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Quotes of the Day for 15 March 2005 - Tenacity

I had a reader request for quotes on tenacity and was surprised that I had never used the theme before, although I've used persistence more than once. These quotes identify tenacity as a powerful force, and they should know. Going just by the years listed, Pasteur kept at it for 73 years. Gandhi, who's life story was tenacious battling for the rights of his people, Sevareid, and Bethune all carried on for eight decades, and Gardner for nine. Not only did they speak highly of this trait, they practiced it.

The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure , the process is its own reward.
     - Robyn Davidson

Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal: my strength lies solely in my tenacity.
     - Louis Pasteur, 1822 - 1895

Tenacity is a pretty fair substitute for bravery, and the best form of tenacity I know is expressed in a Danish fur trapper's principle, 'The next mile is the only one a person really has to make'.
     - Eric Sevareid, 1912 - 1992

If we have the courage and tenacity of our forebears, who stood firmly like a rock against the lash of slavery, we shall find a way to do for our day what they did for theirs.
     - Mary McLeod Bethune, 1875 - 1955

The history of the world is full of men who rose to leadership, by sheer force of self-confidence, bravery and tenacity.
     - Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, 1869 - 1948

Some people have greatness thrust upon them. Few have excellence thrust upon them.... They achieve it. They do not achieve it unwittingly by doing what comes naturally and they don't stumble into it in the course of amusing themselves. All excellence involves discipline and tenacity of purpose.
     - John William Gardner, 1912 - 2002

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