“Great work requires great and persistent effort for a long time. … Character has to be established through a thousand stumbles.”

“Great achievements require gigantic efforts, without which our progress sounds to be slow.”

Fatima Jinnah (1893–1967) Pakistani dental surgeon, biographer, stateswoman and one of the leading founders of Pakistan

“All great achievements require time.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

“We know that progress can always be reversed, and that positive change is achieved not through passion alone, but through patient and persistent effort. But we’ve seen things change for the better in this region and around the world because of the effort of ordinary people, together -- working together.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

“When an opinion has taken root in a democracy and established itself in the minds of the majority, it afterward persists by itself, needing no effort to maintain it since no one attacks it. Those who at first rejected it as false come in the end to adopt it as accepted, and even those who still at the bottom of their hearts oppose it keep their views to themselves, taking great care to avoid a dangerous and futile contest.”

Alexis De Tocqueville book Democracy in America

“Now to the great artist, everything in nature has character.”

Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) French sculptor

“When something can be read without effort, great effort has gone into its writing.”

Enrique Jardiel Poncela (1902–1952) Spanish dramatist

“Thankfully, persistence is a great substitute for talent.”

Steve Martin (1945) American actor, comedian, musician, author, playwright, and producer

“What has set the mass in motion for any length of time is then called great. It is given the name of a historical power. When, for example, the vulgar mob has appropriated or adapted to its needs some religious idea, has defended it stubbornly and dragged it along for centuries, then the originator of that idea is called great. There is the testimony of thousands of years for it, we are told. But this is Nietzsche’s and Kierkegaard’s idea the noblest and highest does not affect the masses at all, either at the moment or later. Therefore the historical success of a religion, its toughness and persistence, witness against its founder’s greatness rather than for it.”

Georg Brandes (1842–1927) Danish literature critic and scholar

“It's time to get up! It's time go to work! It's time to put the great, back into Great Britain!”

Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician