Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) was an American essayist and lecturer, and the central figure of Transcendentalism. He left the ministry to write and speak publicly, and his essays Nature and Self-Reliance laid the groundwork for American thinking about the individual and their relation to society.
About this theme: Motivation
Motivation is the youngest idea in this collection — it enters use as a psychological term only in the twentieth century. Older writers describe the same thing with a different vocabulary: will, duty, habit. That difference in words hides a difference in assumption. Motivation is understood as a state that comes and goes; habit as something built regardless of the state.
More by Ralph Waldo Emerson
More on Motivation
- However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act upon them?— Buddha
- Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.— Albert Einstein
- Obstacles cannot crush me; every obstacle yields to stern resolve.— Leonardo da Vinci
- It always seems impossible until it's done.— Nelson Mandela
- No one knows what he can do till he tries.— Publilius Syrus