“One need not hope in order to undertake, nor succeed in order to persevere.”

As quoted in O Canada: An American's Notes on Canadian Culture (1963) by Edmund Wilson

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William the Silent 33
stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht, leader of the … 1533–1584

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Context: It is not necessary to succeed in order to persevere. As long as there is a margin of hope, however narrow, we have no choice but to base all our actions on that margin. America and Russia have one interest in common which may override all their other interests: to be able to live with the bomb without getting into an all-out war that neither of them wants.

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“In order to succeed, we must first believe that we can.”

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“To succeed, you must have tremendous perseverance, tremendous will.”

Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher

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“In order to succeed it is not necessary to be much cleverer than other people. All you have to do is be one day ahead of them.”

Leó Szilárd (1898–1964) Physicist and biologist

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“The American system demands success, and in order to succeed we must first believe that we can.”

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Source: Success! (1977), p. 284; a portion of this — "In order to succeed we must first believe that we can" — has become widely attributed to Nikos Kazantzakis on the internet, but without citation of any sources.
Context: The American system demands success, and in order to succeed we must first believe that we can. Yet our society, with its intolerance of failure and poverty, traps millions of people in positions where any kind of success seems impossible to contemplate, and in which failure itself is a kind of passive rebellion against their own misery and the social system which created it in the first place.
To succeed it is necessary to accept the world as it is and rise above it.

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