Quotes about keep
page 60

“The perfectionist is never satisfied. The perfectionist never says, "This is pretty good. I think I’ll just keep going."”

To the perfectionist, there is always room for improvement. The perfectionist call this humility. In reality, it is egotism. It is pride that makes us want to write a perfect script, paint a perfect painting, perform a perfect audition monologue.
Perfectionism is not a quest for the best. It is a pursuit of the worst in ourselves, the part that tells us that nothing we do will ever be good enough — that we should try again. No. We should not.
In Inspirations : Meditations from The Artist's Way (2001), Cameron extends the above statement with further remarks: Focused on process, our creative life retains a sense of adventure. Focused on product, the same creative life can feel foolish or barren. We inherit the obsession with product and the idea that art produces finished product from our consumer-oriented society. This focus creates a great deal of creative block.
The Artist's Way (1992)

N. K. Jemisin photo

“Funny thing, employment. If you keep doing it, you keep getting paid.”

Source: The Kingdom of Gods (2011), Chapter 12 (p. 308)

Scott Jurek photo

“The potential of the human body is immense. You can come out of some of the deepest, darkest holes if you keep pressing forward.”

Scott Jurek (1973) American ultramarthon runner

Interview in the documentary-film The Game Changers by Louie Psihoyos (2018)

Philip Roth photo
Isaac Asimov photo
Jason Reynolds photo
Thomas Hylland Eriksen photo
Townes Van Zandt photo
William Lloyd Garrison photo
Lauren Ornelas photo
Sean O`Casey photo
Robert B. Reich photo
Robert B. Reich photo
David Sedaris photo
David Sedaris photo
Dietrich Bonhoeffer photo
Nicanor Parra photo

“I do physics in order to earn my living, and I do poetry in order to keep alive.”

Nicanor Parra (1914–2018) writer, poet, matematician, fisic

Interview with The New York Times https://nyti.ms/2Uzw2nh, June 27, 1968, p. 49

William Barber II photo

“It doesn’t say rest on your laurels, but to keep on pushing. In this work, sometimes you get heavy criticism. People do say ugly things, ‘You just want money.’ I just want other people to have health care. You know, Jesus healed everybody and never charged a co-pay.”

William Barber II (1963) civil rights leader from North Carolina

Quoted in Closest person we have to Martin Luther King Jr.: Pastor-activist William J. Barber wins $625,000 ‘genius’ grant https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2018/10/05/closest-person-we-have-martin-luther-king-jr-pastor-activist-william-j-barber-wins-genius-grant/, Washington Post, (5 October 2018)

“I believe that there are three things in life that you must absolutely do yourself because nobody can do it in your place: keeping fit, following a diet, and accumulating culture.”

Brunello Cucinelli (1953) Italian entrepreneur and philanthropist

Source: A Day In the Life of Brunello Cucinelli https://www.harpersbazaar.com/fashion/designers/a17874/brunello-cucinelli-profile/ Harper's Bazaar, Lauren McCarthy, 15 September 2016

“Try to keep in mind one of the fundamental aspects of science: letting the evidence form belief rather than belief select evidence.”

Greg Craven American teacher and writer

Source: What's the Worst That Could Happen?: A Rational Response to the Climate Change Debate (2009), Chapter 10 "Reader's Conclusion" (p. 206)

Marilyn Ferguson photo
Tedros Adhanom photo
Boris Johnson photo

“The real hero of Jaws is the mayor. A gigantic fish is eating all your constituents and he decides to keep the beaches open. OK, in that instance he was actually wrong. But in principle, we need more politicians like the mayor - we are often the only obstacle against all the nonsense which is really a massive conspiracy against the taxpayer.”

Boris Johnson (1964) British politician, historian and journalist

Speech given by Johnson at Lloyd's of London in 2006, quoted in * 2007-07-18

Boris Johnson inspired by Jaws mayor

Graeme Wilson and George Jones

The Telegraph

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1557765/Boris-Johnson-inspired-by-Jaws-mayor.html
2000s, 2006

“Mine is a message of hope. As I said, as I was surrounded by a loving family, cherished by all of them, one thing was clear – if your heart has a reason to keep beating, it will. My hope is that stories like mine can inspire more potential donors.”

Sudhir Choudhrie (1949) Indian businessman

"Heart to heart: Sudhir Choudrie discusses life after a transplant" https://www.easterneye.biz/heart-heart-sudhir-choudrie-discusses-life-transplant/, EasternEye (February 8, 2017)

Margot Robbie photo

“I will never sell my soul for a paycheck. I don’t need the money because I’m not extravagant. I share my house in London with five roommates. I take the Tube—it’s free entertainment! I intend to stay the exact same person I always was; my family and friends keep me grounded.”

Margot Robbie (1990) Australian actress

Amy Fine Collins, “Margot Robbie, Australia’s Newest Movie Goddess” https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2014/07/margot-robbie-actress-photos, Vanity Fair, July 9, 2014.

Immanuel Kant photo

“What vexations there are in the external customs which are thought to belong to religion, but which in reality are related to ecclesiastical form! The merits of piety have been set up in such away that the ritual is of no use at all except for the simple submission of the believers to ceremonies and observances, expiations and mortifications (the more the better). But such compulsory services, which are mechanically easy (because no vicious inclination is thus sacrificed), must be found morally very difficult and burdensome to the rational man. When, therefore, the great moral teacher said, 'My commandments are not difficult,' he did not mean that they require only limited exercise of strength in order to be fulfilled. As a matter of fact, as commandments which require pure dispositions of the heart, they are the hardest that can be given. Yet, for a rational man, they are nevertheless infinitely easier to keep than the commandments involving activity which accomplishes nothing... [since] the mechanically easy feels like lifting hundredweights to the rational man when he sees that all the energy spent is wasted.”

Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) German philosopher

Kant, Immanuel (1996). Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View https://books.google.com/books?id=TbkVBMKz418C. Translated by Victor Lyle Dowdell. Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 9780809320608. Page 33.
Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View (1798)

Noam Chomsky photo
Immanuel Kant photo
Alastair Reynolds photo
Richard D. Wolff photo
Shaun Chamberlin photo
William Cobbett photo
Philip Giraldi photo
William Frederick Halsey, Jr. photo

“This is Blackjack himself. Your work so far has been superb. I expect even more. Keep the bastards dying!”

William Frederick Halsey, Jr. (1882–1959) United States admiral

Source: Admiral Halsey's Story (1947), p. 242

Lois McMaster Bujold photo

“The old customs are dead, and we keep trying on new ones, like badly fitting clothes.”

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Shards of Honor (1986), Chapter 3 (p. 50)

E.M. Forster photo
Wendell Berry photo
Benjamin Franklin photo

“To be mad is to keep repeating something that has already been seen as useless, as worthless.”

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, …

Misattributed

Molly Scott Cato photo

“Now is not the time to campaign to rejoin but we must keep the dream alive, especially for young people who are overwhelmingly pro-European. I hold in my heart the knowledge that one day I will be back in this [the European Parliament] chamber, celebrating our return to the heart of Europe.”

Molly Scott Cato (1963) British economist and Member of the European Parliament

Said in a speech to the European Parliament after she voted against ratifying the UK's Brexit withdrawl agreement. Molly Scott Cato: 'One day I will be back' https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-51303316/molly-scott-cato-one-day-i-will-be-back (29 January 2020)
2020

“I do like social medias because of the instant feedback and interaction. I try to keep fans up to date with what I’m doing and try to show them who I am and what I’m passionate about. I also follow a lot of artists myself because I like learning more about the people I respect.”

MacKenzie Porter (1990) Canadian actress, singer and musician

Boots & Hearts 2013 Exclusive Q&A: Mackenzie Porter https://www.thereviewsarein.com/2013/08/04/boots-hearts-2013-exclusive-qa-mackenzie-porter/ (August 4, 2013)

Lucretius photo

“If you well apprehend and keep in mind these things, nature free at once and rid of her haughty lords is seen to do all things spontaneously of herself without the meddling of the gods.”

De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)
Original: (la) Quae bene cognita si teneas, natura videtur
Libera continuo, dominis privata superbis,
ipsa sua per se sponte omnia dis agere expers.

Book II, lines 1090–1092 (tr. Munro)

Hossein Salami photo

“I warn them (United States) to withdraw from this field continue to keep threatening Iranian top generals.”

Hossein Salami (1960) Iranian military officer; commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

Hossein Salami (2020) cited in: " Iranian general warns of retaliation if US threats continue https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3865471" in Taiwan News, 27 January 2020.

Amy Coney Barrett photo

“It allows (indeed it requires) the recusal of judges whose convictions keep them from doing their job. This is a good solution.”

Amy Coney Barrett (1972) American judge

Catholic Judges in Capital Cases https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/law_faculty_scholarship/527/, co-written in 1998 with John H. Garvey, authored as "Amy V. Coney"

John Backus photo
Jan van Riebeeck photo

“You shall also keep your fires burning if the ships are blown back by contrary winds, but if the ships are foreign or not Dutch (onduitsch) you shall at once extinguish your fire.”

Jan van Riebeeck (1619–1677) Dutch colonial governor

Precis of the Archives of the Cape of Good Hope, January 1656 - December 1658, Riebeeck's Journal, H. C. V. Leibrandt, Cape Town 1897, p. 117

On the 3rd of May 1658 Jan van Riebeeck gave further instructions to the men on Robben Island;

Jan van Riebeeck photo

“[T]hat our prosperity may never forget God's mercies shown to us, but always keep them in grateful memory.”

Jan van Riebeeck (1619–1677) Dutch colonial governor

Precis of the Archives of the Cape of Good Hope, December 1651 - December 1653, Riebeeck's Journal, H. C. V. Leibrandt, Cape Town 1897, p. 184

After two tough years since their arrival Jan van Riebeeck set apart the 6th of April and resolved to make it a day of thanksgiving and prayer.

Ulysses S. Grant photo

“Though I have been trained as a soldier, and participated in many battles, there never was a time when, in my opinion, some way could not be found to prevent the drawing of the sword. I look forward to an epoch when a court, recognized by all nations, will settle international differences, instead of keeping large standing armies as they do in Europe.”

Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885) 18th President of the United States

As quoted in "International Arbitration" by W. H. Dellenback in The Commencement Annual, University of Michigan (30 June 1892) and in A Half Century of International Problems: A Lawyer's Views (1954) by Frederic René Coudert, p. 180

“I remember the birds and the animals and going down to the river with my dog to play…My grandparents and uncles who farmed in Puerto de Luna were so beautiful, I wanted to keep them around, to contain them.”

Rudolfo Anaya (1937) Novelist, poet

On his childhood in “Rudolfo Anaya: Man of visions” https://www.abqjournal.com/1074636/man-of.html in Albuquerque Journal (2017 Oct 7)

Jacy Reese photo

“Let’s keep in mind not just those beings who won the metaphysical lottery by being born as Homo sapiens, but also those who lie furthest outside our moral circle. They need us the most.”

Jacy Reese (1992) American social scientist

[Our treatment of animals is stalling human progress, February 19, 2018, Quartz, https://qz.com/1209936/our-treatment-of-animals-is-stalling-human-progress/]

Donna Strickland photo

“If somebody else thinks something that you don't believe in, just think they're wrong and you're right and keep going. That's pretty much the way I always think.”

Donna Strickland (1959) Canadian physicist, 2018 Nobel prize winner

In [Casey, Liam, 'We are marching forward': Canadian scientist becomes third woman to win Nobel Prize in physics, https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/we-are-marching-forward-canadian-scientist-becomes-third-woman-to-win-nobel-prize-in-physics-1.4117566, 5 October 2018, CTV News Toronto, October 2, 2018]

Molly Scott Cato photo

“You should not be able to be thrown out of your home of 30 years because you can’t find documents you never knew you would have to keep.”

Molly Scott Cato (1963) British economist and Member of the European Parliament

Said in a tweet https://twitter.com/MollyMEP/status/1165533573195227136 on 25 August 2019
2019

Mara Balls photo
Mara Balls photo
Jackson Browne photo
Jackson Browne photo

“Let the music keep our spirits high
And let the buildings keep our children dry
Let creation reveal its secrets by and by”

Jackson Browne (1948) American singer-songwriter

Before the Deluge (1974) from For Everyman (1973)

Jackson Browne photo
Rita Moreno photo

“What I say to my gente [people] is to hang on, and to remember who they are, be proud of who they are, and keep talking. And keep complaining, and just don't ever — don't give up. That's always been my motto anyway. My motto has always been "persevere" perseverancia. And that's what we need to do.”

Rita Moreno (1931) Puerto Rican singer, dancer and actress

On the advice that she gives to her people in “Rita Moreno To 'My Gente': Be Proud Of Who You Are, And Don't Give Up” https://www.npr.org/2018/05/13/610407259/rita-moreno-to-my-gente-be-proud-of-who-you-are-don-t-give-up in NPR (2018 May 13)

Rupi Kaur photo

“When you see someone who looks like your mom there and she’s like ‘this puts so much of my pain into something concrete that I can hold,’…That’s when I’m like okay, I’m doing something right and I just want to keep doing it.”

Rupi Kaur (1992) Canadian poet

On how she is glad that her work is reaching women just like her in “Rupi Kaur: 'There was no market for poetry about trauma, abuse and healing’” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/aug/26/rupi-kaur-poetry-canada-instagram-banned-photo in The Guardian (2016 Aug 26)

Esperanza Spalding photo

“…There's no secret, no shortcut. Once you accept that being a writer or a creator is just really hard and takes a lot of hours of slogging through crappy first drafts, you just keep producing, and then you turn around and it's done. That's the magic.”

Esperanza Spalding (1984) American jazz bassist and singer

On becoming a writer in “Esperanza Spalding Talks Recording an Album in 77 Hours, Sexism in Music & Nicki Minaj” https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/7973640/esperanza-spalding-77-hours-livestream-album-interview in Billboard (2017 Sep 22)

Mulayam Singh Yadav photo

“I regret giving orders to shoot kar sevaks at Ayodhya. My decision to order firing at kar sevaks was to save Muslim minorities. This decision was needed to keep the faith of Muslims in this country intact.””

Mulayam Singh Yadav (1939–2022) Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh three times

Mulayam Singh Yadav quoted from ‘Mulayam Singh govt buried Karsevaks, conspired to hide actual number of casualties’: Republic TV exposé https://www.opindia.com/2019/02/mulayam-singh-govt-buried-karsevaks-conspired-to-hide-actual-number-of-casualties-republic-tv-expose/amp/

Antonio Fresco photo

“You are welcome in my mind
Follow me we're going deeper
To a place thats hard to find
Tell me, can you keep a secret
I know I know
Something you dont know
I know how to shake
To turn you on
Dont put on the breaks
Lemme keep it rolling
Can you keep it going?”

Antonio Fresco (1983) American DJ, music producer, and radio personality

Written by Antonio Fresco, Patricia Possollo, Lorena J'zel
Song lyrics, Rattlesnake https://genius.com/Antonio-fresco-patricia-possollo-rattlesnake-lyrics (2019)

“Like the rest of them,
will you also examine the white, crystal today
in the haze and mist of slimy yesterday?
Do what you will
but keep it in mind:
the sun has also been accused
of having necked and cuddled the night.”

Parveen Shakir (1952–1994) Pakistani writer and poet

Sessions of Sweet, Silent Thought: translated by Mirza Nehal Ahmad Baig, p. 20
Poetry, Keep it in Mind

Francis Bacon photo

“This is certain, that a man that studieth revenge, keeps his own wounds green, which otherwise would heal, and do well.... vindictive persons live the life of witches; who, as they are mischievous, so end they infortunate...”

Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, and author

The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1857), Revenge

Abimael Guzmán photo

“We are the initiators and we should keep this fact deeply in our spirits.”

Abimael Guzmán (1934–2021) Peruvian communist

"We Are the Initiators" (1980)

Francis Bacon photo

“This is certain, that a man that studieth revenge, keeps his own wounds green, which otherwise would heal, and do well.”

Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, and author

The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1625), Of Revenge

Justin Trudeau photo

“If you're risking your health to keep this country moving and you're making minimum wage, you deserve a raise.”

Justin Trudeau (1971) 23rd Prime Minister of Canada; eldest son of Pierre Trudeau

Statement https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2020-05-07/canada-provinces-agree-to-boost-wages-of-essential-workers-trudeau-says announcing a pay hike agreement for essential workers across the provinces during the Covid-19 pandemic crisis, May 7, 2020

Maximilien Robespierre photo

“The secret of liberty is to enlighten men, as that of tyranny is to keep them in ignorance.”

Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794) French revolutionary lawyer and politician

As quoted in Human Rights and Freedoms in the USSR (1981) by Fedor Eliseevich Medvedev and Gennadiĭ Ivanovich Kulikov, p. 221
Original: Le secret de la liberté est d'éclairer les hommes, comme celui de la tyrannie est de les retenir dans l'ignorance
Variant: The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant.
Source: Public statement (November 1792), quoted in Oeuvres de Maximilien Robespierre (1840), Volume 2, p. 253 http://books.google.com/books?id=iSMVAAAAQAAJ

John Wyndham photo

“If you want to keep alive in the jungle, you must live as the jungle does.”

Source: The Midwich Cuckoos (1957), Ch 21 - p.220 [Zellaby]

Hans Rosling photo
Bhagawan Nityananda photo
Bhagawan Nityananda photo
Bhagawan Nityananda photo
Ibn Hazm photo
Ibn Hazm photo
Paul Rey photo
Harry Gordon Selfridge photo
Sara Ahmed photo

“I'm not going to keep trying and trying when the result will be same.”

Sherryl Woods (1944) American writer

Source: Home in Carolina (The Sweet Magnolias #5)

George S. Patton photo

“My men don't dig foxholes. Foxholes only slow up an offensive. Keep moving. We'll win this war, but we'll win it only by fighting and showing the Germans that we've got more guts than they have or ever will have.”

George S. Patton (1885–1945) United States Army general

Source: George S. Patton's speech to the Third Army https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_S._Patton%27s_speech_to_the_Third_Army

Coventry Patmore photo

“Modern Philosophers, that wisely keep to sandy shallows, like shrimps, for fear of bigger fish.”

Coventry Patmore (1823–1896) English poet

Vol. II, Ch. V Aphorisms and Extracts, p. 76.
Memoirs and Correspondence (1900)

Emil M. Cioran photo
J.B. Priestley photo
Dorothy Thompson photo

“The fathers of American Democracy had no exaggerated respect for the State, because they were pre-eminently men of reason and common sense. They never, for instance, identified the State with the People. They knew that the State is, by very definition, an instrument of oppression and coercion, and their idea was to make it strong enough to keep order and ward off enemies, and limit it otherwise very strictly.”

Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) American journalist and radio broadcaster

Dorothy Thompson’s Political Guide: A Study of American Liberalism and its Relationship to Modern Totalitarian States (1938)
Source: A Study of American Liberalism and its Relationship to Modern Totalitarian States (1938)
p. 102

Dorothy Thompson photo
Stephen Vincent Benét photo
Enoch Powell photo

“One of the most dangerous words is 'extremist'. A person who commits acts of violence is not an 'extremist'; he is a criminal. If he commits those acts of violence with the object of detaching part of the territory of the United Kingdom and attaching it to a foreign country, he is an enemy under arms. There is the world of difference between a citizen who commits a crime, in the belief, however mistaken, that he is thereby helping to preserve the integrity of his country and his right to remain a subject of his sovereign, and a person, be he citizen or alien, who commits a crime with the intention of destroying that integrity and rendering impossible that allegiance. The former breaches the peace; the latter is executing an act of war. The use of the word 'extremist' of either or both conveys a dangerous untruth: it implies that both hold acceptable opinions and seek permissible ends, only that they carry them to 'extremes'. Not so: the one is a lawbreaker; the other is an enemy.The same purpose, that of rendering friend and foe indistinguishable, is achieved by references to the 'impartiality' of the British troops and to their function as 'keeping the peace.'”

Enoch Powell (1912–1998) British politician

The British forces are in Northern Ireland because an avowed enemy is using force of arms to break down lawful authority in the province and thereby seize control. The army cannot be 'impartial' towards an enemy, nor between the aggressor and the aggressed: they are not glorified policemen, restraining two sets of citizens who might otherwise do one another harm, and duty bound to show no 'partiality' towards one lawbreaker rather than another. They are engaged in defeating an armed attack upon the state. Once again, the terminology is designed to obliterate the vital difference between friend and enemy, loyal and disloyal.</p><p>Then there are the 'no-go' areas which have existed for the past eighteen months. It would be incredible, if it had not actually happened, that for a year and a half there should be areas in the United Kingdom where the Queen's writ does not run and where the citizen is protected, if protected at all, by persons and powers unknown to the law. If these areas were described as what they are—namely, pockets of territory occupied by the enemy, as surely as if they had been captured and held by parachute troops—then perhaps it would be realised how preposterous is the situation. In fact the policy of refraining from the re-establishment of civil government in these areas is as wise as it would be to leave enemy posts undisturbed behind one's lines.</p>
Source: Speech to the South Buckinghamshire Conservative Women's Annual Luncheon in Beaconsfield (19 March 1971), from Reflections of a Statesman. The Writings and Speeches of Enoch Powell (1991), pp. 487-488

Enoch Powell photo

“For the unbroken life of the English nation over a thousand years and more is a phenomenon unique in history. ... Institutions which elsewhere are recent and artificial creations, appear in England almost as works of nature, spontaneous and unquestioned. The deepest instinct of the Englishman—how the word “instinct” keeps forcing itself in again and again!—is for continuity; he never acts more freely nor innovates more boldly than when he most is conscious of conserving or even of reacting. From this continuous life of a united people in its island home spring, as from the soil of England, all that is peculiar in the gifts and the achievements of the English nation, its laws, its literature, its freedom, its self-discipline. ... And this continuous and continuing life of England is symbolised and expressed, as by nothing else, by the English kingship. English it is, for all the leeks and thistles and shamrocks, the Stuarts and the Hanoverians, for all the titles grafted upon it here and elsewhere, “her other realms and territories”, Headships of Commonwealths, and what not. The stock that received all these grafts is English, the sap that rises through it to the extremities rises from roots in English earth, the earth of England's history.”

Enoch Powell (1912–1998) British politician

Speech to the Royal Society of St George (22 April 1961), quoted in A Nation Not Afraid. The Thinking of Enoch Powell (1965), pp. 145–146

Henri-Frédéric Amiel photo
John F. Kennedy photo
John F. Kennedy photo
John F. Kennedy photo