“I think when you begin to think of yourself as having achieved something, then there's nothing left for you to work towards. I want to believe that there is a mountain so high that I will spend my entire life striving to reach the top of it.”

— Cicely Tyson

As quoted in A New Mountain to Climb: Heroes I've Met and the Mountains They Climb Every Day (2010), by Neal McCoy, p. 72

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 17, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I think when you begin to think of yourself as having achieved something, then there's nothing left for you to work tow…" by Cicely Tyson?

Cicely Tyson photo

Cicely Tyson2

American actress 1924–2021

Related quotes

“I want you to have big dreams, big goals. I want you to strive to achieve them. But I don't want to see you beating yourself up every time you make a mistake.”

Kelley Armstrong The Gathering

Source: The Gathering

“You only find yourself when you disobey. Disobedience is the beginning of responsibility, I think.”

Guillermo del Toro (1964) Mexican film director

“i suppose i have a really loose interpretation of "work", because i think that just being alive is so much work at something you don't always want to do. the machinery is always going. even when you sleep”

Andy Warhol book The Philosophy of Andy Warhol

Variant: I suppose I have a really loose interpretation of 'work,' because I think that just being alive is so much work at something you don't always want to do.
Source: 1975, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (1975), Ch. 6: Work
Source: The Philosophy of Andy Warhol
Context: I suppose I have a really loose interpretation of "work" because I think that just being alive is so much work at something you don't always want to do. Being born is like being kidnapped. And then sold into slavery. People are working every minute. The machinery is always going. Even when you sleep.

“I think my reputation is something that I'll probably try to spend the rest of my life living it down and it probably won't work.”

Russell Crowe (1964) New Zealand-born Australian actor, film producer and musician

60 Minutes interview (2006)

“It's in the fight, in the striving, in the mountains unclimbed that fulfillment lies, so if you have nothing to strive for, you have nothing to make you happy. When it comes to "for better" or "for worse," "for better" is often harder on a marriage.”

Merle Shain (1935–1989) Canadian writer

Some Men are More Perfect Than Others (1973)

“…that if you want to do something, achieve something, you can't be thinking all the time of what you don't have… I don't have an opening batsman, I don't have a fast bowler, I don't have an all-rounder… You think like this and you are telling yourself you can't win. You have to see what you have, and then plan how to use it the best way you can, that is how to win games. Not this business of 'we don't have an all-rounder so we are not a balanced team!”

Kapil Dev (1959) Indian cricketer

The Rediff Cricket Interview, Kapil Dev

“I don’t believe in acting. I think that people in life act, but when you are on the stage, or in my case also on screen, you have to be true.”

Luise Rainer (1910–2014) German-born Austrian and American film actress

Spartacus Schoolnet biography http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USArainer.htm

“I was on top of the mountain. But there was nothing there. Just clouds. And I found that you can't live on that mountain. But when it throws you off — oh, how you long for it! I would kill to climb it again. I would sell my soul. It is so stupid. […] I took the standard. And now I can't even become a farmer again. The mountain won't let me.”

David Gemmell book Quest for Lost Heroes

Source: Drenai series, Quest for Lost Heroes, Ch. 1

“When I am sad and weary
When I think all hope has gone
When I walk along High Holborn
I think of you with nothing on”

Adrian Mitchell (1932–2008) British writer

"Celia Celia", from Adrian Mitchell's Greatest Hits (1991).

“If you have an awareness that your life is not full and that you are not yourself, that is the beginning, I think, of the journey toward spirituality. I don't have a clue what God is; I really don't. I would never, ever and tell anyone what to look for. The only thing I would say is: the journey to spirituality is the journey to your own humanity. The more human you are, I think, the more godlike you are. And that is the genius of God.”

Martin Sheen (1940) American actor

2000s, AARP magazine interview (2008)

Related topics