Result Is Not the Main Thing, But Effort Is — Japanese Proverb

Fall seven times, stand up eight. — Japanese Proverb

Japanese Proverb

This proverb emphasizes the importance of resilience. It suggests that no matter how many times you fall or fail, you should always get back up and try again.

Rise with the sun of your intentions and work until the horizon answers — Chinua Achebe

Chinua Achebe

Achebe’s line opens with a vivid image: rising “with the sun of your intentions.” Intention here isn’t a vague wish—it’s something bright, scheduled, and unavoidable, like sunrise itself. By pairing waking with purpose,...

A failure is not always a mistake. It may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. — B. F. Skinner

B. F. Skinner

Skinner’s line draws a careful distinction between a failure—an outcome that misses a goal—and a mistake—an avoidable error in judgment or execution. In everyday language we often fuse the two, treating any poor result a...

I do not know where I am going, but I am on my way. — Carl Sandburg

Carl Sandburg

Carl Sandburg’s line captures a deceptively simple truth: progress often begins before clarity arrives. By admitting he does not know where he is going, the speaker rejects the comfort of certainty, yet the second half—“...

You have survived everything life has thrown at you so far. That is a 100 per cent success rate. — Matt Haig

Matt Haig

Matt Haig frames survival as a blunt, almost mathematical truth: if you are here, you have already endured every hard day you have faced. By calling it a “100 per cent success rate,” he converts a messy emotional history...

If you hear the dogs, keep going. If you see the torches in the woods, keep going. Don't ever stop. Keep going. — Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman’s words come from a world where movement could mean life and stillness could mean capture. The “dogs” and “torches” evoke the tools of slave catchers and patrols who hunted people fleeing bondage, turning...