Lien Gonzales > Lien's Quotes

“If I told you I’ve worked hard to get where I’m at, I’d be lying, because I have no idea where I am right now.”
― Jarod Kintz, This Book is Not for Sale

“Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.”
― Thomas A. Edison

“There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.”
― Beverly Sills

“If you had started doing anything two weeks ago, by today you would have been two weeks better at it.”
― John Mayer

“The job is what you do when you are told what to do. The job is showing up at the factory, following instructions, meeting spec, and being managed.

Someone can always do your job a little better or faster or cheaper than you can.

The job might be difficult, it might require skill, but it's a job.

Your art is what you do when no one can tell you exactly how to do it. Your art is the act of taking personal responsibility, challenging the status quo, and changing people.

I call the process of doing your art 'the work.' It's possible to have a job and do the work, too. In fact, that's how you become a linchpin.

The job is not the work.”
― Seth Godin, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

“Don't ever give up.
Don't ever give in.
Don't ever stop trying.
Don't ever sell out.
And if you find yourself succumbing to one of the above for a brief moment,
pick yourself up, brush yourself off, whisper a prayer, and start where you left off.
But never, ever, ever give up.”
― Richelle E. Goodrich, Eena, The Tempter's Snare

“You are never dedicated to something you have complete confidence in. No one is fanatically shouting that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. They know it's going to rise tomorrow. When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths or any other kinds of dogmas or goals, it's always because these dogmas or goals are in doubt.”
― Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

“Talent is cheap; dedication is expensive. It will cost you your life.”
― Irving Stone, The Agony and the Ecstasy

“People always ask me
"Son what does it take
To reach out and touch your dreams?"
To them I always say

Are you hungry?
Are you thirsty?
Is it a fire that burns you up inside?
How bad do you want it?
How bad do you need it?
Are you eating, sleeping, dreaming
With that one thing on your mind?
How bad do you want it?
How bad do you need it?
Cause if you want it all
You've got to lay it all out on the line”
― Tim McGraw, Tim McGraw: Like You Were Dying- Piano / Vocal / Chords

“...to all the monsters in my nursery: May you never leave me alone.”
― Guillermo Del Toro, The Strain

“Dedication: For John, who said, "You know what this book needs? More fire. And maybe some swords." This ONE time, honey, you were right. (Rachel Hawkins)”
― Rachel Hawkins, Demonglass

“Dedicated to: You.
There will never be another like you.
For me...you are the one.
Yeah, I don't have enough words for this....”
― J.R. Ward, Lover Awakened

“A sacrament--like marriage--means living a life better than your natural instincts, so that you're modeling God. And God never gives up.”
― Jodi Picoult , Handle with Care

“Across galaxies of time and space
Travelling just to see your face
Lost amidst the countless stars
To bring me back to where you are.”
― Bryce W. Anderson

“It now lately sometimes seemed a black miracle to me that people could actually care deeply about a subject or pursuit, and could go on caring this way for years on end. Could dedicate their entire lives to it. It seemed admirable and at the same time pathetic. We are all dying to give our lives away to something, maybe.”
― David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest

“Seems to me that there is a fine line between insanity and dedication…I call that line commitment”
― Jeremy Aldana

“To become a master at any skill, it takes the total effort of your: heart, mind, and soul working together in tandem.”
― Maurice Young

“When doing a job — any job — one must feel that he owns it, and act as though he will remain in that job forever.”
― Hyman G. Rickover

“Every man has a specific skill, whether it is discovered or not, that more readily and naturally comes to him than it would to another, and his own should be sought and polished. He excels best in his niche - originality loses its authenticity in one's efforts to obtain originality.”
― Criss Jami, Salomé: In Every Inch In Every Mile

“[G]rowing into your future with health and grace and beauty doesn’t have to take all your time. It rather requires a dedication to caring for yourself as if you were rare and precious, which you are, and regarding all life around you as equally so, which it is. (267-268)”
― Victoria Moran, Younger by the Day: 365 Ways to Rejuvenate Your Body and Revitalize Your Spirit

“On the second floor was the office in which Houston pounded an ancient typewriter with two fingers, always setting an example of unceasing hard work for his admiring students. They had no hint of the fact that their hard-driving dean had contracted tuberculosis while serving as a GI in France in Word War I. Houstan always seemed vibrant and impassioned in the chase for justice as he tried to expose his students to everything relating to the law that might give them an advantage.
. . .
"I never worked hard until I got to the Howard Law School and met Charlie Houston," Marshal told me. "I saw this man's dedication, his vision, his willingness to sacrifice, and I told myself, 'You either shape up or ship out.' When you are being challenged by a great human being, you know that you can't ship out."
So Houston rescued Marshall and launched him into a career as one of the greatest lawyers in American history.”
― Carl T. Rowan, Dream Makers, Dream Breakers: The World of Justice Thurgood Marshall

“Grow strong, my comrade … that you may stand
Unshaken when I fall; that I may know
The shattered fragments of my song will come
At last to finer melody in you;
That I may tell my heart that you begin
Where passing I leave off, and fathom more.”
― Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World's Greatest Philosophers

“Dedication: My thanks to the people who showed me that opera was stranger than I could imagine. I can best repay their kindness by not mentioning their names here.”
― Terry Pratchett, Maskerade

“This is for you, all the women of the world
Those who lived, all who ever will
this is for your love, mine is yours
Love is fate, I am here
Because you know the meaning of life
That begins and ends with a kiss
We are knights in shining ardor, who toil for you
And our children, it's a circle
So they will know this truth
Love is the sacred gospel, all we need to know
As your son and lover, my spirit lives imbued
With, from and by your wisdom and beauty
I am here to pay honor and homage to your soul
This is and will always be my devotion
This I dedicate, because through you I become whole”
― Trevor McShane

“Though you can love what you do not master, you cannot master what you do not love.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“For Nicole, my idea of beauty”
― Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

“DEDICATED TO YOU:
Good and bad have never been more relative terms than when applied to the likes of you.
But I agree with her. To me, you have always been a hero. ”
― J.R.Ward