“It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it.”
Toynbee, cited in: Arnold Joseph Toynbee, Edward DeLos Myers (1955) A study of history. Vol. 7. p. 388
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Arnold Toynbee 20
British economic historian 1852–1883Related quotes
“Man is always aiming to achieve some goal and he is always looking for new goals.”
Pask (1968) " A comment, a case history, and a plan http://www.pangaro.com/pask/Pask%20Cybernetic%20Serendipity%20Musicolour%20and%20Colloquy%20of%20Mobiles.pdf" in: Cybernetics, Art and Ideas". (1968) p. 76.
“Some goals and difficult goals are reached only by waiting, I can wait.”
Original: (it) Alcuni traguardi e difficili obiettivi si raggiungono solo aspettando, io so aspettare.
Source: prevale.net
“A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.”
As translated by Katharine Lyttelton, in Joubert : A Selection from His Thoughts (1899)
Source: Striking Thoughts (2000), p. 121; this likely derives from the observation of Joseph Joubert: The goal is not always meant to be reached, but to serve as a mark for our aim.
“We will not define our goal, but when we reach our goal we will duplicate the goal.”
Eternal
Variant: The end of a melody is not its goal: but nonetheless, had the melody not reached its end it would not have reached its goal either. A parable.
“It is a kind of law of nature. The goal one aims for can rarely be reached by a direct road.”
Source: Quest for prosperity: the life of a Japanese industrialist. 1988, p. 47
Attributed to Aristotle in Bernhoff A. Dahl, Optimize Your Life! http://books.google.gr/books?id=B1Z2XP_DamQC&dq=, Trionics International Inc., 2005, p. 111.
Disputed
“Better to have a big goal and reach half of it than to have no goal and reach all of it.”