Human Effort Quotes

“We can see our forests vanishing, our water-powers going to waste, our soil being carried by floods into the sea; and the end of our coal and our iron is in sight. But our larger wastes of human effort, which go on every day through such of our acts as are blundering, ill-directed, or inefficient, and which Mr. Roosevelt refers to as a lack of" national efficiency," are less visible) less tangible, and are but vaguely appreciated.

We can see and feel the waste of material things. Awkward, inefficient, or ill-directed movements of men, however, leave nothing visible or tangible behind them. Their appreciation calls for an act of memory, an effort of the imagination. And for this reason, even though our daily loss from this source is greater than from our waste of material things, the one has stirred us deeply, while the other has moved us but little.”
― Frederick Winslow Taylor, The Principles of Scientific Management

“He listened to her with a cool indifference and said: 'Why do you worry over the matter? God’s will is supreme. All things happen as He wills and at the time determined by Him.'

'How can you say so? Do you mean to say then that human effort has no value?' she retorted.

'Human effort,' he replied, 'is necessary only to learn that human effort as such is useless, and God’s will alone is the real power that controls and brings about all events. When you realise this truth, human effort ceases and divine will starts its work in you, and then you do all things in the freedom of the soul, liberated from care, fear and sorrow. This is the real life to be attained. So leave all things to the Lord by complete surrender to Him.”
― Swami Ramdas, In the Vision of God

“Education, culture, the exercise of the will, human effort, all have their proper sphere, but here they are powerless. They may produce an outward correctness of behavior, but they cannot change the heart;”
― Ellen G. White, Steps to Christ

“Who would you be if you'd then devoted the impossible time and effort to actually achieving your absolute full potential?”
― Ezra Claytan Daniels, Upgrade Soul

“He listened to her with a cool indifference and said: 'Why do you worry over the matter? God’s will is supreme. All things happen as He wills and at the time determined by Him.'

'How can you say so? Do you mean to say then that human effort has no value?' she retorted. 'Human effort,' he replied, 'is necessary only to learn that human effort as such is useless, and God’s will alone is the real power that controls and brings about all events. When you realise this truth, human effort ceases and divine will starts its work in you, and then you do all things in the freedom of the soul, liberated from care, fear and sorrow. This is the real life to be attained. So leave all things to the Lord by complete surrender to Him.”
― Swami Ramdas, In the Vision of God