Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Perseverance
Attempt the end and never stand to doubt;
Nothing’s so hard, but search will find it out.
Herrick—Seeke and Finde.
The waters wear the stones.
Job. XIV. 19.
God is with those who persevere.
Koran. Ch. VIII.
For thine own purpose, thou hast sent
The strife and the discouragement!
Longfellow—Christus. The Golden Legend. Pt. II.
The soft droppes of rain perce the hard marble; many strokes overthrow the tallest oaks.
Lyly—Euphues. P. 81. Arber’s Reprint. (1579).
Gutta cavat lapidem non vi, sed sæpe cadendo.
The drop hollows out the stone not by strength, but by constant falling.
Quoted in the Menagiana, 1713. Probably first to use it was Richard, Monk of S. Victor; Paris. (Died about 1172. Scotchman by birth.) In his Adnotationes mysticæ in Psalmos he says: “Quid lapide durius, quid aqua mollius? Verumtamen gutta cavat lapidem non vi sed sæpe cadendo.” See Migne’s Patrologia Latina. Vol. CXCVI. P. 389. Said to be by Chœrilus of Samos, by Simplicius—Ad Aristot. Physic. Auscult. VIII. 2. P. 429. (Brand’s ed.) Same idea in Lucretius I. 314; also in IV. 1282. Trans. of a proverb quoted by Galen. Vol. VIII. P. 27. Ed. by Kühn, 1821, Given there: “Gutta cavat lapidem sæpe cadentis aquæ.” Quoted by Bion. Also in Ovid—Ex Ponte. IV. X. L. 5. Note by Burman states Claudian was earliest user found in MS.
So Satan, whom repulse upon repulse
Met ever, and to shameful silence brought,
Yet gives not o’er, though desperate of success.
Milton—Paradise Regained. Bk. IV. L. 21.
Water continually dropping will wear hard rocks hollow.
Plutarch—Of the Training of Children.
We shall escape the uphill by never turning back.
Christina G. Rossetti—Amor Mundi.
Many strokes, though with a little axe,
Hew down and fell the hardest-timber’d oak.
Henry VI. Pt. III. Act II. Sc. 1. L. 54.
Perseverance, dear my lord,
Keeps honour bright: to have done is to hang
Quite out of fashion, like a rusty mail
In monumental mockery.
Troilus and Cressida. Act III. Sc. 3. L. 150.