Striving

Famous quotes containing the word striving:

    As one delves deeper and deeper into Etiquette, disquieting thoughts come. That old Is- It-Worth-It Blues starts up again softly, perhaps, but plainly. Those who have mastered etiquette, who are entirely, impeccably right, would seem to arrive at a point of exquisite dullness. The letters and the conversations of the correct, as quoted by Mrs. Post, seem scarcely worth the striving for. The rules for finding topics of conversation fall damply on the spirit.
    Dorothy Parker (1893–1967)

    “There is Lowell, who’s striving Parnassus to climb
    With a whole bale of isms tied together with rhyme,
    He might get on alone, spite of brambles and boulders,
    But he can’t with that bundle he has on his shoulders,
    The top of the hill he will ne’er come nigh reaching
    Till he learns the distinction ‘twixt singing and preaching;
    James Russell Lowell (1819–1891)

    There is a Restlessness springing from the consciousness of power not fully utilized, which must be present wherever there is unused power of whatever kind. This is the restlessness of the germ within the seed, struggling upward and downward towards its proper life. ... it is a striving full of pain, the cutting of tender flesh by the fetters of the captive as he struggles against their pitilessness.
    Anna C. Brackett (1836–1911)