Alexandre Dumas on motivation and goals

Men’s minds are raised to the level of the women with whom they associate.

Pure love and suspicion cannot dwell together: at the door where the latter enters, the former makes its exit.

How is it that little children are so intelligent and men so stupid? It must be education that does it.

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