Sophocles on motivation and goals

Do nothing secretly; for Time sees and hears all things, and discloses all.

Death is not the worst evil, but rather when we wish to die and cannot.

Ah, son, may you prove luckier than your father, but in all else like him. Then you would not prove base.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Do, or do not. There is no ‘try.’

Never give in⁠—never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

Winston Churchill1874–1965Speech given at Harrow School, Harrow, England, October 29, 1941. Quoted in Churchill by Himself (2008), ed. Langworth, PublicAffairs, 2008, p. 23