achievement #alibi #effort #excellence #excuse #failure #goals #justification #personaleffort #selfdefeating

A quotation from Eric Hoffer

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. Moreover, when we have an alibi for not writing a book, painting a picture, and so on, we have an alibi for not writing the greatest book and not painting the greatest picture. Small wonder that the effort expended and the punishment endured in obtaining a good alibi often exceed the effort and grief requisite for the attainment of a most marked achievement.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 181 (1955)

More about this quote: wist.info/hoffer-eric/29470/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #erichoffer #accomplishment #achievement #alibi #effort #excellence #excuse #failure #goals #justification #personaleffort #selfdefeating

Interesting Wired piece by @clivethompson on getting things done and why we don't always. I used to keep a to-do list and I stopped. I used to use Workflowy and Remember the Milk for lists (both okay). But now, my email inbox is my to-do list for essential things. I'll write a tiny, brief to-do list on paper if there's a couple things I need to remember or do that day, but that's it. I don't keep a running one anymore. I don't find it useful.

https://archive.ph/ZpqBr

#GettingThingsDone #GTD #ToDo #ToDoLists #accomplishment #motivation #procrastination #psychology #apps #shame #stress #productivity

Reaching

When I write
I find myself reaching—

reaching
reaching
reaching
reaching

for something.

Satisfaction.
Accomplishment.
Arrival.

There is none now.

Only words.
More words.
Another page.

Perhaps
I still have far to climb.

Perhaps
I have mistaken a hill
for a mountain.

Perhaps
the pinnacle
was never there.

Perhaps there is no
there.

Only this:

the reaching,
the climbing,
the wanting
to arrive.

And still
nothing.

No summit.
No flag.
No voice saying—

enough.

Perhaps
I am not finished.

Perhaps
I never will be.

Or perhaps

this is only doubt and hope —

standing at the bottom
of something,

looking up.

(Journal entry April 8, 1986, age 19, expanded 40 years later)

Reaching

When I write
I find myself reaching—

reaching
reaching
reaching
reaching

for something.

Satisfaction.
Accomplishment.
Arrival.

There is none now.

Only words.
More words.
Another page.

Perhaps
I still have far to climb.

Perhaps
I have mistaken a hill
for a mountain.

Perhaps
the pinnacle
was never there.

Perhaps there is no
there.

Only this:

the reaching,
the climbing,
the wanting
to arrive.

And still
nothing.

No summit.
No flag.
No voice saying—

enough.

Perhaps
I am not finished.

Perhaps
I never will be.

Or perhaps

this is only doubt and hope —

standing at the bottom
of something,

looking up.

(Journal entry April 8, 1986, age 19, expanded 40 years later)

Reaching

When I write
I find myself reaching—

reaching
reaching
reaching
reaching

for something.

Satisfaction.
Accomplishment.
Arrival.

There is none now.

Only words.
More words.
Another page.

Perhaps
I still have far to climb.

Perhaps
I have mistaken a hill
for a mountain.

Perhaps
the pinnacle
was never there.

Perhaps there is no
there.

Only this:

the reaching,
the climbing,
the wanting
to arrive.

And still
nothing.

No summit.
No flag.
No voice saying—

enough.

Perhaps
I am not finished.

Perhaps
I never will be.

Or perhaps

this is only doubt and hope —

standing at the bottom
of something,

looking up.

(Journal entry April 8, 1986, age 19, expanded 40 years later)

Reaching

When I write
I find myself reaching—

reaching
reaching
reaching
reaching

for something.

Satisfaction.
Accomplishment.
Arrival.

There is none now.

Only words.
More words.
Another page.

Perhaps
I still have far to climb.

Perhaps
I have mistaken a hill
for a mountain.

Perhaps
the pinnacle
was never there.

Perhaps there is no
there.

Only this:

the reaching,
the climbing,
the wanting
to arrive.

And still
nothing.

No summit.
No flag.
No voice saying—

enough.

Perhaps
I am not finished.

Perhaps
I never will be.

Or perhaps

this is only doubt and hope —

standing at the bottom
of something,

looking up.

(Journal entry April 8, 1986, age 19, expanded 40 years later)