Perseverance depends on three things--purpose, will, enthusiasm. He who has a purpose is always concentrating his forces. By the will, the hope and plan are prevented from evaporating into dreams, and a little gain is all the time being added. Enthusiasm keeps the interest up, and makes the obstacles seem small. The man who thinks to get on by mere smartness and by idling meets failure at last.



  Life is in a sense a battle. Perseverance is the master impulse of the firmest souls, and holds the key to those treasure-houses of knowledge from which the world has drawn its wealth both of wisdom and of moral worth.
  Great men never wait for opportunities; they make them. They seize upon whatever is at hand, work out their problems, and master the situation. The greatest thing a man can do in this world is to make the most possible out of stuff that has been given to him. This is success, and there is no other.
  One of the first lessons of life is to learn how to get victory out of defeat. It takes courage and stamina, when mortified and embarrassed by humiliating disaster, to seek in the wreck or ruins the elements of future conquest. Yet this measures the difference between those who succeed and those who fail. You must know what use he makes of them.
  A constant struggle, a ceaseless battle to bring success from hard surroundings, is the price of all great achievements. The man who has not fought his way upward, and does not bear the scar of desperate conflict, does not know the highest meaning of success.